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Pulp - Common People

Pulp - Common People Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Different Class
Released: 1995

Common People Lyrics

She came from Greece she had a thirst for knowledge,
She studied sculpture at Saint Martin's College,
That's where I,
Caught her eye.
She told me that her Dad was loaded,
I said "In that case I'll have a rum and coca-cola."
She said "Fine."
And in thirty seconds time she said,

I want to live like Common People,
I want to do whatever common people do,
I want to sleep with common people,
I want to sleep with common people,
Like you.

Well what else could I do
I said "I'll see what I can do."
I took her to a supermarket,
I don't know why,
But I had to start it somewhere,
So it started there.
I said pretend you've got no money,
She just laughed and said,
"Oh you're so funny."
I said "Yeah?
Well I can't see anyone else smiling in here.

Are you sure you want to live like common people,
You want to see whatever common people see,
You want to sleep with common people,
You want to sleep with common people,
Like me.

But she didn't understand,
She just smiled and held my hand.
Rent a flat above a shop,
Cut your hair and get a job.
Smoke some fags and play some pool,
Pretend you never went to school.
But still you'll never get it right,
'Cause when you're laid in bed at night,
Watching roaches climb the wall,
If you called your Dad he could stop it all.

You'll never live like common people,
You'll never do whatever common people do,
You'll never fail like common people,
You'll never watch your life slide out of view,
And dance and drink and screw,
Because there's nothing else to do.

Sing along with the common people,
Sing along and it might just get you through.
Laugh along with the common people,
Laugh along even though they're laughing at you,
And the stupid things that you do.
Because you think that poor is cool.

Like a dog lying in a corner,
They will bite you and never warn you,
Look out,they'll tear your insides out.
'Cause everybody hates a tourist,
Especially one who thinks it's all such a laugh,
Yeah and the chip stain's grease,
Will come out in the bath.

You will never understand
How it feels to live your life
With no meaning or control
And with nowhere left to go.
You are amazed that they exist
And they burn so bright,
Whilst you can only wonder why.
Rent a flat above a shop
Cut your hair and get a job
Smoke some fags and play some pool
Pretend you never went to school,
But still you'll never get it right
'Cause when you're laid in bed at night
And watching roaches climb the wall,
If you called your dad he could stop it all
Yeah

You'll never live like common people
You'll never do what common people do
You'll never fail like common people
You'll never watch your life slide out of view
And then dance and drink and screw
Because there's nothing else to do

I want to live with common people like you.....

Writer/s: BANKS, NICK / COCKER, JARVIS BRANSON / DOYLE, CANDIDA / MACKEY, STEPHEN PATRICK / SENIOR, RUSSELL
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Common People

This song is based on a girl lead singer Jarvis Cocker met at St. Martin's on the sculpture course. Jarvis revealed that nothing actually ever happened between them and that in fact, he just overheard her say that she would like to live in the East end of London. Some believe that the song reflects Jarvis' thoughts, as he does not come from a working class background.

As this was a catchy pop song, Jarvis Cocker wanted to come up with a dance routine to go with it, which can be seen in the video.

This was the commercial breakthrough for Pulp, who were formed by the then 15-year-old Jarvis Cocker in 1978. In Q magazine, Cocker said: "It was clear 'Common People' was a significant song. Eight other songs on the album were written while it was in the charts. Knowing that you had a mass audience for once in your life gave me the confidence to bring certain things out of myself."

The video to the song featured Sadie Frost and was produced by Jarvis himself. He has a degree in film-making from St. Martins College of Art.

Jarvis Cocker told the story of the song to Uncut magazine August 2010: "It all started with me getting rid of a lot of albums at the Record And Tape Exchange in Notting Hill. With the store credit I went into the second-hand instrument bit and bought this Casio keyboard. When you buy an instrument, you run home and want to write a song straight away. So I went back to my flat and wrote the chord sequence for 'Common People,' which isn't such a great achievement because it's only got three chords. I thought it might come in handy for our next rehearsal."

He added: "Steve (Mackey, bass) started laughing and said, 'It sounds like (Emerson, Lake and Palmer's version of) 'Fanfare For The Common Man.' I always thought the word 'common' was an interesting thing. It would be used in 'Fanfare For The Common Man.' as this idea of the noble savage, whereas it was a real insult in Sheffield to call someone 'common.' That set off memories of this girl that I met at college. She wanted to go and live in Hackney and be with the common people. She was from a well-to-do background, and there was me explaining that that would never work. I hated all that cobblers you got in films and magazines in which posh people would 'slum it' for a while. Once I got that narrative in my head it was very easy to write, lyrically."

Cocker told Uncut about the Greek girl who inspired the song: "On that BBC Three documentary (2006's The story Of… Pulp's Common People), the researchers went through all the people who were contemporaries of mine at St Martins and they tried to track her down. They showed me a picture and it definitely wasn't her. I dunno. Maybe she wasn't Greek. Maybe I misheard her."

Pulp debuted this at the Reading Festival in 1994. Jarvis Cocker recalled in Isle of Noises : "I was up trying to finish the words the night before. If a song doesn't work you know after about 20 seconds but you've got to finish it, five minutes or whatever, then feel really embarrassed."

This was voted the top Britpop anthem by listeners of BBC Radio 6 Music in a 2014 poll to mark the 20th birthday of Britpop. The Verve's "Bittersweet Symphony" came second and Oasis' "Don't Look Back In Anger" third.

The song only made it to #2 in the UK charts. It was denied the top spot by Robson Green and Jerome Flynn's version of "Unchained Melody."

Jarvis Cocker told a funny story of the day it was revealed at #2: "The Sunday they announced the charts it was presented live in Birmingham, and all the chart acts had to mime to their songs. We didn't know what position we were, so we waited in this back room for them to call us. So time went on, it got to 6 p.m. and everyone was getting shaky. I went to the toilet to put my contact lenses in, but I hadn't rinsed them properly, so my eye went bright red. Anyway, we had to go on, and I was still in quite extreme physical pain, and my eye was streaming, so people obviously thought I was crying because we were #2! And, of course, by that time my makeup was running and looked like non-set cement... It'd been raining, so there were big puddles in front of the stage, and just as 'Common People' reached its, erm, climactic chorus, I jumped off the monitor quite spectacularly, as you do, landed in a puddle, slipped and fell flat on me arse! So I'm left thinking, 'F--k me, this is meant to be your ultimate triumph, and you're flat on your back in a puddle, your eye killing you, face falling off, on a wet Sunday afternoon in Birmingham!' Not quite what I'd been dreaming of for 20 years."

Initially the song didn't go down too well with Cocker's bandmates when he presented it to them - drummer Nick Banks admitted during an appearance on BBC 5 live Breakfast that when he first heard Jarvis Cocker's initial demo, he thought it like "a tuneless dirge." He only began to appreciate this song when the band started recording in a studio.

Bassist Steve Mackey noted that it reminded him of the 1977 Emerson, Lake and Palmer song "Fanfare for the Common Man." However, keyboardist Candida Doyle saw the potential in the song from the start: "I just thought it was great straight away. It must have been the simplicity of it, and you could just tell it was a really powerful song then."

