The greatest Pulp song is actually _____

[non capisco]

It's Babies for me by a whisker with Razzamatazz a close second. And as overplayed as it got Common People has to be saluted for being an incredibly catchy and popular top 5 smasheroo with such a thrilling amount of venomous, justified disgust at class privilege billowing out of it. There aren't many of them. "You'll never get it right/Cause when you're laying in bed at night/Watching roaches climb the wall/If you called your dad he could stop it all". Every time I hear that song I want to applaud Jarvis all over again for writing that perfect lyric. I also love how he starts with almost a parody of his arch persona ("I had to start it somewhere/So it started....there") and as the song builds so does his acidity until he's practically vomiting out his abhorrence at Britain's stacked odds and the stupidity and arrogance of the song's subject by the climax. The withering bitter sarcasm of "Sing along with the common people". The closing "youuuuuu, na na na na" refrain that's built to sound celebratory but is more of a nauseated howl to the heavens if you've been listening closely for the previous six minutes. It's a fucking great pop record and the sound of someone writing at the peak of their confidence.

NEW PAGE POGO ON THAT, YER TWAT!

[chveik]

it's actually the Chris Morris parody

[Inspector Norse]

It's Babies for me by a whisker with Razzamatazz a close second. And as overplayed as it got Common People has to be saluted for being an incredibly catchy and popular top 5 smasheroo with such a thrilling amount of venomous, justified disgust at class privilege billowing out of it. There aren't many of them. "You'll never get it right/Cause when you're laying in bed at night/Watching roaches climb the wall/If you called your dad he could stop it all". Every time I hear that song I want to applaud Jarvis all over again for writing that perfect lyric. I also love how he starts with almost a parody of his arch persona ("I had to start it somewhere/So it started....there") and as the song builds so does his acidity until he's practically vomiting out his abhorrence at Britain's stacked odds and the stupidity and arrogance of the song's subject by the climax. The withering bitter sarcasm of "Sing along with the common people". The closing "youuuuuu, na na na na" refrain that's built to sound celebratory but is more of a nauseated howl to the heavens if you've been listening closely for the previous six minutes. It's a fucking great pop record and the sound of someone writing at the peak of their confidence.

NEW PAGE POGO ON THAT, YER TWAT!

One of the things that makes Jarvis such a great lyricist is that for all the sarcasm and wit, for all the slumming detail and cute references, he knows when to be direct and blunt; he doesn't try to be clever-clever, to dress things up using his thesaurus or rhyming dictionary, just builds the songworld and then drives his point home:

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...

You will never understand
How it feels to live your life
With no meaning or control
And with nowhere left to go

[shiftwork2]

It's Lipgloss of course.  Don't be a prawn all your life.

[up_the_hampipe]

The lyrics to this are wonderful.

Grass is something you smoke, birds are something you shag
Take your "Year in Provence" and shove it up your assssss

[Jockice]

I'm also rather fond of Catcliffe Shakedown and The Professional, neither of which I wager will be on many other lists of favourites.

Their worst, meanwhile is TV Movie. And NOT Silence.

[Gregory Torso]

It's got to be Lipgloss. One of the first singles I ever bought. That era of the band was brilliant, as extemporised by non capisco above, Common People blew me away when J Peel first played it, so good. Babies and Razzmatazz, the finest, and that's it for me, Evan, I'm out.  Charity shops are charging twelve quid for corduroy jackets, Robbie Williams's thug face looks down on us and commands us to party and shiny-shirt-wearing pitiless stare cases are punching me unconscious whilst singing "A Design For Life" as their girlfriends look away.

[object-lesson]

One of the things that makes Jarvis such a great lyricist is that for all the sarcasm and wit, for all the slumming detail and cute references, he knows when to be direct and blunt; he doesn't try to be clever-clever, to dress things up using his thesaurus or rhyming dictionary, just builds the songworld and then drives his point home:

I'm going to have to paste the lyrics to The Fear here, because I think it's the ultimate example of what you describe, and the cleverest and also most brutally direct portrait of desolation in any pop song I've ever heard, as well as a reflexive commentary on the role of doomer pop music. Ridiculously under-recognised.

