Bossa Nova Superfruit Acerola Red Peach

It's a well-known fact that by the time The Pixies recorded their third album Black Francis had taken over complete artistic control of the band. It turned into a “What I say goes” situation very quickly. There was actually only one time that the rest of the band put their foot down and refused to let him have his way. You see around this point Francis' lyrics were starting to get stranger and stranger. He was writing about outer space, aliens and for some reason superfruits.

In the break between Doolittle and this current album, he had gotten really into making juice. He made this one that he thought was superior to all others. He had combined the juices of acerola and peaches with some help from some oranges and mangoes into what he referred to as the uberjuice. He was so proud of this drink he had created that he wrote a song about it. He intended it to be the opener for his opus Bossanova. The band recorded the tracks and while everyone else was out at lunch, he downed a bottle of his juice and recorded the vocals as an ode to it. He sang about how the sour taste of the acerola cherries was evened out by the sweetness of the peach and mango juices making it incredibly smooth and delightful to drink. He also sang of the health benefits of the juice. One bottle contained 1200% of the recommended vitamin C for a day. Mostly he sang about how great the juice tasted and how he was going to put all other juice companies out of business with this juice that tasted like biting into a perfectly ripe peach while already having some acerola cherries half chewed in your mouth. It really did get graphic at times.

When the rest of the band returned from their lunch break they listened back to the track and shouted their disapproval. Not only was it just weird, but it also seemed like a big commercial for a company that Black Francis was going to start. Things got heated. Kim quit the band, but then rejoined shortly after. Francis finally agreed to remove the lyrics, but he refused to rewrite anything, hence the opening track on Bossanova is an instrumental. Strange times.

In 1993 the band finally broke up. Each member went their own way. Kim did The Breeders full time, Joey Santiago also continued in the music industry while drummer David Lovering took up metal detecting and magic. As you may know Black Francis started going by Frank Black and released a slew of albums. What you probably don't know is that he went big with his juice and he names his company Bossa Nova after the album that he first expressed his love of fruit on. You don't believe me? Rearrange the letters of the front of this bottle and it will read “Black Francis is the walrus, and a juice lover extraordinaire.”