The lyrical themes explored on "Doolittle" range from the surrealism of "Debaser", to the environmental catastrophe of "Monkey Gone to Heaven". The prostitutes of "Mr. Grieves", "Tame", and "Hey" share space with the Biblical analogies of "Dead" and "Gouge Away". Black Francis often claimed that "Doolittle"'s lyrics were words which just "fit together nicely", and that "the point the album is to experience it, to enjoy it, to be entertained by it". Francis wrote all the material for the album with the exception of "Silver", which he co-wrote with Kim Deal.