"Drunken Butterfly" has an interesting place in Sonic Youth's history. It was the fourth track, as well as fourth and final single from Dirty, a Kim tune following three Thurston leads ("100%" "Youth Against Fascism" and "Sugar Kane"). The song's working title was "Barracuda" because the band thought it sounded like something by Heart, a Seattle rock band with countless hits. Kim took this to heart, drafting a lyric cut and pasted entirely from Heart songs. It's one of the nastiest, dirtiest sounding songs on the album and Kim's aggressive vocal is just one of many highlights (do you like pick scrapes? you do?). The song was premiered on June 27th, 1992 in Trenton, NJ along with most of the Dirty material and was played almost nightly for the next 2 years. It even made the cut when the band shifted gears in June 1993 and dropped most of the Dirty tunes in exchange for the fresh batch of future Jet Set hits. After that, it seemed to have been permanently retired along with the bulk of the Dirty work.

It's noteworthy for being the only finished song aside from "Tom Violence" and "White Kross" where both Thurston and Lee use the F#F#GGAA tuning. I suspect some of the material from the rehearsal space demos on the Dirty deluxe edition is in this tuning (e.g. "New White Kross"), but beyond that it was not utilized often. Curiously, this is also the only song where Kim ever used an alternate tuning for her bass: F#F#GA to mimic the guitar tuning.

As discussed in the "Tom Violence" piece, Lee used his original SY guitar (a thinline Fender f-hole tele with a Telecaster Deluxe neck) for the F#GA tuning until the gear theft in July 1999. Likewise, Thurston used the Fender "still not a Duo Sonic" Mustang from 1990 until 1999 exclusively for this tuning and the 5 songs he wrote with it: "Tom Violence" "White Kross" "Schizophrenia" "Drunken Butterfly" and "Skip Tracer". Kim chose her BC Rich Mockingbird bass, that big weird white thing seen in the Goo liners, for the F#F#GA tuning, though she switched to her Snoopy stickered Jazz Bass later in '93.

On the North American Pretty Fucking Dirty tour, "Drunken Butterfly" generally closed the main set, or immediately preceded "White Kross" as set closer. On the European leg, it was typically "Drunken Butterfly" with "Schizophrenia" instead. On December 3rd they appeared on Later...with Jools Holland, performing three (!) songs including eventual singles "Drunken Butterfly" and "Sugar Kane" and the magical "JC", which we will get to someday soon. This version of "Drunken Butterfly" is as explosive as any, with the bass turned up real loud. Dig it!

The song lost the closer slot in early '93, but remained a highlight until the final show of that year in July. The Drunken Butterfly CD single was a German-only release in August, with vinyl bonus track "Stalker" and rehearsal outtake "Tamra" as additional b-sides. After that, the band took most of 1994 off from live performances, and when their intense touring resumed in 1995, only "100%" and "Sugar Kane" remained from the Dirty era.

When Jim O'Rourke joined the band in 2000, one of the most interesting inclusions in the set list was "Kool Thing", which was performed with Jim on bass and Kim on vocals only. It gave the song a new energy, allowing Kim the freedom to interact with the audience during the song's Chuck-less midsection. The next year, another unlikely song emerged in the same configuration: "Drunken Butterfly" was played at every show in 2001 aside from the carefully crafted Goodbye 20th Century performances. As with "Kool Thing", Jim played bass (in standard tuning!) so Kim could dance and sing. ("Kissability" and "PCH" would later get the same treatment.) The song remained a surprising set list staple, and though it was played less often once Mark joined the band, it did appear in their final set list on November 14th, 2011.

As mentioned above, the song's instrumental demo, released on the Dirty deluxe edition in 2003, was titled "Barracuda". It follows roughly the same structure as the finished version, then drifts off into jam territory as many of their demos do. "Barracuda" is just one of many early Heart singles Kim would reference in her lyric. The sheet below dates from 2001 when they relearned the song. I'm pretty sure I've worked out where Kim snipped each lyric from...

