The Friday Canon: PULP

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

No, I can't believe we haven't done them yet either. With just 12 UK Top 40 hits, you get FOUR ticks below. However because I'm feeling generous, for one! canon! only! you are allowed an EXTRA text-box vote for a song that's missing - if a song gets enough votes it will be included in the canon proper.

[Poll #1070087]
Duran Duran: (link)
1. Rio
2. Hungry Like The Wolf
=3. Girls On Film
=3. The Reflex
5. Save A Prayer
6. Wild Boys
7. Planet Earth
=8. A View To A Kill
=8. Is There Something I Should Know
=8. Ordinary World

Carter USM/Wonder Stuff/Pop Will Eat Itself: (link)
1. Carter USM - The Only Living Boy In New Cross
2. Carter USM - Sheriff Fatman
3. Pop Will Eat Itself - Can U Dig It
4. Carter USM - After The Watershed
5. Pop Will Eat Itself - Ich Bin Ein Auslander
6. Pop Will Eat Itself - Get The Girl! Kill The Baddies!
7. Wonder Stuff - The Size Of A Cow
=8. Wonder Stuff [w/ Vic Reeves] - Dizzy
=8. Carter USM - Rubbish
=8. Wonder Stuff - Don't Let Me Down Gently

Comments

OH CONTRARIANPAWS

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Arf Arf 5 voters, 0 for Common People.

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

ok byebyepride / freakytigger mindmeld a bit spooky here.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

It was you who introduced me to Pulp - I really dismissed them and then you played me Razzmatazz insistently and I had to admit it was awesome.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Jarvis still gets points from me for the whole Jacko-Brits saga. Hahahahaha. But botherd about his music, rly. This Is Hardcore was a proper spooky mournful dirge though - that's my favourite single I think.

Y O Y O Y

[the-roofdog.livejournal.com]

did they release Something Changed as a single?

Re: Y O Y O Y

[friend-of-tofu.livejournal.com]

I still own it, somewhere, I'm fairly sure.

Re: Y O Y O Y

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I like the last bit of Something Changed - 'would I be singing this song to someone else instead' - one of the few lyrics of Jarv's that actually resonated with me.

Re: Y O Y O Y

[cis.livejournal.com]

something changed is my favourite song by them! Though I'll readily admit that some of that is probably because of WB Swygart's amazing passage about it on stylus (http://www.stylusmagazine.com/articles/weekly_article/william-b-swygarts-top-10-10-singles-of-the-past-ten-years.htm).

Re: Y O Y O Y

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

i think it was a double a with f.e.e.l.i.n.g.c.a.l.l.e.d.l.o.v.e

Pulp 91-94

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

...were really really good & I was still very excited by them in 95 though I wish I hadn't re-bought Different Class. It's good but it doesn't have the character of His N Hers or Separations or the singles around that time - also I thought it was MAZIN at the time and I'm a bit sad I still don't. ("I Spy" is terrific though).

Anyway the great thing about them was that they had SUCH a strong identity - everything about them was so.... Pulp-ish and fit together so well, more so than any of the other big 90s bands. They'd managed to zero in on one particular mood (of sweaty-palmed guilt basically) and explored it minutely. I guess they couldn't have sustained that intensity though - even by "Do You Remember" it was heading down self-parody avenue.

Re: Pulp 91-94

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I've never heard the pre-'Common People' incarnation of Pulp but my favourite Pulp song is from...I think '98? 'Like A Friend', off the Great Expectations soundtrack. It explodes into this really awesome melody, and I never get the sense that Jarvis is trying to Make A Point which can make the bigger hits a bit overbearing.

[celentari.livejournal.com]

Balls, I ticked 5 by mistake - lose Something Changed.

[martinv.livejournal.com]

Haha, in which case you have the same four as me. Though, to my mind, they are the correct and obvious four. Of course.

If you called your dad he could stop it all

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

We were talking about Common People on my own LJ yesterday (flocked out of habit - I can take the lock off I think). There's some interesting stuff there from koganbot and others.

Anyway it just occurred to me that Cocker's logic in this line was also my logic when I was an angry young schoolboy getting annoyed at compulsory Christianity: Jesus was a phoney who cd never live like common people.

Re: If you called your dad he could stop it all

[koganbot]

"there's some interesting but ignorant stuff from koganbot"

I wonder if it's possible for someone like me to really in my gut comprehend the lived experience of being a Pulp fan.

[bengraham.livejournal.com]

Myself, Lex and katstevens are the only voters not to have ticked either 'Common People' or 'Do You Remember The First Time?'

Conclusion: We have better taste in Pulp songs than the rest of you.

My votes were for
Mis-Shapes / Sorted For E's & Wizz (which I still have at home, and which came with an inner sleeve to cut out your own Barbie-esque Pulp costumes.
This Is Hardcore - dark, deeply disturbing, totally brilliant
Help The Aged - I just loved the way this song built up
A Little Soul - just lovely lyrics, great tune

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

A Little Soul wd have been my 5th pick - love the handclaps!

