| Pulp – This Is Hardcore Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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I agree with nijnij. Obviously the direct interpretation is about sex. But it reads/feels to me that it's much more about Jarvis feeling like a dreamy eyed starlet who's become a porn-star. He'd had this dream of being the a successful pop star/celebrity and then somehow realising that despite/because of this success he's now in this weird de-personal sausage factory (pun intended) of having to go on stage/in the recording studio to make this entertainment and it all feels wrong and horrible. I've seen the storyline played out so many times before. Oh that goes in there. Then that goes in there. Then that goes in there. Then that goes in there. And then it's over. Oh, what a hell of a show But what I want to know: What exactly do you do for an encore? 'cause this is Hardcore. Think here of how having performed the same songs on stage so many times that it becomes this mechanical loveless process, where each move is choreographed and insincere. Similar with writing/recording new songs - that bit goes in there, that bit goes in there. Everything's become a mere function. Just like a porn shoot. He's pretty much a passive spectator in his own life, like some disembodied narrator having an out of body experience while this perversion happens around him/to him/caused by him. |
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| Pulp – The Fear Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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The Fear is about paranoia, particularly the paranoia that Jarvis felt after getting hugely successful. When interviewed in the great doco, Live Forever: The Rise And Fall Of BritPop, he says the period when he was writing This Is Hardcore, was terrible: JC "This Is Hardcore, yeah, it was awful. It was probably, definitely the worst period of me life. Without question...cause I was just a mess." Interviewer: "Why" JC: "Uhhm, well. I mean taking drugs didn't help. That never helps in that situation. You don't often hear people say ooh, since he's been taking them drugs he's such a nice person. He's really come out of his shell. He's really nice. He's blossomed!" JC: "All around that time people were taking coke...It's a very self congratulatory drug. 'YES! We're inventing the future' " So, the song is in part about drug paranoia. But as with all things Jarvis, it's not some simple anti-drugs song. It's more about drugs as the symptom of the sickness of celebrity. That finally becoming a pop-star turned him into this paranoid wreck. To my mind best captured by this line: This is the sound of someone losing the plot Making out that they're okay when they're not. You're gonna like it, But not a lot So he's losing mind having become this big pop star, but still trying to keep it together. And while some parts of that lifestyle are fun, there's a lot more that's horrible. It has the lovely additional interpretation too that after achieving commercial success he's recognizing that the audience and the record company and the critics aren't going to like this album as much as earlier ones. |
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| Pulp – Party Hard Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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So my take on this is that it is pretty obviously about Jarvis/Pulp hitting the big time and realizing that it is shyte. Nothing too shocking there. The only things that think are worth adding are that i think cocaine psychosis/paranoia plays a big role in this song (as with quite a few songs on This Is Hardcore). Specifically, the lines: I was having a whale of a time until your uncle Psychosis arrived. Obviously about drug psychosis and paranoia. Why do we have to half kill ourselves just to prove we're alive? I'm here whenever you need me And whenever you need me I won't be here. In the obvious sense, this is about excessive coke use, and how it sucks the life out of the hard partier. And on a slightly different take, the cost that this has on those around the partyer: they're there to party, to get amongst it, but as a result of this high life and celebrity, they're pretty much a sh!thouse friend now, and essentially a sh!t person. |
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