| Pulp – Last Day of the Miners' Strike Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Jarvis' comments From Mojo, February 2003: We had to do a new song contractually but we wanted to do something good, and that wouldn't seem out of place with everything else on the record. It didn't seem appropriate to go off on some speed garage trip at the end of the album. Candida come up with the Burt Bacharach sample, but the words were problematic. I'd had this dream where I was listening to this John Lennon song, woke up and realised it wasn't a Lennon song; I wrote it down and tried to remember the tune. It's a bit iffy writing about the Miners' Strike when I don't know that much about it. When it was on, Russell was going out on pickets all the time, but I had no interest in politics at the time. I kinda regretted it later. I tried to make the song more allusive rather than some Billy Bragg thing. |
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| Pulp – My Lighthouse Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Come up to my lighthouse for I have something I wish to say It can wait for a moment, well in fact it can wait all day I just wanted to bring you up here so you could have the chance to see the beauty of this situation that you could share with me It may seem strange to talk of love and then lighthouses It's not strange to me - hey-ey-ey-ey All alone, you and I in our high tower That's the way to be - hey-ey-ey-ey Some laugh at my lighthouse they say that it's just an ivory tower But I don't mind because I know their envy grows by the hour See I have a purpose up here to guide the ships upon their way All this is mine; it could be yours too, what do you say? It may seem strange to talk of love and then lighthouses It's not strange to me - hey-ey-ey-ey All alone, you and I in our high tower That's the way to be Hey-ey-ey-ey, hey-ey-ey-ey, hey-ey-ey |
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| Pulp – Sunrise Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Jarvis' comments: They say the darkest hour is just before the dawn, don't they? I don't know if it's true, but they say it. I always hate it when you've been at an all-night party and then suddenly the sun starts coming up and you think, 'Why didn't I go home an hour ago?'. You feel unnatural because every other creature's just waking up and the birds start doing the dawn chorus and you feel out of step with nature. So on a simple level the song's just about trying to react to the sunrise in a better way and not to screw things up for yourself. |
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| Pulp – Roadkill Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Jarvis' comments: One of my favourite songs on the record. It's got a nice fragile feeling to it that suits the slightly morbid lyrics. It's a pretty sad song. I didn't want it to be 'Let's all fucking slash us wrists' so it's got a delicate feel which stops it getting too maudlin. Lyrically, it's about the death of a relationship... as they all usually are. [It] was one of the most satisfying ones to do, because all of the song was recorded at the same time, except for the cello stuff. So I did the singing at the same time as playing the guitar as well, and so that really was just capturing one performance of it. And so it's got a certain kind of edginess to it, because I'm not a very good guitarist, and especially if I'm singing at the same time I become a pretty inept guitarist. So it always seems like it's on the verge of breaking down, so I think that gives if a certain kind of tension to it which is quite good. |
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| Pulp – Bad Cover Version Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Jarvis' comments: 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 shit, 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. 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 half-way 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 realise 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 travelling 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 apologise 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. |
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| Pulp – Bob Lind (The Only Way Is Down) Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Jarvis' comments: There was this bloke in the late 60s called Bob Lind. One of his most famous songs is Elusive Butterfly, which was one of my favourites when I was younger. Something about the sound of this song made me think of him. It's about someone who is a fuck-up. And sometimes there's something good about admitting that. Most people who are famous and wealthy tend to be more fucked up than everybody else. Bob Lind he writes quite, kind of, sweet songs but then they've often got quite negative words. For instance, there's a song of his called Remember the Rain, which is basically saying: "Remember the rain, when you walk in the sunshine." It's saying: "Oh right, you might be having a good time now, but listen, you will be having a shit time soon." - which is a pretty negative thing to write about and yet it's quite a nice, jangly little tune. So that song reminded me of him a bit. So Bob Lind was just a working title, but then as sometimes happens, I couldn't think of a better one, so I just left it. And he did get in touch the other day, and said "I'm gonna sue". No, he didn't - he got in touch, and he seemed to be quite flattered that somebody had remembered him. |
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| Pulp – The Birds in Your Garden Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Jarvis' comments: Birds in Your Garden was one of the first songs we wrote for this record, and in terms of its style it's probably quite similar to the stuff that we wrote when we very first started out. And the idea of it is - it's kind of fitting that it's one of the first ones we wrote - because the idea of it is that somebody's staying at his lover's house but for some reason or other he can't get it together to, erm... shag her. And goes out into the garden in the morning and all the birds say to him, "c'mon, get in there". And it's about, for some reason he's unable to respond to a natural urge, the urge to 'get in there', the urge to procreate or whatever. He's so out of touch with himself that it's there for him on a plate but he's too hung up on some idea in his head that he can't do it. I just liked the idea of birds, which are supposed to be nice sweet creatures, kind of acting in a slightly yobbish way, and saying "get in there my son". I thought it was quite a nice idea. |
