Vinyl Tap: Pixies - "Break My Body" - Page 3

Somebody got hurt
Somebody get hurt
Somebody got her

The song — accessible yet visceral, a precursor setting the tone for the more reined-in immediacy of 1989's major label debut Doolittle — is hard-driving and memorable enough musically without having to lyrically analyze it, but it does pose an intriguing mystery, and raises a few themes that Black Francis would go on to cozy up to.

The subject of incest is an obvious and disquieting thread, and someone has suggested S&M as an topic. On the other hand, perhaps there’s a biblical undertone, as has been cited: Could the fact that Jesus Christ said "this (bread) is my body, break it and eat in remembrance of me" account for the insistence in the chorus to “Break my body, hold my bones, hold my bones.”

Another interpreter considered the imperative to "Break my body, hold my bones" as a reference to an old practice of a shepherd in breaking the bones of a young lamb and then carrying it on his shoulders so the lamb would become used to the shepherd’s voice, ultimately becoming comfortable around him.

My interpretation of “Break My Body”?

It has a good beat and you can run a record store to it.

Article Author: Gordon Hauptfleisch

Gordon Hauptfleisch is a Blogcritics Books Editor, freelance writer, and book reviewer for San Diego Union Tribune Books (R.I.P.). For many years he worked in and managed bookstores and record stores, and most recently was purchasing manager for San Diego Technical Books. …

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