Hit Me Like You Did The First Time by The Flaming Lips
With all the success The Flaming Lips enjoyed with their layered, emotional Pet Sounds-inspired albums like The Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi, it’s easy to forget that they started back in the 1990s, as a raw, psychedelic guitar band. This song, originally from 1992’s Hit to Death in the Future Head, is even more frenetic in this 1994 live version from Lollapalooza; Wayne Coyne’s rhythm guitar is especially frantic.
Here’s the studio version for reference – 1992’s Hit to Death in the Future Head was already their fifth album, and their last to feature guitarist Jonathan Donahue, who was already a member of Mercury Rev, and who left to concentrate on that band.
I’m very fond of this album. Enjoyed seeing it get air time!
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I think Soft Bulletin and Priest Driven Ambulance are my favourites though.
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So far I’ve only got the 2 you mentioned (and I hadn’t thought about the Pet Sounds connection, perhaps that’s why I liked them so much!) – nice to read that there’s much more to the discography!
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They were very good all through the 1990s – lots of good guitar rock before The Soft Bulletin. Everyone else seems to love 2002’s Yoshimi. but I’ve never connected to it as much.
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It’s always nice to see some love for the early fuzzy Flaming Lips… I think the reason I like Oczy Mlody so much is that it has such a deep connection to that stuff sonically.
Anyhoo, I think they’re one of the best ever… few bands can match that run from In A Priest Driven Ambulance to At War With The Mystics.
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Yeah, that’s pretty much all the Lips I have – they’re all pretty good, even though I think Yoshimi is a bit overrated.
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Yoshimi is certainly the one that the mainstream grabbed on to… people recognise tracks without necessarily knowing who the band is. Personally, I think it’s a beautiful album. Not their best (pushing for a place in the top 5), but it’s a really splendid album.
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