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Common People Lyrics
She came from Greece, she had a thirst for knowledge
She studied sculpture at St. 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 rum and coca-cola."
She said "Fine,"
And then in thirty seconds time, she said -
"I wanna live like common people,
I wanna do whatever common people do,
I wanna sleep with common people,
I wanna 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."
But she just laughed an 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
'Cos when you're laid in bed at night
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 whatever 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
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 and never warn you
Look out
They'll tear your insides out
'Cos 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 else 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
`Cos 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 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
I want to live with common people like you
I want to live with common people like you
I want to live with common people like you
I want to live with common people like you
I want to live with common people like you
I want to live with common people like you
I want to live with common people like you
Aa-aa-ah la la la la...
Oh yeah.
She studied sculpture at St. 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 rum and coca-cola."
She said "Fine,"
And then in thirty seconds time, she said -
"I wanna live like common people,
I wanna do whatever common people do,
I wanna sleep with common people,
I wanna sleep with common people like you."
Well what else could I do?
I said "I'll see what I can do."
I don't know why, but I had to start it somewhere
So it started there
I said "Pretend you've got no money."
But she just laughed an 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
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
'Cos when you're laid in bed at night
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 whatever 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
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
They will bite and never warn you
Look out
They'll tear your insides out
'Cos 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 else to go
You are amazed that they exist
And they burn so bright whilst you can only wonder why
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
`Cos 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 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
I want to live with common people like you
I want to live with common people like you
I want to live with common people like you
I want to live with common people like you
I want to live with common people like you
I want to live with common people like you
Aa-aa-ah la la la la...
Oh yeah.
Song Info
Copyright
Lyrics © Bmg Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Writer
Candida Mary Doyle, Jarvis Branson Cocker, Nick Banks, Russell Senior, Stephen Patrick Mackey
Duration
5:50
Submitted by
3ssence On Apr 17, 2002
Add your song meanings, interpretations, facts, memories & more to the community.
the grass is greener on the other side, or is it? this song is brilliant. two different people come from opposite lifestyles, and long to have what the other has.
the rich girl wants to live a seemingly simpler, plebian lifestyle, but (according to Jarvis Cocker) she could call Daddy and bail out anytime. the narrator doesn't have that luxury. he lives the life of a common person day in-day out.
Cocker's from a working-class background and is from Sheffield, so the earlier comments about him being as privileged as Greek Girl are unfounded. In England, class mobility's nothing like it is in the States.
Lots of spoiled rich girls like to try "a bit of the rough" and this is the guy's perspective on what it's like to be used that way, and how it'll never give her the perspective she thinks she's going to get because her privilege will still get in the way. But he's still willing to go along for the ride.
"Everybody hates a tourist" is a key line in my opinion. You may think slumming is amusing but don't assume you're really welcome there or you'll understand what's going on.
futatorius: Exactly ! Your comment mirrors everything I was thinking, and, I believe, captures the essence of the song quite eloquently.
futatorius: Exactly ! Your comment mirrors everything I was thinking, and, I believe, captures the essence of the song quite eloquently.
Apparently based on true events when Jarvis was studying at St Martin's. The girl in question was the daughter of a Greek shipping magnate (or something), and wanted to live like a poor person to improve "her art."
"Common People", without doubt, was one of the best songs to come out of the nineties. The lyrics are very clever and totally original. The presentation was a masterpiece of originality and although it missed the U.K. No 1 spot, it certainly deserved it's lasting acclaim. It's hard to believe that this masterpiece was first released in 1995 when I was a mere 47 years old !! I loved it then and I love it now !!
Well, if you're reading this then you've come to the very last (at least for right now) comment. What a lot of people seem to think is that Jarvis is berating a rich girl. "Common People" is deeper than that.
When we think about the narrator of the song, it's tempting to think he's a working-class Brit fighting the good fight. But he meets this rich Greek girl at St. Martin's liberal arts college - a fancy place for people to get fluffly degrees and credentials. So while Jarvis could, perhaps, be a working class hero, he's not exactly the underdog people want him to be. He's mingling with the upper crust of society.
