Where Is My Mind?

"Where Is My Mind?" is a song by the American alternative rock band Pixies, and is the seventh track on the band's album Surfer Rosa. Although the song was never released as a single, it is one of the band's signature songs. It received a Silver certification from the BPI for UK singles.

For the tribute album named Where Is My Mind? A Tribute to the Pixies, see List of Pixies tribute albums.
"Where Is My Mind?"
Song by Pixies
from the album Surfer Rosa
ReleasedMarch 21, 1988 (1988-03-21)
RecordedNovember 1987
StudioDowntown Recorders, South End, Boston
Genre
Length3:53
LabelRough Trade
Songwriter(s)Black Francis
Producer(s)Steve Albini
Audio sample
Sample of end of 3rd verse and part of chorus
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Background and release

"Where Is My Mind?" is the seventh track on the Pixies' 1988 debut album Surfer Rosa. The song was written by frontman Black Francis while he attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, inspired by his experiences while scuba diving in the Caribbean. He later said he had "this very small fish trying to chase me. I don't know why—I don't know too much about fish behavior."[1] A live version of the song recorded at 2004's Coachella was released free through BitTorrent.[2]

Covers

The song has been covered by many popular bands and artists, which include the following:

Artist Album Year
Ghoti Hook Songs We Didn't Write 1998
Nada Surf Where Is My Mind? Tribute to the Pixies 1999
Toadies Best of Toadies: Live from Paradise 2002
Placebo Covers 2003
James Blunt Chasing Time: The Bedlam Sessions 2004
Storm Large Crazy Enough 2007
Rockabye Baby! Lullaby Renditions of The Pixies 2008
Maxence Cyrin Novö Piano 2009
Sunday Girl Where Is My Mind? (Single) 2011
Trampled by Turtles Live at First Avenue 2011
Yoav & Emily Browning Sucker Punch 2011
The Supervillains Volume 8 2013
Placebo MTV Unplugged 2015
Milky Chance YouTube 2015
Ásgeir Afterglow 2018
Unlike Pluto Where Is My Mind? (Single) 2018
Emil Bulls Mixtape 2019
The Accidentals Live 2019
Harley Poe Have A Great Life. 2019

Cultural impact

After being featured in the 1999 film Fight Club (in which the song plays over the final scene), the song gained an even wider audience and became iconic.[3][4] "Where Is My Mind?" was voted number 29 in the "Hottest 100 of All Time" music poll conducted by Australian radio station Triple J in 2009.[5] Over half a million votes were cast in the poll.

On Tuesday, April 13, 2004, NASA used "Where Is My Mind?" to wake up the team working on the Mars rover, Spirit, in honor of its software transplant.[6]

HBO drama The Leftovers featured both the Pixies version and Maxence Cyrin's piano cover in the show’s acclaimed second season. Cyrin's cover of the song has also been featured on Mr. Robot.[7][8]

End of Fashion have been criticized for their uncredited copying of the guitar riff from "Where Is My Mind?", for their song "O Yeah". For example, Rockus Online Magazine reviewer Jonathon Miller called the song "disturbingly Pixies-ish" and went on to write:

End of Fashion are having no problem appealing to the 95% of people that haven't heard (and still remember) the Pixies' "Where Is My Mind?" and have never experienced a truly exciting live show, and if that's what the band is aiming for, then they are a complete success.[9]

The song was featured in the 10th episode of the webseries "Ackbar". [10]

Certifications
Region CertificationCertified units/sales
Italy (FIMI)[11]
since 2009		 Gold 25,000
United Kingdom (BPI)[12]
2004-2017 sales		 Silver 200,000

*sales figures based on certification alone
^shipments figures based on certification alone
sales+streaming figures based on certification alone

References
  1. Biel, Jean-Michel; Gourraud, Christophe. "Pixies Titles/Names". Alec Eiffel. Retrieved 2007-04-07.
  2. "BitTorrent Bundle - Pixies". BitTorrent Bundles.
  3. Greene, Andy (4 January 2013). "Flashback: The Pixies Reunite At Coachella". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 7 September 2018.
  4. Beaumont, Mark (21 September 2016). "Inside The Cult Of Pixies: Why They're More Than Just A Band - NME". NME. Retrieved 7 September 2018.
  5. "Countdown | Hottest 100 - Of All Time | triple j". Abc.net.au. 2009-07-20. Retrieved 2010-05-02.
  6. Colin Fries (2010-04-20). "CHRONOLOGY OF WAKEUP CALLS" (PDF). NASA History Division. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-06-18. Retrieved 2010-05-09.
  7. Saraiya, Sonia (29 December 2015). "Best TV of 2015: The best pop-music cues, from "Where Is My Mind" to Fleetwood Mac". Salon. Retrieved 7 September 2018.
  8. Sarkar, Samit (1 July 2016). "Pixies' 'Where Is My Mind?' comes to Rock Band 4 next week". Polygon. Retrieved 7 September 2018.
  9. Jonathon Miller, rockus.com Archived October 17, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  10. Gastrow, Jason. "Ackbar:The End". Youtube. Youtube. Retrieved 27 February 2020.
  11. "Italian single certifications – Pixies – Where Is My Mind" (in Italian). Federazione Industria Musicale Italiana. Retrieved February 26, 2020. Select "2017" in the "Anno" drop-down menu. Select "Where Is My Mind" in the "Filtra" field. Select "Singoli online" under "Sezione".
  12. "British single certifications – Pixies – Where Is My Mind". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved February 26, 2020. Select singles in the Format field. Select Silver in the Certification field. Type Where Is My Mind in the "Search BPI Awards" field and then press Enter.
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