In an April 1996 interview with Q magazine, Jarvis Cocker went further into the genesis of the theme behind "Common People": "I really felt – especially after being out of step for so long – if you had a song that was in the right place at the right time then you'd be an idiot to let that moment pass. It seemed to be in the air, that kind of patronizing social voyeurism, slumming it, the idea that there's a glamour about low-rent, low-life. I felt that off Parklife, for example, or Natural Born Killers – there is that noble savage notion. But if you walk round a council estate, there's plenty of savagery and not much nobility going on. In Sheffield, if you say someone's common, then you're saying they're vulgar, coarse, rough-arsed. The kind of person who has corned-beef legs from being too close to the gas fire. So that's what attracted me to calling it 'Common People,' the double meaning, 'Oh, you're common as muck."

The song was actually released before the album it was on was completed - more of a rarity in today's music world. There was a good reason for that, as Cocker explained to Q magazine in 1996: "It was written in about June of '94 and the first time we played it it became clear to me it was a significant song. But then we had trouble writing the rest of the album. If you think, 'Oh God, my livelihood depends on this chord sequence!,' it can come out a bit stilted. In the end we forced Island to release 'Common People' as a single before the rest of the album was

Pulp - Disco 2000

Pulp - Disco 2000 Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: Different Class
Released: 1995

Disco 2000 Lyrics

Oh we were born within one hour of each other
Our mothers said we could be sister and brother
Your name is Deborah, Deborah
It never suited ya
And they said that when we grew up
We'd get married, and never split up
Oh, we never did it, although I often thought of it

Oh Deborah, do you recall?
Your house was very small
With wood chip on the wall
When I came around to call
You didn't notice me at all

And I said let's all meet up in the year 2000
Won't it be strange when we're all fully grown
Be there 2 o'clock by the fountain down the road
I never knew that you'd get married
I would be living down here on my own
On that damp and lonely Thursday years ago

You were the first girl at school to get breasts
And Martyn said that you were the best
Oh the boys all loved you, but I was a mess
I had to watch them trying to get you undressed
We were friends, that was as far as it went
I used to walk you home sometimes but it meant
Oh, it meant nothing to you
'Cause you were so popular

Deborah do you recall?
Your house was very small
With woodchip on the wall
When I came around to call
You didn't notice me at all

And I said let's all meet up in the year 2000
Won't it be strange when we're all fully grown
Be there 2 o'clock by the fountain down the road
I never knew that you'd get married
I would be living down here on my own
On that damp and lonely Thursday years ago
Do it
Oh yeah
Oh yeah

Ah Deborah do you recall?
Oh, your house was very small
With wood chip on the wall
When I came around to call
You didn't notice me at all

And I said let's all meet up in the year 2000
Won't it be strange when we're all fully grown
Be there 2 o'clock by the fountain down the road
I never knew that you'd get married
I would be living down here on my own
On that damp and lonely Thursday years ago

Oh what are you doing Sunday baby
Would you like to come and meet me maybe?
You can even bring your baby
Oh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh
What are you doing Sunday baby
Would you like to come and meet me maybe?
You can even bring your baby
Ooh ooh oh oh ooh ooh ooh
Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh

Writer/s: BANKS, NICK / COCKER, JARVIS BRANSON / DOYLE, CANDIDA / MACKEY, STEPHEN PATRICK / SENIOR, RUSSELL / WEBBER, MARK ANDREW
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Disco 2000 Song Chart

The lyric tells the story of the narrator falling for a childhood friend 'Deborah' ("Your name is Deborah (Deborah), it never suited ya") whom has since grown apart from them, reminiscing about how they were born so close together ("within an hour of each other, our mothers said we could be sister and brother") and how the narrator struggled with his feelings towards her especially when she hit puberty and developed breasts. The title lyric comes from the overarching theme of wondering what would happen if the two met up again "in the Year 2000" and how much both have grown up since then.

According to Jarvis Cocker, most of the lyrics are based on a true story. In a 2002 interview with Liz Kershaw on BBC 6 Music, Cocker explained: "I haven't got much of a sense of imagination so a lot of our songs are just straight true stories - there was a girl called Deborah - she was born in the same hospital as me - not within an hour - I think it was like three hours - but you can't fit three hours into the song without having to really rush the singing! ("We were born within-three-hours of each other") It don't work! So I took poetic license and cut it down to an hour. But basically you know the whole thing was the same - I fancied her for ages and then she started to become a woman and her breasts began to sprout so then all the boys fancied her then - I didn't stand a 'cat-in-hell's chance' - but then I did use to sometimes hang around outside her house and stuff like that. The only bit that isn't true is the woodchip wallpaper."

The "fountain down the road" referenced in the lyric is believed to be the Goodwin Fountain in Sheffield (Cocker's home town) city centre, formerly placed in Fargate - the irony being that the fountain itself was demolished by the 'year 2000' in reality!

Due to the song's millennial theme and subject matter, the band decided to pull the song's synchronization license at the start of 1999 to avoid the song constantly being used to soundtrack various promotions/adverts relating to the new millennium, only relinquishing this by the end of 2000 when the song would not be quite as relevant again. A synchronization license enables music to be 'synced' to other media, usually TV adverts, videogames and so forth.

The song was used to good effect in the BBC drama Life on Mars, where main character DI Sam Tyler is somehow transported from the present day back to 1973. In a sequence in the car with DCI Gene Hunt, "Disco 2000" mysteriously plays, and Tyler remarks to a bemused Hunt that he saw Pulp play the Manchester Nynex (now the MEN Arena) in 1996. Obviously Hunt, being a product of the 1973 world, has no idea who the hell Pulp are - and perhaps the usage of a Pulp song referencing the new millennium was intentional just to further exacerbate the clash between two different time periods.

The inspiration for the song was Cocker's childhood friend, Deborah Bone, a mental health professional who was diagnosed with bone marrow cancer in January 2013 and passed away at her home on December 30, 2014. She was awarded an MBE in the 2015 New Year's Honours List for developing the Brainbox device, which helps young people cope with stress and anxiety. Cocker reportedly sung "Disco 2000" at Bone's 50th birthday party.

Writing on her blog prior to her passing, Deborah said: "Born in Sheffield, my claim to fame is growing up and sleeping with Jarvis Cocker, well someone had to do it, and it was all perfectly innocent! I have been told and like to believe that I am the Deborah in the #1 hit Disco 2000 but we never did get to meet up by the fountain down the road."

