Debaser

The lyrics follow Un Chien Andalou, the 1929 short film by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí, which includes a scene in which a woman's eye is apparently cut open with a razor. Francis, who wrote the words as an anthropology student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, took the title from the idea that the film debases the morality and art standards of its time, and said it was an attempt to put a new word in the lexicon. The first version of the song had a line from Purple Rain where the album has the sung un chien andalusia.

It opens with Deal's bass pattern, then Santiago's riff and Francis' shouted vocal join in, and it ends in an extended coda that Norton added. Norton gave it heavy compression and reverb on the guitars, and it was intended as the lead single. NME's Edwin Pouncey picked it out and compared its bass hook to the one that brought Gigantic to life. The album version was released as a single in 1997 to promote the compilation Death to the Pixies, and a live version recorded in Chicago in August 1989 appears on the 1991 Head On single. A live recording from 16 December 2004 in New York is on Hey, Live Pixies 2004-2005.