Obviously Kim misheard some of these lines, but I think most should be the correct source. I'm not sure where the second half of the bridge comes from - "Will tell you what I fear" - possibly just something she thought sounded good. Likewise, the "I love you, what's your name?" chorus doesn't seem to be lifted directly from anything I could find, but could be loosely inspired by either "Bebe le Strange" or "All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You". If I've missed a reference, please let me know!

The parts on this song are fairly straightforward. Thurston is in the right speaker and I think Lee is in the left, but also has a guitar overdubbed during the verses that pans between speakers. Kim's part is typically Kim, confounded by the odd tuning - I think it's tuned with 2 F#s in unison (matching the 2nd fret of the E string) and then a low G (matching the 1st fret of the F# strings) and high A (G string tuned up). Initially I thought she tuned the D string up to G, like the guitars, but I'm pretty sure I hear an open low G in her part. I recommend checking out this video from 12/02/92 in Eindhoven, NL - the camera is on Kim for most of the song and it's a good angle to see what she's doing.

The previous tab for this song, by nollie (gav) had not been updated since May 23rd, 1997, which was basically when I launched this site. I've updated my original bass tab, and also provided a tab reminiscent of Jim's part in standard tuning. Please let me know if you have any comments or corrections!

A SECTION			00:00-00:08

Thurston and Lee both play random flurries of harmonics up and down the neck.

Kim runs her hand up the fretboard while strumming with distortion.

B SECTION (VERSE)		00:08-00:23

Thurston:

A--------------------------------------------------
A---------X-X-X-X-----X-X-X-X-----X-X-X-X-X-X------
G---------X-X-X-X-----X-X-X-X-----X-X-X-X-X-X---7--
G---------X-X-X-X-----X-X-X-X-----X-X-X-X-X-X---0--
F#----7-7-X-X-X-X-7-7-X-X-X-X-7-7-X-X-X-X-X-X---0--
F#----0-0---------0-0---------0-0-------------0----   palm mute the open F# strings

Lee has a part similar to Thurston's in the left speaker, but he also overdubbed
this note (which is what he plays live):

A-----------
A-----------
G------6----
G------6---- slowly bend up and return while picking
F#----------
F#----------

Kim:

A----------------------------6--   she doesn't always hit the note on the A string
G----------------------------0--
F#----7-7-----7-7-----7-7-------
F#----7-7-----7-7-----7-7-------  


C SECTION (CHORUS)		00:23-00:34

Thurston:

A-----------------------------------         -------
A-----------------------------------         -------
G-----------------------------------         ---6---
G----------------------------------- x 2     ---6---
F#---x-5-5---x-6-5---x-6-5---3-3-3--         ---0---
F#---x-5-5---x-6-5---x-6-5---3-3-3--         ---0---

Lee:

A-----------------------------------         -------
A-----------------------------------         -------
G-----------------------------------  x 2    -------
G-----------------------------------         -------
F#---5-5-5---5-6-5---5-6-5---3-3-3--         ---0---
F#---5-5-5---5-6-5---5-6-5---3-3-3--         ---0---

Kim:

A-----------------------------------         --------
G-----------------------------------         --------
F#----------------------------------  x 2    --\19---
F#-----5-5---5-6-5---5-6-5---3-3-3--         --\19---

A SECTION			00:34-00:42

B SECTION			00:42-00:57

C SECTION			00:57-01:08

A SECTION			01:08-01:16

D SECTION			01:16-01:31

Thurston:

A------9-------------10---9---------10--14---------15--14-------15--
A------9-------------10---9---------10--14---------15--14-------15--
G-----11-------------12--11---------12--16---------17--16-------17-- trem pick all
G-----11-------------12--11---------12--16---------17--16-------17--
F#-----/--------------/---/----------/---/----------/---/--------/--
F#-----/------------------/--------------/--------------/-----------

Lee:

A-------------------------------------------------------------------
A-------------------------------------------------------------------
G-----11-------------12--11---------12--18---------17--18-------17-- trem pick all
G-----11-------------12--11---------12--18---------17--18-------17--
F#-----/--------------/---/----------/---/----------/---/--------/--
F#-----/------------------/--------------/--------------/-----------

Kim runs her hand up the fretboard while strumming with distortion.