Pulp - Countdown

Pulp - Countdown Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Seperations
Released: 1991

Countdown Lyrics

Oh I was seventeen,
When I heard the Countdown start, it started slowly,
And I thought it was my heart but then I realised,
That this time it was for real there was no place to hide,
I had to go out and feel,
But there was time to kill,
And so I, I walked my way around town,
I tried to love the world,
Oh but the world just got me down,
And so I looked for you,
In every street of every town I wanted to see your face,
I want to, I want to see you now.
I want to see you now.
Oh and so it went,
Oh so it went for several years I couldn't stand it
No, oh it must be getting near now that,
You just don't know,
Oh no you, you just don't understand how many people have seen you,
In the arms of, of of some other man,
I've got to meet you, and find you,
And take you by the hand, oh my God,
My God, you've got to understand,
That I was seventeen.
I didn't, I didn't know a thing at all.
I've got no reason,
I've got no reason at all, Oh no.
The time, of my life,
Oh I think you came too soon,
Yeah you came too soon then,
Oh and it could, it could be tonight,
If I ever leave this room,
(I never leave this room no)
Oh I wasted all my time on all those stupid things that only get me down,
Get down, oh.
Oh and the sky,
Is crying out tonight,
For me to leave this town,
So I'm gonna leave this town.
Goodbye.
O.K.
Yeah you can leave me,
Oh you, you can go some other place,
You can't forget it.
Yeah, you know, you know that's O.K.
'cause, 'cause I own this town,
Yeah, I brought it to its knees,
Can you hear it crying?
Can you?
Can you hear it begging to me "Please?"
I know it's coming,
So soon now
Oh, oh it's on it's way.
Oh no, oh no, oh I can hear them say,
They say I can't survive,
They say I, I'll never leave the ground,
They say it's all a lie,
And now, and now it's coming down,
Oh baby now,
Time, of my life, oh I think you came too soon.
Yeah you came too soon now,
Oh and it could, oh it could be tonight,
If I ever leave this room,
(I never leave this room now)
Oh oh oh
I wasted all my time on all those stupid things that only get me down.
Get down, oh
Oh and the sky, is crying out tonight,
For me to leave this town,
So I'm gonna go, gonna be there,
I'm gonna go.
Bub-bye.
It's O.K,
You don't have to care.
Really.
Oh, oh really, I swear,
No, no you owe me nothing,
You owe nothing to me,
And if I messed it up baby,
Then, that's all up to me.
And if you go, then, then I won't follow, no, no
'cause so many times I've been,
I've been thinking maybe, oh maybe I should
No, I, I'm gonna stay
I, I'm gonna make my way
Oh, I'm gonna get on through babe
I'm gonna make it all some day
Oh, time, of my life,
No I think you came too soon,
You came too soon then.
Oh and it could, it could be tonight,
If I ever leave this room,
(I never, I never leave this room, no)
Oh oh oh
I wasted all my time on all those stupid things that only get me down
Get down, oh
And the sky, is crying out tonight,
For me to leave this town.
So I'll leave this town.
The sky, is crying out tonight,
For me to leave this town,
Yeah I'm gonna leave this town
Time
Is crying out tonight
For me to leave this town
So I'm gonna go yeah
I'm gonna go
Yeah
Bub-bye
I'm gonna leave this town
You're not gonna have me around
Oh
The sky and stars and God will never ever laugh
Me and stars and moon are falling down.

Writer/s: FROST, JULIE / KNOWLES, BEYONCE / LAMB, CAINON / MORRIS, NATHAN B / MORRIS, WANYA / TAYLOR, SHEA / NASH, TERIUS / DEAN, ESTER / BIVINS, MICHAEL
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Peermusic Publishing, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Universal Music Publishing Group, CONEXION MEDIA GROUP, INC.
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Countdown Song Chart

This is the second single recorded by the "classic" and most well-known Pulp lineup. The band spent the 1980s with a constantly shuffling lineup due to university and changes in musical direction, but for the album Seperations onwards the classic lineup was secured as Jarvis Cocker on vocals, Steve Mackey on bass, Russell Senior on guitar, Candida Doyle on keyboards and Nick Banks on drums. The first single off Seperations was "My Legendary Girlfriend," and combined with "Countdown" were the first singles to really get noticed by the mainstream music press and started the gradual climb towards stardom in the mid-1990s.

At the end of the single version, a sample plays noting "You've just heard one of the most remarkable applications in modern electronics." This is a recording of now-disgraced entertainer Rolf Harris introducing the Stylophone in 1970 in a commercial.

B-Side "Death Goes To The Disco" is a remix of at the time unreleased rarity "Death Goes To Town", which was only released in 2005 on a special CD which came with Sheffield journalist Martin Lilleker's book Beats Working for a Living, before being included on the Seperations re-release shortly after.

In a 1994 Record Collector interview, Jarvis Cocker detailed the band's singles and albums up until that current point. Noting "Countdown," he stated that lyrically it was about "waiting for your life to take off, and then realizing maybe the countdown's never going to stop, you'll never reach zero - and in the meantime, the rocket's getting rusty and if it got to zero, it wouldn't take off anyway."

Pulp - Babies

Pulp - Babies Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: His 'n' Hers
Released: 1994

Babies Lyrics

Well it happened years ago,
When you lived on Stanhope Road.
We listened to your sister,
When she came home from school,
'cause she was two years older,
And she had boys in her room.
We listened outside and heard her.

Alright.
Well that was alright for a while,
But soon I wanted more.
I want to see as well as hear,
And so I hid inside her wardrobe.
And she came round four,
And she was with some kid called David,
From the garage up the road.
I listened outside I heard her.
Alright.

Oh I want to take you home.
I want to give you children.
You might be my girlfriend, yeah.

When I saw you next day,
I really couldn't tell,
'cause you might go and tell your mother.
And so you went with Neve,
And Neve was coming on,
And I thought I heard you laughing,
When his Mum and Dad were gone.
I listened outside, I heard you.
Alright.

Oh I want to take you home.
I want to give you children.
You might be my girlfriend, yeah.

Well I guess it couldn't last too long.
I came home one day,
And all her things were gone,
I fell asleep inside.
I never heard her come.
And then she opened up her wardrobe,
And I had to get it on.

Oh, listen
We were on the bed when you came home,
I heard you stop outside the door.
I know you won't believe it's true,
I only went with her 'cause she looks like you.
Oh I want to take you home.
I want to give you children.
You might be my girlfriend, yeah.

Writer/s: BANKS, NICK / COCKER, JARVIS BRANSON / DOYLE, CANDIDA / MACKEY, STEPHEN PATRICK / SENIOR, RUSSELL
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Babies Song Chart

The 'Stanhope Road' mentioned in the lyrics are likely referencing a real-life Stanhope Road in the Intake district of Sheffield, where Jarvis Cocker was born and raised.

In 2009 on the Sky Arts show Jarvis Cocker: Songbook, Cocker discussed the song's genesis with Will Hodgkinson, noting that it came from drummer Nick Banks messing up some chords on the guitar, and Cocker overhearing this and running with the sounds these gaffed chords had generated to create the song.

Like a few other singles in the early 1990s for the band, "Babies" was released in several versions - originally as a 12" single for Gift Records in 1992, before a remixed version was put out on the Sisters EP in 1994 and made it onto their breakthrough album His 'N' Hers in the same year.

This tale of voyeurism, with Cocker singing about spying on two sisters, spawned a sequel in the Pulp song "Your Sister's Clothes," which takes place four years later.

Pulp - Bar Italia

Pulp - Bar Italia Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Different Class
Released: 1995

Bar Italia Lyrics

Now, if you can stand
I would like to take you by the hand, yeah
And go for a walk
Past people as they go to work

Let's get out of this place before they tell us that we've just died
Oh, move, move quick, you've gotta move
Come on it's through, come on it's time
Oh, look at you, you, looking so confused
Just what did you lose?

