Love Is... (song) explained

Love Is...
Type:	single
Artist:	King Missile
Album:	King Missile
Released:	1994
Genre:	Avant-garde, doom metal
Length:	3:38
Label:	Atlantic
Producer:	Daniel Rey
Prev Title:	Martin Scorsese
Prev Year:	1993
Next Title:	America Kicks Ass
Next Year:	2004

"Love Is..." is a song by avant-garde band King Missile. It was the only single from the band's 1994 album King Missile.

Content

In "Love Is...," a dirge-like track with elements of doom metal, frontman John S. Hall dryly recites several examples of what love is ("beautiful / Like birds that sing") and is not ("ugly / Like rats / In a puddle of vomit"). The chorus consists of Hall ominously chanting, "Love is beautiful."^[1]

Maxi-single

The "Love Is..." maxi-single was intended for promotional use only, and not supposed to be sold; nonetheless, copies are sometimes available in "used" sections of record stores, because some people who received the maxi-single sold it anyway.^[2]

Track listing

All lyrics by Hall. All music by Roger Murdock, Dave Rick, and Chris Xefos.

1. "Love Is..." [clean version] – 3:38
   • This "clean" version is identical to the album version except for the partial muting of a word that the King Missile liner notes claim is "shipload" but may actually be "shitload." (According to Hall, "on the [''King Missile''] lyric sheet we [the band] submitted to Atlantic, we changed all the curse words to acceptable words, figuring nobody would listen to the record, and we [would] get away with not having a warning label. This actually worked!")^[3]
2. "These People" – 4:26
   • This track also appears on King Missile.
3. "Lost Land" – 4:32
   • This track appears exclusively on the maxi-single.
4. "What If" [alternate version] – 2:24
   • This track, which appears exclusively on the maxi-single, differs from the King Missile version of "What If" in that the lyrics are spoken throughout rather than both spoken and sung.
5. "Love Is..." [album version] – 3:38

Music video

The video for "Love Is..." was directed by Richard Kern.^[4] The video contrasts shots of the band performing in a white room with shots of a dark, sordid party at which attendees engage in heterosexual, homosexual, interracial and zoophilic partnerships.^[5]

MTV refused to air the video. Hall believes this rejection was motivated by the shots of multi-instrumentalist Xefos kissing another man.

Notes and References

1. Web site: Lyrics: Love Is... . Farmboy's King Missile . 2008-05-29 .
2. Web site: Discography . Laundry Lists of Nonsense . 2008-06-06 .
3. Web site: Interview w/ John . Farmboy's King Missile . 2008-06-06 .
4. Web site: Videography . Laundry Lists of Nonsense . 2008-05-29 .
5. Web site: Video: Love Is... . . 2006-11-12 . 2008-05-29 .