The Breeders - Cannonball

"Blown to hell, crash, I'm the last splash."

Album: Last Splash [2nd album]
Genre: Rock, Alternative Rock
Recorded: 
Album Release: August 30th 1993
Single Release: August 9th 1993 [lead single]
Length: 3:33
Producer: Mark Freegard & Kim Deal
Vocalist: Kim Deal [age 32]
Label: 4AD Records

Music Video


Live in 1993

Charts, Streams & Sales

Australia (albums): 1x gold
Canada (albums): 1x gold
France (albums): 1x gold
France (single): 1x gold
UK (albums): 1x silver
USA (albums): 1x platinum
USA (single): 1x gold
Spotify: Over 130 million
YouTube Music: Over 30 million
NME's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (2013): #200
Melody Maker Single of the Year 1993: Winner
Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (2020): #293

Instruments

Bass, drums, guitar [x2]

Details

• Kim Deal started her career as the bassist in Pixies, but what she really wanted to do was write songs and sing. This inevitably led to tensions with Pixies band leader Black Francis, who took chagrin to Deal wanting to co-opt his group for her own songs and he gradually froze her out. As a result, Deal formed her side-project The Breeders, who would go on to have great success in their own right.
  
  There's speculation that 'Cannonball' is a slight towards Francis. In 1993, Pixies broke up while that same year The Breeders would have a platinum album, whose lead single 'Cannonball' features lines such as "I know you're a real cuckoo." However, Deal has said not to read too much into the lyrics, as they were wrote mainly to compliment the feel of the music.
  
  The loud in the choruses, quiet in the verses dynamic that Pixies became so well known for is present in The Breeders work and especially so here.
  
  
• Breeders guitarist Kelley Deal is Kim's sister.
  
• The Breeders were signed to the same label as Pixies: 4AD Records.
  
• The original title for 'Cannonball' was 'Grunggae', a portmanteau of grunge and reggae, because Deal thought the riff sounded like a reggae song.
  
  
• The music video is directed by Kim Gordon from Sonic Youth and Spike Jonze. Jonze would go on to direct feature films such as 'Being John Malkovich' (1999).
  
  
• Breeders was a term used to describe mothers who gave up pursuing their personal goals so they could concentrate on raising their children. It was an insult to a certain type of womanhood that was unfashionable in the nineties.
  
• The Breeders broke up in 1994 after Kelley Deal was arrested for possession of heroin. The band would later reform.
  
  

Artwork