If you can make
An order
Could you get me one?
Two sugars would be great
'Cause I'm fading fast
And it's nearly dawn

If they knocked down this place, this place
It'd still look much better than you
Oh now, move, move quick, you've gotta move
Come on, it's through, come on, it's time
Oh, look at you, you, you're looking so confused
Oh, what did you lose?
Oh, it's ok it's just your mind

If we get through this alive
I'll meet you next week, same place, same time
Oh move, move quick you've gotta move
Come on, it's through, come on, it's time
Oh, look at you, you, you're looking so confused
Oh, what did you lose, oh?

That's what you get from clubbing it
You can't go home and go to bed
Because it hasn't worn off yet
And now it's morning
There's only one place we can go
It's around the corner in Soho
Where other broken people go
Let's go

Writer/s: BANKS, NICK / COCKER, JARVIS BRANSON / DOYLE, CANDIDA / MACKEY, STEPHEN PATRICK / SENIOR, RUSSELL / WEBBER, MARK ANDREW
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Bar Italia Song Chart

In May 1995, Vox magazine interviewed Pulp during the recording sessions for Different Class, which would be released in October of that year. Whilst there, they got an exclusive preview of "Bar Italia," and described it as being "about the mixed delights of heading out into the dawn chorus in that ungodly hour before the milkman whistles his merry tune, nursing the after-effects of a good night out on the E or whatever in search of a reviving cappuccino."

The 'E' reference links across to one of their most popular singles of the period, "Sorted for E's and Whizz."

There is a real-life Bar Italia located on 22 Frith Street in Soho, London, and it is likely that this is where songwriter Jarvis Cocker got the title for the song from.

The song remained both a band and fan favorite, and remained in the band's live repertoire on and off right through their first breakup and successful reunion in the late 2000s - it was the penultimate song in the regular set of their "farewell" show on December 8th at the Motorpoint Arena in Sheffield, their hometown.

Pulp - Bad Cover Version

Pulp - Bad Cover Version Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: We Love Life
Released: 2001

Bad Cover Version Lyrics

The word's on the street; you've found someone new
If he looks nothing like me
I'm so happy for you

I heard an old girlfriend
Has turned to the church
She's trying to replace me
But it'll never work

'cause every touch reminds you of
Just how sweet it could have been
And every time he kisses you
It leaves behind the bitter taste of saccharine

A Bad Cover Version of love is not the real thing
Bikini clad girl on the front who invited you in
Such great disappointment
When you got him home
The original was so good
The one you no longer own

And every touch reminds you of
Just how sweet it could have been
And every time he kisses you
You get the taste of saccharine

It's not easy to forget me
It's so hard to disconnect
When it's electronically reprocessed
To give a more life-like effect
Oh come on

Ah, sing your song
About all the sad imitations
That got it so wrong

It's like a later Tom And Jerry, when the two of them could talk
Like the Stones since the Eighties
Like the last days of Southfork
Like Planet Of The Apes on TV
The second side of Til The Band Comes In
Like an own brand box of cornflakes:
He's going to let you down, my friend

Writer/s: COCKER, JARVIS BRANSON / MACKEY, STEPHEN PATRICK / BANKS, NICK / DOYLE, CANDIDA / WEBBER, MARK ANDREW
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Bad Cover Version Song Chart

This song was the last single to be released by the band in their original phase before their hiatus in 2002 through to 2011, and the band's penultimate single released to date before "After You" in January 2013. It was released in April 2002 and charted in the UK at #27.

The lyrics are a lengthy attempt by the narrator to explain that his former partner's new/current relationship is a pale shadow of what they used to have in comparison. He uses a string of metaphors to compare how this relationship compares poorly to what they used to have, including how Tom and Jerry ended up talking in later series, the Rolling Stones' career post-1980s, and the TV adaptation of Planet of the Apes - the meaning being that all of the above mis-stepped badly and failed to recapture past glories, much like his ex-partner.

Humourously, one of the many metaphors used to talk down the narrator's ex-partner's new relationship includes a reference to Scott Walker's 1970 album 'Til The Band Comes In, which featured original compositions on the first side and cover songs on the second side - perhaps this is where the title "Bad Cover Version" partially came from. Either way, Jarvis Cocker wrote these lyrics in advance of the album recording, and later found out that Scott Walker himself would be producing the album and therefore this song.

Cocker explains: "Doing [this song] was probably the most embarrassing moment on the record, for me, because the song had been written a long time before we knew we were gonna work with Scott Walker, and in the end section of the song there's a list of inferior things, but unfortunately in this litany I included Scott Walker's fifth solo LP, 'Til the Band Comes In. Because that record's always mystified me, because it starts off with original material, and it's pretty good, and then suddenly on the second side he just does six cover versions, and it's like he just kind of gets sick of the whole thing and just gives up halfway through the record. So I've always found it a very strange album for that. Then of course when we were working with him, this became a problem for me, because I felt that I had to mention it to him. I didn't want him to suddenly realize it himself, and then come and punch me or something. So I was thinking about it, and it was coming closer to the day when I was gonna have to do me vocal, and I was really trying to find the right moment to broach the subject, but it never seemed to come along. And then one morning, it was getting to be a bit of a problem for me actually, so I was traveling there on the train and thinking: 'Right, first thing, as soon as I get into the studio, I'm gonna have it out with him, I'm gonna tell him, I'm gonna tell it how it is.' So I was thinking to myself: 'Yeah, gotta do it, gotta do it, gotta do it.'

Got off the train, walked into the studio... pinned him up against the mixing desk, and just kind of blurted it all out: "Er, Scott well, I've just got to apologize for something, because, like, okay, at the end of the song, like, I make a reference to 'Til the Band Comes In, right, in a list of crap things, and, what I was trying, y'know, obviously..." And just kind of said all this stuff. And he just kind of looked at me in a very mystified way, of like, 'What is this nutter ranting on about?,' and then it kind of clicked with him what I was on about, and he just laughed and said: 'Well, gee thanks guys, that's the way you repay me.' I think he doesn't actually own any of his old records so I think he'd kind of forgotten that he'd made that one. But for me, it was embarrassing."

Ultimately it was fairly moot, as Walker has since admitted he shares the same view on 'Til The Band Comes In, considering it one of his weaker works - so Cocker was entirely justified to criticize it in the song.

The tune itself Cocker credits to Candida Doyle, the band's keyboard player. "The main tune came from Candida. I wrote the words at night, then I went to bed, woke up in the morning and thought, 'I bet they're really s--t, them words'. But then when I sang them they worked alright. When we recorded it with other people it never sounded right - it sounded like a pastiche of something. It's just a pop song but I find it quite emotional."

In a pastiche perhaps of the Scott Walker 'Til The Band Comes In debacle, the CD release of this song came in a 2-CD format, with the first CD comprising of the song and 2 B-sides, and the second CD comprising "bad cover versions" of Pulp songs - specifically a version of "Disco 2000" by Nick Cave (of the Bad Seeds) and a Roisin Murphy cover of "Sorted for E's and Whizz."