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| Pulp – I Love Life Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Jarvis' comments: The happiest song on the album. When we first started writing the songs, Sunrise and Birds in Your Garden were the first ones we did. At that point I thought we might make an acoustic album - there must have been something in the air at that time because there's been that New Acoustic Movement since then. In the midst of all that I came up with the guitar riff and thought, 'Well, that doesn't really fit'. But if it comes out there's a reason for it, I think. On a basic and immature level, we just liked the fact that it was really loud and horrible at the end. For me, the idea of that song is someone trying to regain control of their life, and it's not all that easy sometimes. |
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| Pulp – Wickerman Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Jarvis' comments: The kind of start point for The Wickerman was I got asked to write a piece for an English magazine called The World of Interiors, and they asked you for three things that had provided you with inspiration. And, of course, I was panic stricken 'cos I couldn't think of anything. And I was trying to think of things that had done that, and y'know, although obviously since the events that are described in [Wickerman] happened I've done a lot of things, and I've travelled around the world and all that kind of stuff. But for some reason [what occurred to me was] this time when I went on [..] an inflatable boat, and I went on a trip down the River Don, which is one of the rivers that runs through Sheffield. And it was really quite a magical day, because it was travelling through the city that I've lived in all my life, but seeing it from a different angle. And when you travel along the river and you're going with the current you feel like you're being taken somewhere, and I saw quite a lot of strange events. One event that doesn't get mentioned in the song was this guy - stood at the side of the river - with an air rifle [..] and he was shooting it into the water, trying to shoot fish. And as he did it, he was going "stitch that, y'bastards". And it was just things like that, y'know, and that's always something that has really fascinated me: when you can find extraordinary events in very everyday circumstances. So I just got the idea of this river running through the city and the stories that had happened at various times, happening along the course of it. And also the river kind of providing a sense of continuity: a thread that runs through something. [The] song has also got a sample in it which is from the film The Wicker Man, and I used to live on The Wicker, which is a kind of shitty street in Sheffield. So I thought: "Yeah, it's all coming together." [..] It all seemed to kind of mean something so I just made it into a story. The demo version contains an interesting lyrical adjustment to the final version. "The flyover that takes the cars to cities" is instead: "The fly-over that takes the cars to Leeds". |
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| Pulp – The Trees Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Jarvis' comments: That was the last song we wrote. I'd had the song we sample in it [Tell Her You Love Her by Stanley Myers and Hal Shaper] 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. 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 favourite because they bully other birds and they spoil their nests and stuff like that. They're a bit of a pest actually. 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. |
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| Pulp – The Night That Minnie Timperley Died Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Jarvis' comments: Yeah, this song Minnie Timperley is about a murder, but having said that all my songs are autobiographical! I have never committed a murder - honest, guv. That song came from a dream that I had about me and Steve going to DJ at a Scottish rave, and we had all our equipment stolen. And then there was this sixteen year old girl walking around, thinking how stupid all these people were who were off their heads, and she got bored, and accepted a lift from a bloke in the car park and then he kills her. God knows why I dreamt that - it's not very pleasant - but it really stuck in my mind. It was one of those very vivid dreams, and so of course I thought: "That's a brilliant subject matter for a song, isn't it? Nice, cheery, feel good material..." |
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| Pulp – Weeds II (The Origin Of The Species) Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Jarvis' comments: Because a lot of ideas seemed to come out in Weeds, I wanted to expand on it. My favourite line in the song is "Come on, do your funny little dance." You create your own world in a band and, in a way, when it becomes popular it gets taken away from you. The things that you did naturally somehow make you feel like a performing monkey: "Go on, do that pointing thing." For a while I toyed with the idea of standing still onstage because it was expected of me. But then I thought to myself: "I invented that stupid dance. No-one forced me to do it. Don't worry about whether it's a cliche." So I'm still doing my funny little dance. |
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| Pulp – Weeds Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Jarvis' comments: I've always been fascinated by plants growing in places where they shouldn't really be - like weeds growing in cracks in the paving stones. For some reason I thought: "That's a bit like humans in a city - you're a natural thing but you're growing in this slightly hostile, crappy environment but somehow managing to survive." I started thinking about how most good music comes from people who are in shitty circumstances and then the Svengali comes along and makes all the money and the artist gets fucked off. Then there was the drugs connotation. There's a slumming-it mentality in our society which is going back to a Common People theme - people getting a buzz from scoring drugs off a council estate: "It's so authentic, I was in a real council house, and these people had tattoos and everything." It's like they've got real contempt for these people and they'll spit on them, but when they want some drugs or they wanna shag a prostitute they're OK. And then there was the whole thing about weeds being considered to be weak things. You get called a weed in England in a school if you're supposed to be a weak person, and yet weeds, as far as i can see, are the most tenacious plants 'cos they grow in very hostile [places] - they'll grow in a little tiny bit of soil. I always like it when you're going down a street and you see a roof and there's this big bush growing off the top of it... |
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