How Pixies' 'Where Is My Mind?' became a tripped-out anthem of a generation

At the tail-end of 1987, the Pixies’ Black Francis (vocals and guitar), Kim Deal (bass and vocals), Joey Santiago (lead guitar), and David Lovering (drums) entered Q Division, a Boston recording studio, with an up-and-coming recording engineer called Steve Albini. Together, they spent ten days committing to tape one of the most influential debut albums in alternative rock, Surfer Rosa, which, paired with the group’s 1987 debut mini-LP, Come on Pilgrim, was given a 30th anniversary deluxe reissue in September.

For all its blistering surrealism and tangential college rock, Surfer Rosa had only two obvious singles: the masterful “Gigantic”, penned by Kim Deal, and “Where is My Mind?”, a dreamy ballad penned by frontman Black Francis. As Francis explained to Select magazine in 1997, “Where is My Mind?” was inspired by an actual swimming experience in the Caribbean, “having this very small fish trying to chase me” while snorkelling in Puerto Rico. Although “Gigantic” won out in the end, “Where is My Mind?”, which kicked off Side B of Surfer Rosa, stood out both as an introspective centrepiece on the album, and as an indie anthem that has steadily emerged as the band’s quintessential song more broadly.

But why has a simple, mid-tempo song, with a wacky, clear-as-dishwater refrain of “With your feet in the air and your head on the ground / Try this trick and spin it,” resonated so strongly over the years?

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