The music video becomes a hilarious send-up of charity singles, in particular "Do They Know It's Christmas?," with a huge litany of popular artists being impersonated and filmed singing their parts a la the original Band Aid single. Ironically, Jarvis Cocker is one of the many artists impersonated (along with Tom Jones, Craig David, Kyle Minogue, Kurt Cobain, Phil Collins and MANY more), yet Cocker himself appears in the video - impersonating Queen guitarist Brian May!

Pulp - The Trees

Pulp - The Trees Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: We Love Life
Released: 2001

The Trees Lyrics

I took an air-rifle, shot a magpie to the ground & it died without a sound.
Your skin so pale against the fallen Autumn leaves &
No-one saw us but the trees.

Yeah, the trees, those useless trees produce the air that I am breathing.
Yeah, the trees, those useless trees; they never said that you were leaving.

I carved your name with a heart just up above - now swollen,
Distorted, unrecognisable; like our love.
The smell of leaf mould & the sweetness of decay
Are the incense at the funeral procession here, today.
In the trees, those useless trees, etc.

You try to shape the world to what you want the world to be.
Carving your name a thousand times won't bring you back to me.
Oh no, no I might as well go & tell it to the trees.
Go & tell it to the trees, yeah.

Writer/s: MYERS, STANLEY/SHAPER, HAL/COCKER, JARVIS/MACKEY, STEVE
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

The Trees Song Chart

"The Trees" is the other half of the double A-side released in October 2001 as a lead-up to the release of Pulp's then-latest album We Love Life - the other side was the track "Sunrise." The single as a whole charted at #23 in the UK.

Jarvis Cocker talks frankly about the song's genesis, noting that it was all spawned from a sample of the song "Tell Her You Love Her" by Stanley Myers and Hal Shaper. Said Cocker: "I'd had (that song) for about four or five years and wanted to write a song around it. I'd had loads of goes. We were getting to the end of the sessions, so we had one more go and we nailed it."

The initial lines of the lyrics explain how the narrator "took an air-rifle, shot a magpie to the ground and it died without a sound." Cocker was keen to explain that this was hardly an autobiographical reference: "I'd like to point out that I've never shot an animal with an air rifle! There was an air pistol at my granny's when I was growing up and I was allowed to play with it without any pellets in it. As soon as I got to an age where I might have wanted to go out and shoot creatures, it was hidden. So I've never shot even a magpie... even though they are one of my least favorite because they bully other birds and they spoil their nests and stuff like that. They're a bit of a pest actually."

The lyrics paint an evocative picture of lust and a dark surrounding of forests and woodland - this was specifically in order to paint a picture of the mysterious world between the trees where any number of things could end up happening. Cocker explains: "The idea of the lyrics in that song is just... the idea of the trees being there and all the kind of human dramas that could happen in a forest: people meeting for an illicit affair or whatever, like that. But the trees are impassive to that. And the way that people will carve their name on the bark of a tree, thinking that's some kind of mark of permanence in a relationship, but then you go back a year or two later and try and read it, it'll be all like [twisted], because the tree doesn't grow in a linear way."

Pulp - A Little Soul

Pulp - A Little Soul Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: This Is Hardcore
Released: 1998

A Little Soul Lyrics

Hey, man
How come you treat your woman so bad?
That's not the way you do it
No, no, no, you shouldn't do it like that
I could show you how to do it right
I used to practice every night on my wife, now she's gone
Yeah, she's gone
You see, her mother and me
We never got along that well, you see

I'd love to help you
But everybody's telling me you look like me
But please don't turn out like me, you look like me
But you're not like me I know
I had one, two, three,
Four shots of happiness, I look like a big man
But I've only got a little soul
I only got a little soul

Yeah, I wish I could be an example
Wish I could say I stood up for you
And fought for what was right
But I never did
I just wore my trenchcoat and stayed out every single night
You think I'm joking?
Try me
Try me
Yeah come on, try me tonight
I did what was wrong though I knew what was right
I've got no wisdom that I want to pass on
Just don't hang round here, no, I'm telling you son
You don't want to know me
Oh, that's just what everybody's telling me

And everybody's telling me you look like me
But please don't turn into me
You look like me
But you're not like me I hope
I have run away form the one thing that I ever made, now
Only wish that I could show you
Wish I could show a little soul
Wish I could show a little soul

Writer/s: COCKER, JARVIS BRANSON / BANKS, NICK / DOYLE, CANDIDA / MACKEY, STEPHEN PATRICK / WEBBER, MARK ANDREW
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

A Little Soul Song Chart

This song had a strange release and shelf life, with the B-sides on the single release (which charted at #22 in the UK upon release in June 1998) seeming to have much more longevity and use than the original song. "Like A Friend" was used on the soundtrack to the 1998 film Great Expectations, with several music videos produced to promote it, as well as in the TV shows The Venture Bros and Daria. "Cocaine Socialism" surfaced as a full release on the 2006 re-issue of the This Is Hardcore album, as a "fully recorded version" - strangely it features almost identical music to album track "Glory Days," yet completely different lyrics.

Two versions of "A Little Soul" exist - the 'regular' version, sometimes known as 'Album Version,' and the 'Alternative Version,' which is a remix from Johnny Dollar of Massive Attack fame.

It's no secret that This Is Hardcore was not the exciting album that needed to follow 1995's smash hit Different Class, but despite the downbeat disillusioned feel of the album, some tracks like "A Little Soul" were singled out for praise - Select's review of the single concluded: "Though maybe not the invincible pop blast that Pulp might need to turn around the relative commercial failure of the This Is Hardcore album, 'A Little Soul' is plainly one of the less distressed songs on that album - a gorgeous mid-paced, Memphis-tinged imagined appeal to Jarv from his errant daddy. Other treats in the two-CD sales pitch include remixes by Kid Loco and former Massive Attack associate Johnny Dollar. Not to mention the new songs 'Like A Friend' (from the Great Expectations soundtrack) and 'Cocaine Socialism.' Could the latter possibly be about El Noeleo?"

Pulp - Help The Aged

Pulp - Help The Aged Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: This Is Hardcore
Released: 1997

Help The Aged Lyrics

Help the aged,
One time they were just like you
Drinking, smoking cigs and sniffing glue
Help the aged
Don't just put them in a home
Can't have much fun when they're all on their own
Give a hand, if you can
Try and help them to unwind
Give them hope and give them comfort
'Cause they're running out of time

In the meantime we try
Try to forget that nothing lasts forever
No big deal, so give us all a feel
Funny how it all falls away
When did you first realize?
It's time you took an older lover, baby
Teach you stuff, although he's looking rough
Funny how it all falls away

Help the aged
'Cause one day you'll be older too
You might need someone who can pull you through
And if you look very hard
Behind those lines upon their face
You may see where you are headed
And it's such a lonely place, oh

In the meantime we try
Try to forget that nothing lasts forever
No big deal so give us all a feel
Funny how it all falls away
When did you first realize?
It's time you took an older lover baby
Teach you stuff although he's looking rough
Funny how it all falls away

You can dye your hair but it's the one thing you can't change
Can't run away from yourself, yourself, yours-s-s-s-self

In the meantime we try
Try to forget that nothing lasts forever
No big deal, so give us all a feel
Funny how it all falls away.
When did you first realize?
It's time you took an older lover, baby
Teach you stuff, although he's looking rough
Funny how it all falls away
Oh, it's funny how it all falls away
Funny how it all falls away
Oh, it's funny how it all, how it all falls away
So help the aged

Writer/s: COCKER, JARVIS BRANSON / BANKS, NICK / DOYLE, CANDIDA / MACKEY, STEPHEN PATRICK / WEBBER, MARK ANDREW
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Help The Aged Song Chart

This song was chosen as the lead single from 1998 album This Is Hardcore, and signposted the new direction the band took - one full of cynicism and loathing for the fame that had accompanied their breakthrough 1995 record Different Class.

