"Love Is..." is a song

Song

In music, a song is a composition for voice or voices, performed by singing.A song may be accompanied by musical instruments, or it may be unaccompanied, as in the case of a cappella songs...

 by avant-garde

Experimental music

Experimental music refers, in the English-language literature, to a compositional tradition which arose in the mid-20th century, applied particularly in North America to music composed in such a way that its outcome is unforeseeable. Its most famous and influential exponent was John Cage...

 band

Band (music)

In music, a musical ensemble or band is a group of musicians that works together to perform music. The following articles concern types of musical bands:* All-female band* Big band* Boy band* Christian band* Church band* Concert band* Cover band...

 King Missile

King Missile

King Missile is an American avant-garde band that has been led in various disparate incarnations by poet/singer John S. Hall since 1986. Currently, Hall performs with a new version of the first incarnation, King Missile ....

. It was the only single

Single (music)

In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...

 from the band's 1994

1994 in music

This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1994.-January–February:*January 25 – Alice in Chains release their Jar of Flies album which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, becoming the first ever EP to do so....

 album

Album

An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...

 King Missile

King Missile (album)

King Missile is the eponymous sixth album by avant-garde band King Missile, and the band's third for Atlantic Records. It was released on April 19, 1994.-Track listing:All lyrics by John S. Hall...

.

Content

In "Love Is...," a dirge

Dirge

A dirge is a somber song expressing mourning or grief, such as would be appropriate for performance at a funeral. A lament. The English word "dirge" is derived from the Latin Dirige, Domine, Deus meus, in conspectu tuo viam meam , the first words of the first antiphon in the Matins of the Office...

-like track with elements of doom metal

Doom metal

Doom metal is an extreme form of heavy metal music that typically uses slower tempos, low-tuned guitars and a much "thicker" or "heavier" sound than other metal genres...

, frontman

Lead vocalist

The lead vocalist is the member of a band who sings the main vocal portions of a song. They may also play one or more instruments. Lead vocalists are sometimes referred to as the frontman or frontwoman, and as such, are usually considered to be the "leader" of the groups they perform in, often the...

 John S. Hall

John S. Hall

John S. Hall is an American poet, author, singer and lawyer perhaps best known for his work with King Missile, an avant-garde band that he co-founded in 1986 and has since led in various disparate incarnations....

 dryly

Deadpan

Deadpan is a form of comic delivery in which humor is presented without a change in emotion or body language, usually speaking in a casual, monotone, solemn, blunt, disgusted or matter-of-fact voice and expressing an unflappably calm, archly insincere or artificially grave demeanor...

 recites several examples of what love

Love

Love is an emotion of strong affection and personal attachment. In philosophical context, love is a virtue representing all of human kindness, compassion, and affection. Love is central to many religions, as in the Christian phrase, "God is love" or Agape in the Canonical gospels...

 is ("beautiful

Beauty

Beauty is a characteristic of a person, animal, place, object, or idea that provides a perceptual experience of pleasure, meaning, or satisfaction. Beauty is studied as part of aesthetics, sociology, social psychology, and culture...

 / Like bird

Bird

Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...

s that sing

Singing

Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...

") and is not ("ugly / Like rat

Rat

Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents of the superfamily Muroidea. "True rats" are members of the genus Rattus, the most important of which to humans are the black rat, Rattus rattus, and the brown rat, Rattus norvegicus...

s / In a puddle

Puddle

A puddle is a small accumulation of liquid, usually water, on a surface. It can form either by pooling in a depression on the surface, or by surface tension upon a flat surface...

 of vomit

Vomiting

Vomiting is the forceful expulsion of the contents of one's stomach through the mouth and sometimes the nose...

"). The chorus

Refrain

A refrain is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse; the "chorus" of a song...

 consists of Hall ominously

Omen

An omen is a phenomenon that is believed to foretell the future, often signifying the advent of change...

 chant

Chant

Chant is the rhythmic speaking or singing of words or sounds, often primarily on one or two pitches called reciting tones. Chants may range from a simple melody involving a limited set of notes to highly complex musical structures Chant (from French chanter) is the rhythmic speaking or singing...

ing, "Love is beautiful."

Maxi-single

The "Love Is..." maxi-single

Maxi single

A maxi single or maxi-single is a music single release with more than the usual two tracks of an a-side song and a b-side song.-The first maxi singles:...

 was intended for promotional

Promotion (marketing)

Promotion is one of the four elements of marketing mix . It is the communication link between sellers and buyers for the purpose of influencing, informing, or persuading a potential buyer's purchasing decision....

 use only, and not supposed to be sold

Sales

A sale is the act of selling a product or service in return for money or other compensation. It is an act of completion of a commercial activity....

; nonetheless, copies are sometimes available in "used" sections of record stores

Record shop

A record shop or record store is an outlet that sells recorded music. Although vinyl records and audio cassettes are no longer sold in the majority of music stores, in favour of compact discs and home video recordings products, people in some countries, like the UK, still use the term "record...

 because some people who received the maxi-single sold it anyway.

