Stephen Malkmus Wanted a Song People Remembered, So He Wrote This Pavement Gem

Pavement came out of the gate with a masterpiece, Slanted And Enchanted. Led by singer and reluctant guitar hero Stephen Malkmus, Pavement’s 1992 debut LP quietly became one of the most influential albums of the decade. The album cut a path for future indie rockers with an affection for lo-fi recordings, noise, indolent pop, and the disjointed rhythms of post-punk.

“Summer Babe” opens Slanted And Enchanted, and arrived from a desire to write something memorable. It worked, and it helped make Pavement unforgettable, no matter how little the band appeared to be trying.

Ice, Baby

Malkmus was living in New Jersey when he wrote “Summer Babe”. He’d grown tired of ear-splitting rock and wanted to write something catchy. “I’m not gonna mess around with this noisy art thing. I’m going to make some real songs that people remember,” he said at the time.

So he begins with a wave at Vanilla Ice in the dry wit that became a feature of his writing.

You may notice similar irony on Weezer’s “Blue Album”, where beneath the slacker veneer lies a yearning for connection.

Ice, baby,
I saw your girlfriend, and she was,
Eating her fingers like they’re just another meal.
But she waits there in the levee while she’s
Mixing cocktails with a plastic-tipped cigar.

Here, Malkmus narrates in a half-spoken way with more abstractions that also reveal an expectation of some kind. Musically, three chords repeat for the entirety of the song, like restlessness cascading upon itself, leaving Malkmus waiting, waiting, waiting.

My eyes stick to all the shiny robes,
You wear on the protein delta strip.
In an abandoned house, but I will wait there,
I’ll be waiting forever.

A Cryptic Story

Though it’s one of Pavement’s catchiest tunes, don’t spend too much time analyzing the story, as Malkmus explained to Rolling Stone in 2018: “There’s some imagery from Stockton, California, where we recorded it, mixed in with a cryptic story about a girl and a guy. I don’t think it makes all that much sense, but it’s got some cool imagery.”

Minerals, ice deposit daily,
Drop off the first shiny robe.
I’ve got a lot of things I want to sell,
But not here, babe, you took ’em all.

Photo by Dave Simpson/WireImage