...and that adds another level of irony to the song. The narrator is telling her she has no idea what it's like to be poor, but is he living it too? Clearly not - he's at University, with no roaches climing the wall, and he's living with purpose and direction. When the chorus comes in it's romanticizing poor people, as persons without "meaning or control" but that's not true - being poor doesn't mean you're hopeless, or stupid, or without reason to live. But our narrator lumps millions of people into this category to make this girl feel like shit. Yet he's part of the joke too.
So there's quite a few levels of irony to this song that people seem to gloss over. What "Common People" is about is how we can never truly understand people who live tougher lives than ours - no matter how much you think you know, you're never going to experience what it's like. This song is about feigning empathy, and our protagonist does that here. Let me ask you, what do you think happens in this story after the song ends? My guess is that our protagonist and the girl get it on - she wants to know what common people are like, and he's glad to exploit his "knowledge" of them to make himself seem like an authority. And it gets him in her pants, which is why he goes on this rant in the first place.
He doesn't (didn't) attend St. Martin's College, he was just on the campus (probably to meet girls). You can tell by 2 things. His response to her dad being loaded, and when he quotes her as saying 'common people like you.'
He doesn't (didn't) attend St. Martin's College, he was just on the campus (probably to meet girls). You can tell by 2 things. His response to her dad being loaded, and when he quotes her as saying 'common people like you.'
@Sparrowned While you are right that being poor doesn't mean you are stupid, unfortunately that's how the upper class are brought up to believe. They believe that by going to a top school and being educated they are better than others, That is the perspective this song is written from. One of those people see's things in the working class that they don't have, things money can't buy. And that's the point of the song, there are some things money can't buy, and you can't fake it either. Only when you are living it for real can you have it.
@Sparrowned While you are right that being poor doesn't mean you are stupid, unfortunately that's how the upper class are brought up to believe. They believe that by going to a top school and being educated they are better than others, That is the perspective this song is written from. One of those people see's things in the working class that they don't have, things money can't buy. And that's the point of the song, there are some things money can't buy, and you can't fake it either. Only when you are living it for real can you have it.
@Sparrowned Jarvis himself said in an interview I watched about this song that the only bit which wasn't true was the part where the girl said she wanted to sleep with him. So I'm sorry but you're wrong with your assertion that they eventually get it on. Unless Jarvis was fibbing of course, but I doubt that was the case.
@Sparrowned Jarvis himself said in an interview I watched about this song that the only bit which wasn't true was the part where the girl said she wanted to sleep with him. So I'm sorry but you're wrong with your assertion that they eventually get it on. Unless Jarvis was fibbing of course, but I doubt that was the case.
I think its interesting that though Jarvis Cocker was probably one of the biggest sex symbols of his time, he was still able to capture the feelings of basically every ordinary asshole in the world who gets drunk, tries to get laid, and sometimes, feels his life slipping away.
Musically the song just sort of blows me away. It builds right from the beginning and supercharges itself until it explodes like some massive-bombastic-90's-disco-fuck-everything-let's-party bomb. Not many pop songs have that almost orchestral power!! As others have said, it sums up a generation, or at least captures that really elusive feeling that was floating around in the air at the time.
@summertimeslacker +1 for "massive-bombastic-90's-disco-fuck-everything-let's-party "
@summertimeslacker +1 for "massive-bombastic-90's-disco-fuck-everything-let's-party "
I really like the Will Shatner cover, it's funny. And kinda rocky.
I love that big sniff he does in the last verse or so.
lmao, I always do it when I'm singing along like the loser I am.
lmao, I always do it when I'm singing along like the loser I am.
"Especially one who thinks it's all such a laugh SNIFF yeah..."
"Especially one who thinks it's all such a laugh SNIFF yeah..."
I think I prefer the video, cut, version of this song...the "dog lying in the corner" bit's a little odd, I think.
frozen in fire, I disagree - the full length version is better.
Voted best song of the nineties by radio one, and who could complain about that? I'm not a massive pulp fan but this defined the decade for me.