It's one that surprised many who were expecting more upbeat tunes like "Common People," but one that Jarvis Cocker was keen to go in. Observer music critic Sean O'Hagan noted in a 2002 interview with Cocker that This Is Hardcore "cost Pulp a sizeable proportion of their post-Common People fan base," but Cocker in the same interview notes: "I weren't surprised in the slightest. Songs about panic attacks, pornography, fear of death and getting old are never gonna be top of the hit parade, are they? I wrote about my own life. Before that, it was me pottering about, picking up bits of information from wherever. Then it became very interior. Introspective. I don't think introspection is ever that healthy. In my experience, the more angst-ridden I've been, the worse the music is.'

Despite the dark tone of the song, "Help The Aged" still charted at #8 in the UK singles chart, making it the band's fifth consecutive Top 10 single.

In Seven Years of Plenty, Ben Thompson notes the dark themes of aging and death referenced in "Help The Aged": "Jarvis Cocker croons caringly, over a sparse piano accompaniment, 'One day they were just like you: drinking, smoking cigs and sniffing glue.' But this jaunty one-two is just softening us up for the death blow: 'If you look very hard behind the lines upon their face, you may see where you are heading and it's such a lonely place.'"

In an interview with Uncut in 1998, Cocker noted the problems faced with making a similarly dark video, particularly with reference to Stannah stairlifts: '"We had loads of trouble with that video because we weren't allowed to mention death; we'd got the Stannah stairlift people involved, and they didn't want their product associated with taking people off to heaven. So we had to pretend that they were going to this other planet, but they were actually passing over to the other side. I'm sure Stannah stairlifts don't actually kill people. They move too slow to run people over."

The B-side contains the track "Tommorow Never Lies," and yes, the reference to the similarly named James Bond movie Tomorrow Never Dies is entirely deliberate, for this song was originally set to be used as the theme tune to that film before being passed over in favor of Sheryl Crow's track.

Originally Pulp's track was also called "Tomorrow Never Dies" but was renamed to a working title for the film, with the very original version as submitted to the Bond producers (and named "Tomorrow Never Dies") surfacing on the bonus disc of the This Is Hardcore 2006 reissue.

Pulp - Seconds

Pulp - Seconds Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: The Sisters EP
Released: 1994

Seconds Lyrics

She / she used to live with his brother
Now she's an unmarried mother / with another / on the way
He's seond rate / twisted out of shape
and he looks a state, it costs so much to look this rough
They go to town / they like to shop around / and look at all those things
All those things they never wnated anyway / She hates his hair
that stupid coat he wears / but sometimes second best
is the best that you can get
Oh yes / oh somebody told me / 'cos Seconds turn to hours
and the hours turn into days / but still it feels like morning
The first time leaves its trace / and then slides into second place
and still it feels like morning / At night they try to fly
hold on tight and close their eyes / and they hit the ground in the morning
But in the morning it's raining / Oh Christ you're always complaining
can't you think of something else / It's nearly-nu
a bargain basement made for two / and if you blur your eyes
you could be anywhere / you want yourself to be
Oh yeah, it's bad / I know you want to laugh, so laugh
But sometimes second best / Is all that you can get
Oh yeah / oh somebody told me / the seconds turn to hours
and the hours turn into days / but still it feels like morning
The first time leaves its trace / and then slides into second place
and still it feels like morning / At night they try to fly
hold on tight and close their eyes / and they hit the ground in the morning
But you're so perfect you don't interest me at all
You're golden boy fell down / Don't you know / he hasn't got a personality?
And I know / he said he'd last all night then gave you seconds / yeah
The seconds turn to hours / and the hours turn into days
but still it feels like morning / The first time leaves its trace
and then slides into second place / and still it feels like morning
At night they try to fly / hold on tight and close their eyes
and they hit the ground in the morning / My God they're still alive
they got it wrong but they still tried / and they made it through to the
morning.

Writer/s: BANKS, NICK / COCKER, JARVIS BRANSON / DOYLE, CANDIDA / MACKEY, STEPHEN PATRICK / SENIOR, RUSSELL
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Seconds Song Chart

"Seconds" is one of four songs included on The Sisters EP, and one of three songs on the EP which were originally recorded for His 'n' Hers but weren't included.

"Seconds" follows similar themes to another track on the EP, "His 'n' Hers," and indeed a lot of themes from the His 'n' Hers album as a whole: rejection of conformity and domesticated bliss in life, stemming seemingly from Jarvis Cocker's personal dislike of marriage and convention. The sleeve notes state that '"Seconds" explores the idea that perfect people are... well, "perfectly boring to be honest."

Pulp - Razzmatazz

Pulp - Razzmatazz Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Intro - The Gift Recordings
Released: 1993

Razzmatazz Lyrics

The trouble with your brother, he's always sleeping with your mother
And I know that your sister missed her time again this month
Am I talking too fast or are you just playing dumb?
If you want I can write it down

It should matter to you but aren't you the one with your Razzmatazz
and the nights on the town?
Oh-oh-oh Oh you knew it and you blew it didn't you babe?
I was lying when I asked you to stay now no-one's gonna care

If you don't call them when you said
And he's not coming round tonight to try and talk you into bed
And all those stupid little things they ain't working
No they aren't working at all oh

You started getting fatter three weeks after I left you
Now you're going with some kid looks like some bad comedian
Are you gonna go out, are you sitting at home eating boxes of Milk Tray?
Watch TV on your own, aren't you the one with your razzmatazz

And your nights on the town?
Oh-oh-oh And your father wants to help you doesn't he babe?
But your mother wants to put you away
Now no-one's gonna care if you don't call them when you said

And he's not coming round tonight to try and talk you into bed
And all those stupid little things they ain't working
Oh they aren't working at all
Oh well I saw you at the doctor's waiting for a test

You tried to look like some kind of heiress but your face is such a mess
And now you're going to a party and you're leaving on your own
Oh I'm sorry but didn't you say that things go better with a little bit of razzamatazz?
Na na nana na na na... and now no-one's gonna care if you don't call them when you said

And he's not coming round tonight to try and talk you into bed
Now it's half past ten in the evening and you wish that you were dead
'Cause all those stupid little things
No they ain't working, oh they aren't working at all.

Writer/s: BANKS, NICK / COCKER, JARVIS BRANSON / DOYLE, CANDIDA / MACKEY, STEPHEN PATRICK / SENIOR, RUSSELL
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Razzmatazz Song Chart

Just around the start of the 1990s (after over a decade in the game), Pulp finally began to garner commercial and critical attention. In this time, they endured multiple lineup changes - with Jarvis Cocker being the one constant. "Razzmatazz" was the band's final single on Gift Records before making the major-label move to Island for their next album His 'n' Hers. Whilst it failed to chart, it gained much critical acclaim - a further sign of the mounting momentum behind the band.