I don't think I can remember such a huge sense of disappointment (among contemporaries) when "Help The Aged"...I want to say 'leaked' but things didn't leak then. When they heard Help The Aged. I don't think it's a bad record but it's not one of their classics.

My Four, and why

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Do You Remember The First Time - this was sort of marginal, it just reminds me of being into them at University and everyone being 20 and vibing off the same stuff :(

Sisters EP - last hurrah for the old claustrophobic voyeur Pulp, and has the amazing "I only went with her cos she looks like you MAHGOD" bit.

This Is Hardcore - old claustrophobic voyeur Pulp rises from grave as horrifying cokehead zombie. Extremely nasty.

Sunrise/The Trees - PROGTASTIC. Entirely for redemptive powers of "Sunrise".

If I was picking my favourite four Pulp singles, as opposed to top 40 hits, only TIH would make it - others wd be Razzmatazz, My Legendary GF, and either Countdown or Lipgloss.

[justfanoe.livejournal.com]

I only know 6 Pulp songs, which are the 4 I ticked above ("Common People", "Disco 2000", "This is Hardcore", "Babies") plus "Do You Remember the First Time" plus "Styloroc (Nights of Suburbia)". Is there any particular reason I should bother to check out one of their albums?

[bengraham.livejournal.com]

I reckon it's probably worth listening to 'Different Class' at some stage. After all, it'll probably be remembered in 20 years time as being one of the more defining albums of the 90s, the rise of Blair etc.

I prefer 'This Is Hardcore'. But that's because of the album's title track, which clearly you already know to be genius!

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

It's only really doing this poll and thread that's made me realise how Pulp were the defining band of me being at University. I'm in danger of being too poleaxed by nostalgia to say anything (or maybe in danger of making a million useless posts!)

[plumsbitch.livejournal.com]

Snap. Actually, Pulp were the defining band of being at University twice (the first person I spoke to on my MA sat down next to me coz she was a huge Pulp fan and I was reading an article about them) and the soundtrack to about 7 years of my life.

others wd be Razzmatazz, My Legendary GF, and either Countdown or Lipgloss.

This would pretty much be me too, although it might be Babies, or Seductive Barry, or The Fear. Basically, bits of the early stuff, His 'n Hers and This Is Hardcore are where it's at for me. Although I do think 'We Love Life' is very underrated.

Pulp = sex

[celentari.livejournal.com]

Pulp songs frequently work like sex musically (I'm sure I'm not the first person to point that out), whether that be a foreplay build into a long slow screw with multiple climaxes, a quick dirty shag up against the bike shed or a thwarted might have been. Lyrically, Jarv is terribly accurate on sex and relationships (IMHO) and particularly on acknowledging that both sordidness and everydayness are all part of the charm of fucking, where other lyricists try to make things either full-on dirty or ridiculously pure. JC gets under the skin of all kinds of misplaced passions and realises that just because something is rooted in voyeurism/promiscuity/infidelity/error doesn't mean it can't have an ecstasy all its own, which comes out well in his voice - that kind of patented "in this moment, this is amazing, but lurking in the background are the problems that surround it" moan/scream you hear on something like F.E.E.L.I.N.G C.A.L.L.E.D L.O.V.E, Do You Remember The First Time?, or Pink Glove. Or alternatively, there's that panting progression narrative you hear on a few songs which begins with a scenario with attendant boring real life concerns, but builds to a place of total abandonment. You know, like sex does.

Re: Pulp = sex

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

The great thing about them is that they're one of the few bands to write about sex who make equal sense when you're getting any and when you're not.

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

I'm really staggered that Lipgloss only got to #50, it remains the strongest "Now that I have heard this single once, I realise that this band will be very important to me*". I have to say though that I never rated This is Hardcore at all, it seemed too much of a retreat from pop.

* though I think it's fortunate that I didn't then seek out their back catalogue at that point - PulpIntro is great, but all the stuff before that is very "There's a reason they spent 12 years in the wilderness".

[greatesthit.livejournal.com]

Aargh I should've put Lipgloss as my write-in (instead of My Legendary Girlfriend). Love that song.

[umlauts.livejournal.com]

This was very hard, though made easier by the absence of "Razzmatazz" and "O.U.", not to mention the singles off Separations (my favourite album of all time, fwiw).

[awesomewells.livejournal.com]

I looked at this and my genuine, honest favourites were the three big indie disco singles plus This Is Hardcore. Pulp are one of those bands I've never really felt the need to delve deep into because their singles are pretty much ALWAYS the best.

FEELING CALLED LOVE is the exception here.

bah, can't believe i missed this on friday :(

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

also i can't believe that i've gone this long without h&h and the 3 eps in digital format (they are in the vinyl box).

oh well that's sunday afternoon sorted ;)