Sonic Youth - Little Trouble Girl

"You'll never know, what I feel inside, that I'm really bad. Little trouble girl."

Album: Washing Machine [9th album]
Recorded: Memphis, Tennessee
Genre: Rock, Alternative Rock
Album Release: September 26th 1995
Single Release: May 1996
Length: 4.29
Producer: Sonic Youth & John Siket
Vocalist: Kim Gordon [age 42], Kim Deal, Melissa Dunn & Lorette Velvette
Label: Geffen Records

Music Video


Shangri-La's - Give Him A Great Big Kiss

Charts, Streams & Sales

Spotify: 4,900,000 +
YouTube Music: 1,600,000 +
Worldwide album sales (as of 2005): 159,000

Credits

Bass, drums, piano, guitar

Details

• The song directly references 'Give Him a Great Big Kiss' by sixties girl group The Shangri-Las by  quoting verbatim "we were close, very, very close" in a way that's undoubtable (see the video above).
  
  In the sixties there was a popular style of music known as Brill Buildings. The La's sang in this way as did several other girl groups of the time. Several features of the style can be found on 'Little Trouble Girl'. Firstly, it has a half sung, half spoken vocal delivery. The Shangri-Las used this to great effect in their 1965 #1 single 'Leader of the Pack'.
  
  Secondly, it features several "sha-la-la" sixties style vocal flourishes which are rarely, if ever, found on other Sonic Youth records. These flourishes, as well as the choruses, are sang in harmony with Kim Deal from the Pixies. At the time, Deal was one of the most recognisable women in rock and they got her into the studio just to sing harmonies.
  
  That's how important Sonic Youth thought these parts to be. It would make a certain amount of sense that if you'd gone to the trouble of getting a busy Deal on board, with all of the arranging and scheduling that would entail, then you might as well make her vocals more prominent. But she was used sparingly in order to emphasise the almost anti-depressant induced, dream-like choruses because they are pivotal to the piece.
  
  Thirdly, the music has sense of melodrama. These songs are usually sang by, and made for, very young girls. Mary Weiss of the Shangri-Las was 16 when she made 'Leader of the Pack'. At that age mundane occurences can seem to be of earth-shattering importance. The Shangri Las song uses dancing as a metaphor for sex "Is he a good dancer? Well how does he dance?" the girls eagerly ask in the lyrics, "close, very, very close" is the reply. The height of sixities teenage adventure.
  
  Kim Gordon, who was a 42 at the time, delivers her rendition as if a parody. In 'Little Trouble Girl' the singer tells her mother "we kissed, we hugged, we were close, very, very, close." It sounds as if she's telling her mother she's pregnant. The dreaded hangover that follows the party.
  
  The music video takes place in a clinical, office-like environment that feels cold and distant. It's confessional, as if the singer is in therapy and the prozac is never out of reach. It also could be an abortion clinic. There's also a child-like alien running around which implies the prospect of motherhood feels alienating for the singer. The child and the possible mother-to-be are never in the same shot which creates a distance between them. The wide-eyed optimism of the swinging sixties has been replaced by the detached and jaded Generation X of the nineties, which is to say that care-free sixties were followed by the crushing reality of the nineties.
  
  People expect young women and girls to be a certain way: kind, demure, caring. They're conditioned to be good girls but there's also a part of them that isn't good, manifested through the darker impulses which arise lower psychological functioning. If you really want to know your daughters then you have to embrace the darker side of them as well. Otherwise, they might appear sweet and innocent, a picture of pure perfection, but underneath could be a different matter.
  
  The song uses a motif of a sweet, innocent girl talking to her mother, coupled with the pleasant, familiar harmonies of old sixities songs, to conjure a certain uneasy image in the mind. It's familiar but off. The vocals are nearly emotionless. Then the tone delves underneath to reveal the darker feelings which are also there. In her autobiography Kim Gordon, singer of this song, wrote: " [that the song is about] wanting to be seen for who you really are, being able to express those parts of yourself that aren’t “good girl” but that are just as real and true."

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