E SECTION			01:31-01:46

Thurston:

A------------------------------------
A------------------------------------  repeat simile
G---------0------0---0-----0------0--
G---------0------0---0-----0------0--  palm mute F# strings
F#----0-0-0--0-0-0-0-0---0-0--0-0-0--
F#----0-0----0-0---0-----0----0-0----  throw in a scrape or slide after each rep if you want

Lee:

A-----19-----------19-----------------      --19-----------19---------
A-----19-----------19-----------------      --19-----------19---------
G------------17----------17----19b---- x 2  --------17-----------19b-- x 2
G------------17----------17----19b----      --------17-----------19b--  
F#------------------------------------      --------------------------
F#------------------------------------      --------------------------

Kim:

A-------------------------------------
G-------------------------------------
F#----12-12---12-12---12-12-----------
F#----12-12---12-12---12-12----\3\5\--


E SECTION continued		01:46-02:04

Thurston:

A-----21------
A-----21------
G-----21------
G-----21------
F#-----/------
F#-----/------

Lee:

A-----21------
A-----21------
G-----21------
G-----21------
F#-----/------
F#-----/------

Kim runs her hand up the fretboard while strumming with distortion.


After pummelling that chord, they break to open F# drone and the guitars idly scrape the strings.

B SECTION			02:04-02:34

This is a little different from the previous verses. For the first four lines, Kim is playing
her bassline and both guitars are doing pick scrapes. 

For the next four lines, the guitars both play Thurston's chunky verse riff. I swear Kim
drops down to F# instead of the C# she stays on for the rest of the verse, but in both videos
above she sticks to that 7th fret. When Jim was playing the song, he did drop to F# for this part.

C SECTION			02:34-02:53

In the final chorus, they play the "I love you" riff four times instead of twice.

Thurston goes up an octave during the third repetition:

A---------------------------------------------
A---------------------------------------------
G---------------------------------------------       
G---------------------------------------------  
F#----x-17-17---x-18-17---x-18-17---15-15-15--  
F#----x-17-17---x-18-17---x-18-17---15-15-15-- 

A SECTION			02:53-03:03

That's all! It's a really fun song - the F#GA tuning is surprisingly easy to play in, and
it's always nice when half the riffs are harmonic bursts and gloriously long pick scrapes.
Kim's bass part, as with most of her parts on Dirty, has me totally scratching my head...in a good way! 
More of that next time...

text + tab by Chris Lawrence

special thanks to nollie (gav)

Here is a bassline in standard tuning, based roughly on what Jim played when they relearned the song.

Like Kim's part, most of it is just rapidly picked distorted string noise, with actual notes played only
while she's singing:

Verse 1:

G-------------------------
D-------------------------
A--4-4---4-4---4-4---4-5--
E-------------------------

chorus:

G-------------------------------      -----
D------------------------------- x 2  -----
A--2-2---2-3-2---2-3-2---0-0-0--      -----
E-------------------------------      --2--

verse 2:

G-------------------------
D-------------------------
A-------------------------
E--2-2---2-2---2-2---2-3--

bridge ("a whisper that kisses your ear"):

G-------------------------
D-------------------------
A-------------------------
E--2-2---2-2---2-2---2-3--

verse 3:

G-------------------------
D------------------------- x 4
A--4-4---4-4---4-4---4-5--
E-------------------------

G-------------------------
D------------------------- x 4
A-------------------------
E--2-2---2-2---2-2---2-3--

He definitely sparks it up a bit with muted strings and distortion but this is the gist of it if you
don't want to adopt Kim's crazy tuning.