This is our "Music from A Bachelor's Den"
The sound of loneliness turned up to ten
A horror soundtrack from a stagnant waterbed
And it sounds just like this

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
And the chorus goes like this

Oh, baby
Here comes the fear again, oh-oh
The end is near again, oh-oh
A monkey's built a house on your back
You can't get anyone to come in the sack
And here comes another panic attack, oh
Here we go again

So now you know the words to our song
Pretty soon you'll all be singing along
When you're sad, when you're lonely
And it all turns out wrong
When you've got the fear

And when you're no longer searching
For beauty or love
Just some kind of life
With the edges taken off
When you can't even define what it is that you're frightened of
This song will be here

Oh, baby
Here comes the fear gain, oh-oh
The end is near again, oh-oh
If you ever get that chimp off your back
If you ever find the thing that you lack
But you know you're only having a laugh, oh
And here we go again
Until the end

Until the end

Ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh, ooh-ooh
Ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh, ooh-ooh

[Gregory Torso]

I really like Nick Cave's cover of Disco 2000.

[Brundle-Fly]

Honestly, I think My Legendary Girlfriend is my favourite song of theirs. It was the first record by them that I managed to buy and it sounded so original, so unlike anything else in my record collection. I don't think it would sound quite as thrilling to my ears 30 odd years later - I played Separations a while back and it sounded quite lame - but back then it was fucking ace.

I'm with you there 100%. I haven't listened to Separations in years so by your judgement I might leave it a few more as that album was a lifesaver to me when I was delivering free newspapers in Camden Town back in the early '90s.

[Johnny Textface]

Ladies Man

Perfect little pop song and it sounds like the future.

Some of the b-sides around 'This is Hardcore' should have been on the album. Trying to do a Suede on us.

[Absorb the anus burn]

Now that's what I call Lipgloss.

[turnstyle]

I have a soft spot for Ansafone, a b-side from the Different Class era, and You're a Nightmare, which I think only appeared on a Peel session. Their best album track is Dishes and best single is either Babies or Lipgloss

Yeah, Ansaphone was a favourite of mine back in the day. He's recorded some of the song like it's on an answerphone! GENIUS!

Speaking of b-sides, I also really enjoyed PTA at the time, although it now occupies that weird space in popular music of songs about older guys diddling young girls, which means you can't really listen to it without sounding like a mega-nonce. They especially don't like you singing it quietly to yourself while browsing in the Early Learning Centre.

[turnstyle]

I done a whoopsie and posted twice.

Erm...tell you what, that Common People song is good innit?

[Jockice]

Ladies Man

Some of the b-sides around 'This is Hardcore' should have been on the album. Trying to do a Suede on us.

I love some of the tracks on the re-release that didn't even make it onto b-sides. The aforementioned (by me) Cocaine Socialism, Modern Marriage, Street Operator (which mentions The Grove, a pub I used to drink in while visiting mates in London in the early 90s. Jarvis lived nearby at the time although I never saw him in there) and You Are The One (a catchphrase of a mutual friend in Sheffield you know) are all better than the worst tracks on TIH. And as for My Erection and Can I Have My Balls Back Please? Well, it's always fun listening to someone having a nervous breakdown....

[dr_christian_troy]

Seductive Barry (with Neneh Cherry on featured vocals). Pure sex.

"I will light your cigarette with a star that has fallen from the sky
Breathe in, breathe out
I love the way you move
Don't let anyone tell you any different tonight
You are beauty, you are class
You showed it all, but you still kept a little piece back just for me"

[Scammin]

I nominate The Dogs Are Everywhere.

[dr_christian_troy]

Jarvis is covering for Iggy Pop now on 6 Radio.

[biggytitbo]

I'm going to have to paste the lyrics to The Fear here, because I think it's the ultimate example of what you describe, and the cleverest and also most brutally direct portrait of desolation in any pop song I've ever heard, as well as a reflexive commentary on the role of doomer pop music. Ridiculously under-recognised.

