There are very few 'pop' songs written about revenge and laced with spite and menace but in 1995, from their No.1 album, A Different Class, Pulp did exactly that with their track, 'I Spy'.
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The Britpop era kind passed me by. I could never really get into the whole 'Cool Britannia' crap and the battles between Oasis and Blur. For me, they were just so generic and nothing radically new. Pulp were a little different, their Jarvis Cocker lyrics more northern poetry than song lyric, but apart from the famous 'Common People' and 'Disco 2000' which were OK, the rest of the album hardly set me on fire. This particular track when I first heard it stood out, but not in any momentous way, but then I saw it performed, live on Jools Hollands excellent 'Later with Jools Holland' with a full orchestral backing.
Then I sat up and took notice!!
Jarvis Cocker is mesmerising. Part frontman, part actor, his half sung, half spoken delivery is sublime and every word is delivered with intent and menace. The strings add an extra level of horror film evil and the pounding drums and dramatic changes in tempo create a classic performance.
Unlike most of my great performance series, I have no specific memories or emotional attachments to this track, it's purely an awesome performance of an awesome song.
I saw Pulp perform a couple of years back at Leeds festival, and even with the added bonus of Richard Hawley on guitar, their live stage performance although good, just couldn't reach the heights of perfection of this 'Later' performance.
As an extra treat, I'm dropping the lyrics in this post too so you can see what an amazing piece of pop poetry it is. Perhaps it's that same Sheffield grittiness from Pulp that influenced another amazing band 10 years later. There will most definitely be a Artic Monkeys track later in this series.
I spy a boy
I spy a girl
I spy the worst place
In the world
In the whole wide world
Oh, you didn't do bad
You made it out
I'm still stuck here
Oh, but I'll get out
Oh, yeah, I'll get out
Can't you see the giant that walks around you seeing through your petty lives?
Do you think I do these things for real, I do these things just so I survive
And you know I will survive
It may look to the untrained eye
I'm sitting on my arse all day
I'm biding time until I take you all on
My Lords and Ladies, I will prevail
I cannot fail 'cause I spy
Oh I've got your numbers, taken notes
I know the ways your minds work, I've studied
And your minds are just the same as mine
Except that you are clever swines
You never let mask slip, you never admit to it, you're never hurried
Oh, no, no, no
And every night I hone my plan
How I will get my satisfaction
How I will blow your paradise away away, away
'Cause I spy
And it's just like in the old days
I used to compose my own critical notices in my head
"The crowd gasp at Cocker's masterful control of the bicycle
Skilfully avoiding the dog turd next to the corner shop"
Imagining a blue plaque
Above the place I first ever touched a girl's chest
But hold on
You've got to wait for the best
You see, you should take me seriously
Very seriously indeed.
Cause I've been sleeping with your wife for the past sixteen weeks
Smoking your cigarettes
Drinking your brandy
Messing up the bed that you chose together
And in all that time I just wanted you to come home unexpectedly one afternoon
And catch us at it in the front room
You see I spy for a living
And I specialize in revenge
On taking the things I know will cause you pain
I can't help it
I was dragged up
My favorite parks are car parks
Grass is something you smoke
Birds are something you shag
Take your "Year in Provence" and shove it up your ass
Your Ladbroke Grove looks turn me on, yeah
With roach burns in designer dresses
Skin stretched tight over high cheek-bones
And thousands of tiny dryness lines beating a path to the corners of your eyes
And every night I hatch my plan, It's not a case of woman v man
It's more a case of haves against haven'ts
And I just happen to have got what you need
Just exactly what you need, yeah
La-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la
In the midnight hour.
La-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la
I will come to you
I will come to you
I will take you from this sickness
Dinner parties and champagne
I'll hold your body and make it sing again
Come on sing again, Let's sing again, oh yeah, 'cause I spy
Yes, I spy
I spy a boy
And I spy a girl
I spy the chance
To change the world
To change your world
Songwriters: Candida Doyle / Jarvis Branson Cocker / Mark Andrew Webber / Nick Banks / Russell Senior / Stephen Patrick Mackey
I Spy lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Pulp - I Spy as performed on Later with Jools Holland 1995
I know music is very personal, but I just wanted to share things that 'do it' for me, and some of which you might never have heard or seen before, so thank-you for indulging me, and please, share some of your own in the comments!
Thanks for dropping by. Your Upvotes and Resteems are gratefully received but your comments and engagement are truly appreciated. Let's keep up the debate. Thank you
Life's not about the hustle. It's all about the humanity
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