# The Breeders song "Cannonball"
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-breeders-song-cannonball/121794
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [August 1, 2002, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-breeders-song-cannonball/121794 "2002-08-01T01:32:36Z")
**Posts on this page:** 14
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Adam\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Adam_P)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2002, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-breeders-song-cannonball/121794/1 "2002-08-01T01:32:36Z")
I’ve recently read that this deceptively light-hearted song is actually about the Marquis de Sade. Deal, apparently, is taunting deSade and men like him when she says things like “I’ll be your whatever- you-want.” I went back and listened to the song and I’ve no idea what they’re talking about. The again, she’s famous for her double entendres (blowjob song “Doe”) so who knows.
Help me and a friend solve this all-consuming mysery…
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### Author:  [@Adam\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Adam_P)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2002, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-breeders-song-cannonball/121794/2 "2002-08-01T01:35:12Z")
um, that should be all-consuming MYSTERY…
…but it is my(i)sery being ignorant…
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### Author:  [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2002, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-breeders-song-cannonball/121794/3 "2002-08-01T02:23:18Z")
I thought I read an interview years back with Deal explaining the de Sade connection. What was striking about the interview was that her sister, also in the band, was learning of song’s meaning for the first time during the interview.
I associate that song, and the whole album, with the PC game DOOM. I had just got both the album and the game at the same time, and played the hell out of both of 'em. Just thought I’d share that.
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### Author:  [@xicanorex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xicanorex)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2002, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-breeders-song-cannonball/121794/4 "2002-08-01T02:38:05Z")
I don’t iknow if it is about the Marquis de Sade, but read the lyrics at this site:
[http://www.getlyrics.com/lyrics.php?Letter=B&Artist=Breeders&Album=Miscellaneous&Song=Cannonball](http://www.getlyrics.com/lyrics.php?Letter=B&Artist=Breeders&Album=Miscellaneous&Song=Cannonball)
Maybe . …or Maybe not . . .
XicanoreX
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### Author:  [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2002, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-breeders-song-cannonball/121794/5 "2002-08-01T02:57:39Z")
From an [interview at tweak.com](http://www.tweak.com/phonetag/deal/):
> [@](#):
>
> Kim Deal:\*\* [Laughs] Man, the only people who go to see bands here are other bands. [A piercing beep sounds in the background] Hold on, I’m getting a fax… Fuck! This magazine in Britain keeps faxing me the same question over and over. Let’s see what they want. [Laughs] Check it out — they want to know what author has been a major influence on my work. Hah!
>
> You don’t care for the question?
>
> I’ve just never connected music with books. Wait, that’s not entirely true. “Cannonball” was inspired by the writings of the Marquis de Sade.
>
> What? “I’ll be the bong in your reggae song” was inspired by de Sade?
>
> Well, not that line specifically. But the message of the song as a whole was making fun of de Sade and his libertarian views that if he was better off than someone, then they were just fodder for him. Playthings. It was saying,“Come on, life’s not a contest.”
>
> So you’re pretty much anti-de Sade.
>
> Well, I don’t know. Later on I found out he used to suck the snot out of people’s noses, and I thought that pretty much ruled.
(By the way, **Adam** , questions about music & the arts go in the Cafe Society forum- this thread will likely be moved there presently…)
Cheers!
**Revtim** – I make pretty much the same association. Funny, that. (Though Lou Reed’s _Blue Mask_ was my Doom CD of choice, Breeders came in close second.)
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### Author:  [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2002, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-breeders-song-cannonball/121794/6 "2002-08-01T03:38:34Z")
Since this is about a song, I’ll move this thread to Cafe Society.
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### Author:  [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2002, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-breeders-song-cannonball/121794/7 "2002-08-01T10:45:40Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Revtim \*
> \*\*What was striking about the interview was that her sister, also in the band, was learning of song’s meaning for the first time during the interview.
> \*\*
Kelley Deal barely seems to be in the band. I watched the Breeders performing recently on Craig Kilborn’s show, and about halfway into the song, I realized that she had not done a goddamn thing with the guitar slung around her neck. So I watched her for the rest of the performance and, as far as I could tell, she didn’t do anything beyond some scant backup vocals.
I saw the band play again on another show, and this time I actually saw her PLAY – like, oh, three notes?
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### Author:  [@scout1222](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scout1222)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2002, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-breeders-song-cannonball/121794/8 "2002-08-01T15:34:16Z")
Consider ignorance fought [just a smidge] today.
I SWEAR that I thought the line “I’ll be the bong in your reggae song” was “I’ll be the bong in your square, gay song”. Not that it makes any sense, but that’s what my ears heard.
Carry on…
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### Author:  [@lothos2002](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lothos2002)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2002, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-breeders-song-cannonball/121794/9 "2002-08-01T15:59:15Z")
I always thought it was “the bump” in your reggae song…, but anyway.
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### Author:  [@Banger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banger)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2002, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-breeders-song-cannonball/121794/10 "2002-08-01T17:32:14Z")
[hijack]The Pixies were better.[/hijack]
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### Author:  [@Purd\_Werfect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Purd_Werfect)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2002, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-breeders-song-cannonball/121794/11 "2002-08-01T22:27:13Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by FNRFR \*
> \*\*[hijack]The Pixies were better.[/hijack] \*\*
Yeah, but that’s getting into impossibly high standards atmosphere. The Pixies as a whole was greater than the sum of its parts, though both Frank Black and Kelley Deal did some perfectly swell things afterwards.
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### Author:  [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2002, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-breeders-song-cannonball/121794/12 "2002-08-02T02:11:53Z")
You’re right, the Pixies were one hell of a band. But the Breeders were something, too.
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### Author:  [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2002, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-breeders-song-cannonball/121794/13 "2002-08-02T02:59:51Z")
> [@](#):
>
> I associate that song, and the whole album, with the PC game DOOM. I had just got both the album and the game at the same time, and played the hell out of both of 'em. Just thought I’d share that.
I have similar associations with the original Castle Wolfenstein and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band.
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### Author:  [@Adam\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Adam_P)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2002, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-breeders-song-cannonball/121794/14 "2002-08-02T22:42:23Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Purd Werfect \*
> \*\*
>
> Yeah, but that’s getting into impossibly high standards atmosphere. The Pixies as a whole was greater than the sum of its parts, though both Frank Black and Kelley Deal did some perfectly swell things afterwards. \*\*
“Were” a good band? They just got back together–after 9 years-- and released “TitleTK”. It’s no Last Splash or Pod, but it’s pretty decent.
Thanks to all for their help on this. It seems to me that the de Sade lines are pretty incidental–“libertine”; “I know you’re a real kookoo”, etc. Otherwise, that song is about absolutely nothing. Pure stream-of-consciousness like alot of Deal’s songs. I mean, what the hell does a cannonball have to do with de Sade?
Kelley Deal just learned to play the guitar. That’s why the above poster had the correct impression that she sucks. I’ve heard she’s very good at knitting, though…