Love Is... (song)

Infobox Single
Name = Love Is...


Artist = King Missile
from Album = King Missile
B-side =
Released = 1994
Format =
Recorded =
Genre = Avant-garde, doom metal
Length = 3:38
Label = Atlantic Records
Writer = John S. Hall, Roger Murdock, Dave Rick, Chris Xefos
Producer = Daniel Rey
Certification =
Chart position =
Last single = "Martin Scorsese"
(1993)
This single = "Love Is..."
(1994)
Next single = "America Kicks Ass"
(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."cite web
last =
first =
title = Lyrics: Love Is...
publisher = Farmboy's King Missile
date =
url = http://www.i-mockery.com/kingmissile/loveis.html
accessdate = 2008-05-29 ]

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.cite web
last =
first =
title = Discography
publisher = Laundry Lists of Nonsense
date =
url = http://www.uptoolate.com/rick/km/discog.html
accessdate = 2008-06-06 ]

Track listing

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

#"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!")cite web
last =
first =
title = Interview w/ John
publisher = Farmboy's King Missile
date =
url = http://www.i-mockery.com/kingmissile
accessdate = 2008-06-06 ]
#"These People" – 4:26
#*This track also appears on "King Missile."
#"Lost Land" – 4:32
#*This track appears exclusively on the maxi-single.
#"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.
#"Love Is..." [album version] – 3:38

Music video

The video for "Love Is..." was directed by Richard Kern.cite web
last =
first =
title = Videography
publisher = Laundry Lists of Nonsense
date =
url = http://www.uptoolate.com/rick/km/video.html
accessdate = 2008-05-29 ] 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, and zoophilic partnerships.cite web
last =
first =
title = Video: Love Is...
publisher = YouTube
date = 2006-11-12
url = http://youtube.com/watch?v=s1HiklY3UWQ
accessdate = 2008-05-29 ]

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

References