"Razzmatazz" details the months after a breakup, with the narrator being ditched by his supposedly far more cocksure girlfriend. The title relates to what the girl thinks is needed after the breakup: some fun, frolics, and 'razzmatazz.' However, as the singer keeps meeting her in the months after, that turns out not to be the case - she winds up putting on weight, going out with a new guy who resembles "a bad comedian," and sitting around in her house all day eating chocolate and watching TV. Eventually he bumps into her at the doctor's whilst he is "waiting for some tests to be done," and he realizes how downhill she has gone since their breakup.

"Razzmatazz" was never released officially on an album, although it was included on the US release of His 'n' Hers as a bonus track, and on the 1995 compilation Intro - The Gift Recordings.

The single contains a trilogy of songs on the B-side which form together to make "Inside Susan - A Story In Three Songs."

"Stacks" details Susan's early adolescent life in Rotherham, UK; "Inside Susan" looks at recounting her thoughts of her late teens as she rides the bus. The final part, "59 Lyndhurst Grove," jumps forward to later in her life where she is the second wife of an architect, living "somewhere in South London," and cheating on her husband to try and alleviate the tedium of everyday life.

Pulp - Silence

Pulp - Silence Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: B-Side
Released: 1987

Silence Lyrics

Silence Song Chart

"Silence" was the main B-side to Pulp's 1987 single "Master of the Universe." It deserves special mention as it was the only song recorded during their ill-feted time on Fire Records that didn't go on to feature on the Masters of the Universe compilation - with good reason, according to Jarvis Cocker.

Talking about the single to Record Collector in 1994, Cocker noted: "That features the only Fire track which hasn't been reissued: 'Silence,' from demos recorded in an old karate studio, written at that first rehearsal with Russell. Oh, it's so depressing, a two-note keyboard drone, someone playing one of those hunting horns you have on the living room wall and me alternately talking and screaming this story about a love affair that doesn't work out. I banned it from going on the Fire compilation, because it's terrible - I couldn't live with it being out.'

Due to Cocker specifically demanding it not be included on any future compilations, "Silence" has earned the title of "Worst Pulp Song Ever" amongst fans - something the band themselves seem keen to agree with!

Pulp - They Suffocate At Night

Pulp - They Suffocate At Night Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Freaks
Released: 1987

They Suffocate At Night Lyrics

His body loved her
His mind was set on other things
Keep your face out of sight
And your thoughts to yourself
And this went on for several nights
Festering in silence, growing in the dark

And this they saw as love
Love
So sad to see
They Suffocate At Night
Oh this they saw as love
Love
So sad to see
To see it slowly die

She met his wishes
He found that he had changed his mind
Now the fit is too tight
And the bedroom too warm
The days are filled with things to do
Night-time lies so hollow and memories betray

Oh memories of love
Love
So sad to see
They suffocate at night
Those memories of love
Love
So sad to see
To see it slowly die

Two years have passed
Two years of emptiness inside
And the grey skies above
Just show how far I went wrong
I wonder if she's living there
The way that I recall
The way I'll always think of you
And when I think of you

I think of love
Love
So sad to see
They suffocate at night
You know I think of love
Love
So sad to see
To see it slowly die

I wrote you a letter
I threw it away
I wrote you a letter
I threw it away
I need her
I know I don't need her
I need her
Oh
Oh-oh

Writer/s: JARVIS COCKER, RUSSELL SENIOR, PETER MANSELL, CANDIDA DOYLE
Publisher: CONEXION MEDIA GROUP, INC.
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

They Suffocate At Night Song Chart

This was the first single from Pulp's largely unsuccessful second album Freaks, released in 1987 during an unhappy relationship with Fire Records. By this point the core of the band that would achieve 1990s fame - Cocker, guitarist Russell Senior and keyboardist Candida Doyle - were in place, with only the rhythm section of bassist Steve MacKay and drummer Nick Banks to come.

The band were not in a happy place at all during Freaks, as Cocker explained in a 1994 Record Mirror interview. Said Cocker: "In June '86, we started the Freaks album. It was recorded for £600 - in one week. The producer disowned it: he didn't want his name on it! This was the low point, emotionally, of my life. It's such a depressing album. There's some decent songs but they're badly done. 'I Want You' is good, but there's a better version as a demo. The violin's miles out of tune - it's supposed to be a big ballad. 'Don't You Know' came out on a Record Mirror compilation 'Fruit Cakes And Furry Collars' - it's the same version.

It was called 'Freaks' because I'd been out of school four years and lived this marginal life with no success. I was living in a factory building, a drop in center for all the freaks and misfits of Sheffield. We'd been doing something worthwhile and original and yet nobody seemed interested. This was the dark days of the mid-'80s: 'we're heading for a boom time, let's be happy.'

'Aye aye aye aye moosey' was in the charts. We were nowhere near the mainstream. Also, I was in the middle of the first proper relationship I'd had. I'd gone into this terrible depression of finding out what relationships were really like, but not knowing how to deal with it - you go out with somebody for six months and spend another eighteen trying to split up. All in all, I was not a happy person."

Proof of how unhappy things had got was when a music video was attempted to be recorded for "They Suffocate At Night" - the band split up on set! Cocker noted in the same Record Mirror interview: "Russell was extremely disciplinarian, I was quite puritanical, but Pete (Mansell, bass) and Mag (Magnus Doyle, drums) just messed around. It got to a head and everybody had a fight. It wasn't worth the aggro anymore."

It would be after this split that the band would reform with the classic 1990s lineup, after a few trials with other members.

Pulp - Everybody's Problem

Pulp - Everybody's Problem Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Everybody's Problem/There Was...
Released: 1983

Everybody's Problem Lyrics

Standing there before you / defences thrown aside / I thought I heard you laughing / but
When I asked you said you'd cried / I wanted to believe you / yes I wanted to feel strong
/ but looking at my picture / I realised I must be wrong / sounds so weak / it sounds so
Fey / it doesn't sound / like what I meant to say / I speak to you / with a borrowed
Tongue / shall I stop right now / or blindly carry on? / choose one [? ] / but I'm not
Everyone / I only have one viewpoint / don't talk to me of right or wrong / and didn't I
Often tell you / oh didn't I often say / that something in your manner / that really takes
My breath away? / it's not weak / to show I care / I know of those / who wouldn't even
Bear / the fact remains / I feel a need / is it love / or is it simply greed? / it's not
Weak / to show I care / I know of those / who wouldn't even bear / the fact remains / I
Feel a need / is it love / or is it simply greed? / you choose what you believe in / as
Far as I'm concerned / but one thing I can tell you / is innocence cannot be learned / I
Wish you'd stop me talking / oh I wish you'd shut my mouth / well the reason why I tell
You / is I think that you could help me out / and if you do then there's no doubt / that
All my problems won't just fly away.
Writer/s: JARVIS COCKER
Publisher: CONEXION MEDIA GROUP, INC.
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Everybody's Problem Song Chart

"Everybody's Problem" was a result of one of many shifts in direction in the early days of Pulp in an attempt to find commercial success. Having already moved from alternative in their early days to acoustic pop-ballads on their debut album It, this song was a result of producer Tony Perrin telling Jarvis Cocker that pop groups like Wham! were very popular at the time and to write songs accordingly.

