These Freaks We’re Talking About: Pulp
Published on November 29th, 2009 in: Culture Shock, Issues, Music, OMG British R Coming |By Less Lee Moore
While many music fans were taking sides in the media-fabricated battle of the bands between Blur and Oasis in the early ’90s, there was one band who would eventually turn that war into a stalemate: Pulp.
I was a proud member of the Blur camp; then I heard Pulp’s Different Class album. Never had I fallen so hard, so fast, or so deeply for a band. . . before or since. At first it was the way Jarvis Cocker sang about sex; brazen and explicit, but decidedly non-pornographic. Everything seemed real, no matter how awkward or embarrassing. Nothing felt staged or augmented for effect.
When I found my way out of that early, post-coital swoon, I bought everything I could find in quick succession and realized there was much more to this band than Different Class. Pulp is not just the band who wrote “Common People.” Many of the older albums, particularly Freaks and Separations, have a stark, morbid quality, an obsession with death and dying that makes Goth bands look well adjusted, but laced with deadly barbs of black and self-deprecating wit.
Pulp was the first (and only) band whose lyrical, visual, and sonic aesthetic truly spoke to my soul. It wasn’t that I hadn’t appreciated lyrics before (The Beatles, The Smiths, Redd Kross), but listening to Pulp was like reading a diary I had written and then forgotten about. Jarvis Cocker’s confessional, conversational style is rich with those tiny details about being neurotic that only someone who is truly neurotic could write (and appreciate).
What was most unexpected is that a band so wholeheartedly British could make such perfect sense to someone who’d never visited the UK. Pulp is completely lacking a stiff upper lip, yet does not wallow in the embarrassing bleating of someone like James Blunt. They avoided this rampant Englishness or tried to Americanize their aesthetic, even making their hometown of Sheffield the focal point of many of their songs.
While Cocker has never shied away from frank discussions of sex, he is perhaps more gleeful when exposing the all-too-real class conflict in the UK, one that also exists in the US, but is hardly a secret to those who’ve suffered the slurs and arrows of outrageous misfortune. There were no political diatribes, no self-righteous, “save the world” posturing; In fact Pulp excelled at quite the opposite: detailing the minutiae of everyday life and miraculously transforming it into something larger and ultimately more profound.
This “kitchen sink realism” is decidedly British, developing there in the ’50s and ’60s and featuring the rants of the “angry young man.” But what makes Pulp so unique is how many of their songs were about or told from the point of view of a woman. This quasi-feminism was incredibly appealing and profound and I even recognized myself in many of Cocker’s hapless heroines.
No matter how great the lyrics, a band is nothing without good music, and good music was provided by the unique contributions of the other members of the band: Candida Doyle, Steve Mackey, Nick Banks, Russell Senior, and later, Mark Webber. The Pulp sound encompasses dance (“This House Is Condemned”), disco (“She’s A Lady”), pop (“Babies”), post-punk (“The Never Ending Story”) industrial (“Tunnel”), hip hop (“The Professional”), and even a bizarre form of program music (“Being Followed Home,” “David’s Last Summer”). As a child of ’80s alternative college radio, Pulp was both familiar and strange enough to engross me completely (and I remain as such to this day).
Uncomfortably straddling the line between the miscreant and the mob, Pulp’s massive success eventually led to a breakdown of sorts (in the form of Jarvis Cocker’s personal life and their This Is Hardcore album) and possibly their eventual breakup (referred to as an “extended hiatus” by the band members). Jarvis Cocker has made various films and continues to make music, however, both with Relaxed Muscle as well as two solo albums, featuring several former members of the band, most notably bassist Steve Mackey.
All of these projects indicate that no matter the form, the members of Pulp are a long way from retiring, and for that, and all they’ve given me already, this fan is entirely grateful.
For more on Pulp, please visit the Official Pulp Website, managed by Team Pulp People (fanclub) in conjunction with the band or the PulpWiki page.
RELATED LINKS:
Jarvis Cocker, Further Complications, Popshifter July/August 2009 issue
4 Responses to “These Freaks We’re Talking About: Pulp”
November 30th, 2009 at 7:43 pm
I did’nt know Pulp’s website is still up. That web design looks like it was created pre-trollers internet era (you know those times when all weblogs were hosted by pre-Yahoo Geocities) and was updated the last time Jarvis Cocker took a shower.
I never got into Pulp at the height of their fame simply because, you said it, they were too British. The part talkie, similar to Velvet Underground style of music was too much for me, really. Plus I don’t really dig bands that have a violinist and a lady keyboardist (yes, I’m a pig). I’m on team Oasis, btw. The presence of Pulp was the reason why we were made to feel inferior.
Pulp were never a safe band to begin with. They were either too cerebral or too meh. Like you said, they never compromised. But when they hit the spot, they were just ZOMFG Awesome. Who would’ve thought that the rinky dinky, church organ sounding Common People would be one of the greatest pop songs created in the 90’s (or all time).
Pulp didn’t get that long-standing success their other Britpop rivals enjoyed but many of their works had a lasting impact. Interestingly, when Jarvis came to our NY studio for an interview/photoshoot last summer, the staff members, most of whom were still a zygote during the height of Britpop, were all gushing like school girls. He did that to the ladies even with his creepy professor look and scant, disheveled hair.
Perhaps their lusty yet truthful lyrics had that kind of effect towards a generation that never saw them at their peak.
November 30th, 2009 at 8:59 pm
I never thought Pulp were “too British;” I was just shocked that such an overtly British band’s lyrics could make so much sense to me.
But I agree about their longevity, most definitely!
As for the official site, it was meant more of as a companion piece to the Pulp People newsletters (which were excellent) and I think that there were some issues with the original URL (like the domain name expired) and so the latest version of the site was done in a rush.
One thing I would like to see on the site are updated scans of the old Disco-Very compendium of xeroxed articles on the band, most of which were pre-Different Class, I believe.
Thanks for reading and commenting!
LLM
December 5th, 2009 at 3:13 pm
In the Blur v. Oasis thing — I’m solidly Blur. (Oasis never did much for me — too derivative and complete assholes to boot. Fuck ’em.) But Pulp are better than both, I’d say.
I love Jarvis’ solo records, too. If I’m feeling bitchy, I would say they’re like if Elvis Costello started making good records again. (Except that I quite like _Secret, Profane and Sugarcane_ and the one he did with Alan Toussaint. So that’s not entirely true. But I did think _North_ was a POS. But maybe if the Elvis from the ’70s/early-80s came back.)
Still, both Jarvis records are awesome. That’s my point.
December 6th, 2009 at 10:12 am
That’s very interesting that you think of Jarvis as Costello-ish. I never really thought of it that way, as to me, his lyrics are way more specific and direct than Costello’s. Even the early Costello stuff (which, like you, I vastly prefer) is a bit too obtuse and clever-clever sometimes.
Jarvis solo, IMO, is much more like John Lennon solo. Obviously, Pulp were never as famous as the Beatles and Jarvis didn’t have the whole animosity towards another band member thing, but the ideas of working class heroics and being against “The Man” are all very present in Jarvis’s lyrical content.
LLM
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