This is our "Music from A Bachelor's Den"
The sound of loneliness turned up to ten
A horror soundtrack from a stagnant waterbed
And it sounds just like this

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
And the chorus goes like this

Oh, baby
Here comes the fear again, oh-oh
The end is near again, oh-oh
A monkey's built a house on your back
You can't get anyone to come in the sack
And here comes another panic attack, oh
Here we go again

So now you know the words to our song
Pretty soon you'll all be singing along
When you're sad, when you're lonely
And it all turns out wrong
When you've got the fear

And when you're no longer searching
For beauty or love
Just some kind of life
With the edges taken off
When you can't even define what it is that you're frightened of
This song will be here

Oh, baby
Here comes the fear gain, oh-oh
The end is near again, oh-oh
If you ever get that chimp off your back
If you ever find the thing that you lack
But you know you're only having a laugh, oh
And here we go again
Until the end

Until the end

Ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh, ooh-ooh
Ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh, ooh-ooh

This one for me too. The only bit about it that slightly lets it down is the meta thing of describing the singing of the song in the song, which i hate whenever anyone does it.


Help the Aged a close second.

[Ferris]

I really like Nick Cave's cover of Disco 2000.

Looked it up on the basis of this post, he Nick Caves all over it doesn't he? Couldn't be more Nick Cave than he is crooning his way through with the tremolo guitars and the sad, sad de-liver-y...

I love Nick Cave though, so that's fucking great for me.

[kalowski]

It is probably Babies, but I fucking loved Mis-shapes.

[Pearly-Dewdrops Drops]

"Pink Glove"

Actually, the greatest Pulp song is "Seconds"

[Jockice]

Their best video is Bad Cover version. Surely we can all be agreed on that, eh?

[DrGreggles]

Their best video is Bad Cover version. Surely we can all be agreed on that, eh?

Of course it is.
Might be my favourite video ever.

[kalowski]

Their best video is Bad Cover version. Surely we can all be agreed on that, eh?

Frick me, why have I never seen this until now?
Brilliant.

[Jockice]

Frick me, why have I never seen this until now?
Brilliant.

The first time I ever saw it - on some Saturday morning kids' show - I almost choked to death on a digestive biscuit due to laughing when Kurt Cobain appeared. Which would have been quite ironic. But there are so many great bits in it I can watch it over and over again. Keef pointing at Tom Jones! Jay Kay! Electronically processed Cher! The crap Jarvis! Gary Numan!

[billyandthecloneasaurus]

Yes Razzmatazz, but The Fear is a very close second, and should be credited as possibly the most frightening and brilliantly depressing song ever written. Chilled my bones when I saw this performance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gVYqGIa-5U

prefer this version of The Fear

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIjaKAAew-A

[HAVANAGILA]

This Is Hardcore. Still waiting for the right time to perform it at karaoke, together with "microphone going flaccid" movement for the outro.

[kalowski]

The first time I ever saw it - on some Saturday morning kids' show - I almost choked to death on a digestive biscuit due to laughing when Kurt Cobain appeared. Which would have been quite ironic. But there are so many great bits in it I can watch it over and over again. Keef pointing at Tom Jones! Jay Kay! Electronically processed Cher! The crap Jarvis! Gary Numan!

I just watched it again. Bloody Meatloaf is fantastic...

[object-lesson]

prefer this version of The Fear

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIjaKAAew-A

I beg to differ! That version, fun though it is in its own way, entirely lacks the tension and resolve of the final realisation of the song, and its cut and paste collage technique completely lacks its disquieting effect, settling for cheap shock value instead.

Also that's a fake! It's a made-up song and Jarvis should sue for misrepresentation or whatever it is.

I dissent from biggytitbo on the meta aspect of The Fear because it speaks to me more about the way I've listened to melancholic pop music, and doesn't seem clever clever ironic as irritating post-modernist pop art does. It adds to its disturbing aspect.