Listen to the presidents of the united states of america peaches

Songfacts®:

• First theory: It's just a song about how peaches are great. Perhaps a little commentary about how natural peaches are better then canned stuff.

  Second theory: It's about women's private parts and cunnilingus.

  The Presidents Of The United States Of America also have a song called "Kitty," which is about a cat (or is it?). They insist these songs - which they're well aware are full of double meanings - are about the literal explanations.

• In a Songfacts interview with Presidents lead singer Chris Ballew, he told the story behind this song. "The key line, 'Moving to the country, going to eat a lot of peaches,' I overheard a homeless man who was walking by the bus stop where I was waiting for a bus," he said. "He was saying it under his breath over and over again: 'I'm moving to the country, I'm gonna eat a lot of peaches.' And I thought, 'That's interesting. I've never heard a homeless guy talk about his future and peaches and the country like that.'

  I was on my way to my girlfriend's house and I didn't have a guitar there but the phrase stuck with me. I later got home and put it to a little music. All I had was that, then I was trying to be Nirvana in the verse, gnarly and growly.

  So I had a verse and a chorus, and the verses were about how I had taken some hallucinogenic drugs and gone to a girl's house that I had a crush on. I was intending to tell her how I felt but she wasn't home, so I sat in her yard under a peach tree, having a psychedelic experience smashing peaches in my fist, literally like I say in the song, and watching the juice dribble and watching the ants run around. She never showed up, so I never got to tell her, but I bottled it and turned it into that song."

• "Peaches" was written by the three band members: Chris Ballew, Dave Dederer, and Jason Finn. Dederer came up with the part that closes out the song:

  Millions of peaches
  Peaches for me
  Millions of peaches
  Peaches for free

  "The song sounds like two different songs," Ballew told Songfacts. "It's got my verse/chorus/verse/chorus, and then Dave's end part."

  "I love that that song was so popular because it really was a collaborative thing," he added. "Dave and I depended on each other to make that song work. Growing up as I did in the shadow of Lennon and McCartney, I thought it was cool that we had that collaboration."

• The Presidents Of The United States Of America were one of the many Seattle bands signed to a major label when grunge hit. Unlike most of these bands, they panned out, selling over 3 million copies of their debut album on Columbia Records.

  Their first single was "Lump," which got a lot of airplay and some spins on MTV. "Kitty" followed, then "Peaches." The album was released in July 1995, and the band promoted it relentlessly, making the rounds on radio stations in the mornings while they toured. "Peaches" reached its chart peak in April 1996; they put out their next album, II, in November.

  That album didn't produce any substantial hits but still sold 500,000 copies. By this time, the band was burned out, and in early 1998, they called it quits. They reunited from time to time, and lead singer Chris Ballew found an audience as Caspar Babypants, a maker of music for kids. From 1997–2004, their cover of "Cleveland Rocks" was the theme song to The Drew Carey Show.

• The band name is ironic, meant to contrast their lo-fi sound with the gravitas of the highest political office in their home country. It ended up being a great marketing tool, especially on Presidents' Day. On that holiday in 1996 (February 19, 1996) MTV aired a 30-minute concert of the band performing from Mount Rushmore.

• The music video was directed by Roman Coppola, son of The Godfather director Francis Ford Coppola. Most of it is just the band performing in an orchard, but it takes a hard turn when a group of ninjas show up and attack them. According to Ballew, Coppola had been watching ninja movies and was keen to shoot a fight sequence.

• The peach was a symbol of immortality to the ancient Chinese. They placed bowls of peaches in the tombs of close family members to prevent the bodies from decaying. Giving the fruit as a gift was a sign of friendship. (From the book Food for Thought: Extraordinary Little Chronicles of the World by Ed Pearce)

One of the most recognisable riffs of the ‘90s, “Peaches” was the third single from their self titled album. Chris Ballew said he wrote the track about a girl he desired, and inspiration struck when he was “sitting under a peach tree she had her in her yard.”

The band toured Australia for a reunion, and had an interview with Music Feeds and stated:

I picture this front yard, and I picture you being otherwise influenced by… Lucy in the sky with diamonds, yeah. For Peaches, if you just Google ‘Marxist interpretation of Peaches,’ up pops this treatus and somebody has, this has been the internet for years and years. It’s a full explanation of how “Peaches” is an accurate metaphor for socialism. Meanwhile it’s just a dude that’s kind of wasted… I don’t want to tell people what things are about, because their version is usually way better than my version.

The music video predictably features the band in a peach field, with peaches the focal point. It made it to number 29 on the US Hot 100 Charts, and was nominated for a Grammy in 1997 for “Best Pop Performance.” Ballow said of the nomination:

So what did it mean to me to be nominated for a Grammy? It didn’t mean much, frankly. I was too tired to respond. We were worked like little doggies. To win would have been extremely thrilling, of course, because we were there with all the pomp and circumstance. So that would have been an out-of-body experience. But I feel ok that we lost, because the first time we lost to Nirvana and the second time we lost to The Beatles.

Chris and Dave were interviewed about this song in the guitar book by Alfred:
Chris

I guess it combined folk music with Nirvana an AC/DC in a successful way. I liked songs that would almost be like a lullaby then shake you awake with an explosion back then. Nirvana was great at that, and this was a little attempt to get that feeling. It was written about a girl I had a crush on. I went to her house to tell her and waited all day but she never showed up. She lived in a bright yellow house in a gray industrial part of town, and she had a peach tree in the yard. I sat there all day with peaches falling and rotting and never got to see her. Dave came up with the end part because I didn’t have an ending. He really came through with a great part and we ended up with another great live song.

Q: How did you get the guitar sound at the very beginning?
A: Chris The melody is my bass with this vibro-effect that is built into my amp turned on.
Q: The change of time for the ending section is so different from the rest of the song. What inspired it?
A: Chris When I wrote it, it didn’t have an ending and Dave came up with that whole end part and we just tacked it on-It doesn’t sound strange to us at all. In fact, I just realized the other day that we have a song that does such a dramatic time change.
A: Dave Chris was out of town on tour with Beck in the spring of 1994. The verse and chorus of the song were done. Jason and I were practicing, just the two of us, and we were working on the verse and chorus sections. We agreed that the song needed an ending. I was listening to Neil Young at the time, particularly the album Ragged Glory, and I wrote that part on the spot going for a heavy, dissonant, chugging Neil sort of thing, along the lines of the song “Fuckin' Up.”

When did peaches start?

How old is Peaches the singer?