Songs About Fucking

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Songs About Fucking
Studio album by Big Black
Released	January 01, 1987
Recorded	Side One recorded at Southern Studios, Wood Green. Side Two recorded in Chicago
Genre	Post-hardcore, noise rock
Length	31:45
Label	Touch & Go
Producer	Big Black
Professional reviews
Allmusic link
Big Black chronology
The Rich Man's Eight Track Tape (1987) Songs About Fucking (1987) Pigpile (1992)

Songs About Fucking is the second and final album by the post-hardcore noise rock band Big Black. It placed 54th on Pitchfork Media's 'Top 100 Albums of the 1980s'. Included are covers of Kraftwerk's "The Model" and Cheap Trick's "He's a Whore".

Steve Albini has said that Songs About Fucking is the Big Black album that he is most satisfied with. In a 1992 interview with Maximumrocknroll magazine, Albini said: "The best was side one of 'Songs About Fucking'. I was real pleased with the way we did that. We just hopped into the studio, banged all the songs out and hopped out. Didn't take long, didn't cost much, just real smooth. Side two we recorded at a more leisurely pace and I think that hurt us. And that Cheap Trick song got on the tape and the CD by accident, and we just left it on."

Songs About Fucking has been called "certainly the most honest album title of the rock'n'roll era".^[1] Lyrical themes on the album include South American killing techniques ("Colombian Necktie"), bread that gets you high ("Ergot"), and how "slowly, without trying, everyone becomes what he despises most".^[1] While the album's title (commonly blanked out when displayed in shops on its release) and the sleeve were controversial, according to one reviewer, "as brutal as that cover is, the music is even more so",^[2] and it was considered "as dark and frightening as the band name suggests" by another, Treble webzine's Hubert Vigilla, who goes on to say "Songs About Fucking is loud, it's abrasive, it's unattractive in the extreme...So really, it's everything that made Big Black so great in the first place".^[3]

The band had already decided to split up before the album was recorded, prompted by guitarist Santiago Durango's decision to enroll in Law School, and the band's desire to quit while at their peak.^[4]

[edit] Track listing

1. "The Power of Independent Trucking" – 1:27
2. "The Model" – 2:34
3. "Bad Penny" – 2:33
4. "L Dopa" – 1:40
5. "Precious Thing" – 2:20
6. "Colombian Necktie" – 2:14
7. "Kitty Empire" – 4:01
8. "Ergot" – 2:27
9. "Kasimir S. Pulaski Day" – 2:28
10. "Fish Fry" – 2:06
11. "Pavement Saw" – 2:12
12. "Tiny, King of the Jews" – 2:31
13. "Bombastic Intro" – 0:35
14. "He's a Whore" – 2:37*

• *only available on CD reissue

[edit] Personnel

• Dave Riley: Bass Guitar
• Santiago Durango (Credited as Melvin Belli): Guitar
• Steve Albini: Guitar, Vocals
• Roland TR-606: Drums

[edit] References

v • d • e Big Black Steve Albini · Patrick Byrne · Santiago Durango · Jeff Pezzati · Dave Riley Discography Albums Atomizer · Songs About Fucking · Sound of Impact · Pigpile EPs Lungs · Bulldozer · Racer-X · Headache Compilations The Hammer Party · The Rich Man's Eight Track Tape Singles "Il Duce" · "Heartbeat" · "He's a Whore"/"The Model"