Cocker explained in a 1994 Record Collector interview: "Red Rhino put up the money for another single. That's where things got bad. Tony Perrin, in his infinite wisdom, decided that Wham! were a good group, and said, 'You could write commercial songs like Wham!, Jarvis.' 'Everybody's Problem' was the result. As soon as I'd written it, I'd realized I'd made a grave error. It's got a brass section. I refused to sing properly. What's on the single is a desultory guide vocal - I messed up all the words. 'Everybody's Problem' bombed out and the future was canceled due to a lack of interest!'

If one good thing came out of the "Everybody's Problem" debacle, it's that Cocker's disillusionment with chasing commercial sounds for popularity led to him reassembling the band with a more noisey, alternative and experimental direction soon after, and not long after came members who would go on to feature in their most successful years: guitarist Russell Senior and keyboardist Candida Doyle. It was a close thing though - Cocker was close to dissolving the band altogether and going to university before a practice with Senior put him back on track.

"Everybody's Problem/There Was..." was a largely self-financed double-A-side single, and the original single is now a highly prized collector's item. The songs themselves have been reissued several times, including on the 2013 compilation Scared To Get Happy: A Story of Indie Pop 1980-1989.

Pulp - Little Girl (With Blue Eyes)

Pulp - Little Girl (With Blue Eyes) Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: single release only
Released: 1985

Little Girl (With Blue Eyes) Lyrics

You're just a
Little Girl (With Blue Eyes)
Everybody looks at you
(Well, it's your day)
And you're
Stepping from the black car
But you'll be getting back in soon
(And on your way)

Little girl (with blue eyes)
There's a hole in your heart
And one between your legs
You've never had to wonder
Which one he's going to fill
In spite of what he said
You'll never get away
Hey
You'll give it up one day
Come what may

Dad's not got a shot-gun
But his look's enough to murder you
(See what you've done)
And forget about the paintings
'Cause you'd better get the washing done
(Oh something's wrong)

Little girl (with blue eyes)
There's a hole in your heart
And one between your legs
You've never had to wonder
Which one he's going to fill
In spite of what he said
You'll never get away
Hey
You'll give it up one day
Come what may

Face down on the pavement
Chalk lines round your little hands
(Hit and run)
And now a
Mother sits in silence
In a darkness she can't understand
(Where you've gone)
Oh

Little girl (with blue eyes)
There's a hole in your heart
And one between your legs
You've never had to wonder
Which one he's going to fill
In spite of what he said
You'll never get away
Hey
You'll give it up one day
Come what may.

Writer/s: PETER MANSELL, JARVIS COCKER, RUSSELL SENIOR, CANDIDA DOYLE
Publisher: CONEXION MEDIA GROUP, INC.
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Little Girl (With Blue Eyes) Song Chart

This was the third single put out by Pulp. It was another non-album single after "Everybody's Problem/There Was...", and the first to feature two members who would become staples of the band well into their boom period: Russell Senior on guitar and Candida Doyle on keyboards.

Jarvis Cocker explained how the post-"Everybody's Problem" period saw the new lineup come together: "Around the middle of '84, I met up with Russell Senior, who I'd first met in 1980. He came to our Leadmill concert and wrote our very first review in his fanzine 'The Bath Banker.' We decided to have a last ditch effort, so we practiced with a new drummer, Magnus Doyle, and the next incarnation of Pulp was born, with a new bassist, Pete Mansell, who was a friend of Magnus', whose sister Candida Doyle joined after a few months. At first, we had Tim Allcard, who played two-finger keyboard parts and recited poetry in between songs."

Cocker explained the meaning behind the song in a 1994 Record Collector interview with John Reed: "This was about a girl who gets pregnant. It was after seeing a picture of my mum, getting out of her wedding car, and realizing she was only 20, when she got pregnant and had to get married. She was at art college but had to give it up to have me."

He continued: "The song got banned because of the lyrics - but not like Frankie goes to Hollwood. They just didn't play it. It got good reviews - 'a Scott Walker for the 80s!' People said, 'you'd like Scott Walker,' but all I'd heard sounded like Tom Jones. It wasn't until 1987 when somebody gave me a tape of his proper solo albums that I understood his genius. I started buying easy listening albums from jumble sales and Oxfam shops. Burt Bacarach, Henry Mancini - I found that easier to deal with, especially as we were making such abrasive music. I needed something to calm me down. I gave up being in touch with modern music. I resented anybody who was successful. I resented the Smiths, because they were from the North and doing a fairly similar thing."

The band would later go on to work with Scott Walker as a producer on their We Love Life album.

The single featured three tracks on the B-side - "Simultaneous," "The Will To Power" and "Blue Glow," all of which ended up on the Masters of the Universe compilation.

Pulp - Stacks

Pulp - Stacks Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Razzmatazz Single
Released: 1993

Stacks Lyrics

I saw you standing at the stop in your crochet halter top and your sky-blue training bra
I know you're gonna go too far
You're driving all the boys insane down by the sports hall in the rain
Chewing-gum, a navy dress, a purple shirt and all the rest
Oh there's Stacks to do and there's stacks to see and there's stacks to touch
And there's stacks to be, so many ways for you to spend your time
Such a lot that I know/ that you've got ah-ah
I heard you let him touch too much on the back seat of the bus
Did you stay over at his place?
And did you do it? was he ace?
The world is bigger every day and you've always got something to say
And you've always got somewhere to go
It's getting faster don't you know?
And there's stacks to do and there's stacks to see
And there's stacks to touch and there's stacks to be
So many ways for you to spend your time
Such a lot that I know that you've got ah-ah
Oh there's stacks to do and there's stacks to see
Oh yes stacks to touch and there's stacks to be
So many ways for you to spend your time
Such a lot that I know that you've got
Places to go and faces to kiss and boys to confuse
Are the boys good to miss?
There's so many ways for you to spend your time
Such a lot that I know that you've got yeah
I know that you've got oh I know that you've got
You got it!
Writer/s: BANKS, NICK / COCKER, JARVIS BRANSON / DOYLE, CANDIDA / MACKEY, STEPHEN PATRICK / SENIOR, RUSSELL
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Stacks Song Chart

"Stacks" is the first of three songs in the "Inside Susan: A story in Three Songs" trilogy, all three of which were included on the B-side to the "Razzmatazz" single in 1993 - although "Stacks" was left off the 7" vinyl version. The three songs detail the life of a woman called Susan, from youth in Rotherham ("Stacks") through teenage years ("Inside Susan") to a boring domesticated married life in "59 Lyndhurst Grove". A fourth song in this storyline was written, called "The Babysitter," following on from "59 Lyndhurst Grove" and was included on the B-side to "Do You Remember The First Time?"

The first part of the "Inside Susan" story is "Stacks," and looks at the adolescent life of Susan as she grows up in Rotherham, UK, and starts to become more and more interested in boys and perhaps experiencing something of a sexual awakening - although sexual acts are nothing more than implied in the lyrics, more through innuendo.