Track listing

All lyrics

Lyrics

Lyrics are a set of words that make up a song. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist or lyrist. The meaning of lyrics can either be explicit or implicit. Some lyrics are abstract, almost unintelligible, and, in such cases, their explication emphasizes form, articulation, meter, and symmetry of...

 by Hall. All music by Roger Murdock, Dave Rick

Dave Rick

Dave Rick is an American guitarist and former member of underground rock bands B.A.L.L, Bongwater, King Missile, Phantom Tollbooth, When People Were Shorter and Lived Near the Water, Wide Right, Wonderama, and Yo La Tengo . He is a current member of Atlantic Drone, Dew-Claw, The Martinets, Overcat...

, and Chris Xefos

Chris Xefos

Chris Xefos is an American multi-instrumentalist musician/engineer/producer and former member of band King Missile. He plays various instruments such as accordion, bass, piano, and synthesizer, among others. He began recording/producing various groups in New York during the 1980s, including...

.

1. "Love Is..." [clean version] – 3:38
   • This "clean" version is identical to the album version except for the partial muting
     Bleep censor
     A bleep censor is the replacement of profanity or classified information with a beep sound , in television or radio...
     
      of a word
     Word
     In language, a word is the smallest free form that may be uttered in isolation with semantic or pragmatic content . This contrasts with a morpheme, which is the smallest unit of meaning but will not necessarily stand on its own...
     
      that the King Missile liner notes
     Liner notes
     Liner notes are the writings found in booklets which come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for vinyl records and cassettes.-Origin:...
     
      claim is "ship
     Ship
     Since the end of the age of sail a ship has been any large buoyant marine vessel. Ships are generally distinguished from boats based on size and cargo or passenger capacity. Ships are used on lakes, seas, and rivers for a variety of activities, such as the transport of people or goods, fishing,...
     
     load" but may actually be "shit
     Shit
     Shit is usually considered vulgar and profane in Modern English. As a noun it refers to fecal matter and as a verb it means to defecate or defecate in; in the plural it means diarrhea...
     
     load." (According to Hall, "on the [King Missile] lyric sheet we [the band] submitted to Atlantic
     Atlantic Records
     Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...
     
     , we changed all the curse words
     Profanity
     Profanity is a show of disrespect, or a desecration or debasement of someone or something. Profanity can take the form of words, expressions, gestures, or other social behaviors that are socially constructed or interpreted as insulting, rude, vulgar, obscene, desecrating, or other forms.The...
     
      to acceptable words, figuring nobody would listen to the record, and we [would] get away with not having a warning label
     Parental Advisory
     Parental Advisory is a message affixed by the Recording Industry Association of America to audio and recordings in the United States containing excessive use of profane language and/or sexual references. Albums began to be labeled for "explicit lyrics" in 1985, after pressure from the Parents...
     
     . This actually worked!")
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
     Spoken word
     Spoken word is a form of poetry that often uses alliterated prose or verse and occasionally uses metered verse to express social commentary. Traditionally it is in the first person, is from the poet’s point of view and is themed in current events....
     
      throughout rather than both spoken and sung.
5. "Love Is..." [album version] – 3:38

Music video

The video

Music video

A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...

 for "Love Is..." was directed by Richard Kern

Richard Kern

Richard Kern is a New York underground filmmaker, writer and photographer. He first came to underground prominence as part of the underground cultural explosion in the East Village of New York City in the 1980s, with erotic and experimental films featuring underground personalities of the time...

. The video contrasts shots

Shot (film)

In film, a shot is a continuous strip of motion picture film, created of a series of frames, that runs for an uninterrupted period of time. Shots are generally filmed with a single camera and can be of any duration. A shot in production, defined by the beginning and end of a capturing process, is...

 of the band performing in a white

White

White is a color, the perception of which is evoked by light that stimulates all three types of color sensitive cone cells in the human eye in nearly equal amounts and with high brightness compared to the surroundings. A white visual stimulation will be void of hue and grayness.White light can be...

 room

Room

A room is any distinguishable space within a structure.Room may also refer to:* Room , by Emma Donoghue* Room, Nepal* Room for PlayStation Portable, a social networking service* Thomas Gerald Room , Australian mathematician...

 with shots of a dark

Darkness

Darkness, in contrast with brightness, is a relative absence of visible light. It is the appearance of black in a color space. When light is not present, rod and cone cells within the eye are not stimulated. This lack of stimulation means photoreceptor cells are unable to distinguish color...

, sordid party

Party

A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, or recreation. A party will typically feature food and beverages, and often music and dancing as well....

 at which attendees engage in heterosexual

Heterosexuality

Heterosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the opposite sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, heterosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, physical or romantic attractions to persons of the opposite sex";...

, homosexual

Homosexuality

Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...

, and zoophilic

Zoophilia

Zoophilia, from the Greek ζῷον and φιλία is the practice of sex between humans and non-human animals , or a preference or fixation on such practice...

 partnerships.

MTV

MTV

MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....

 refused to air the video. Hall believes this rejection was motivated by the shots of multi-instrumentalist

Multi-instrumentalist

A multi-instrumentalist is a musician who plays a number of different instruments.The Bachelor of Music degree usually requires a second instrument to be learned , but people who double on another instrument are not usually seen as multi-instrumentalists.-Classical music:Music written for Symphony...

 Xefos kiss

Kiss

A kiss is the act of pressing one's lips against the lips or other body parts of another person or of an object. Cultural connotations of kissing vary widely. Depending on the culture and context, a kiss can express sentiments of love, passion, affection, respect, greeting, friendship, and good...

ing another man

Man

The term man is used for an adult human male . However, man is sometimes used to refer to humanity as a whole...

.