POLLy Jean Harvey - The PJ Harvey results thread

Were we meant to specify between the demo and the b-side?

ROBERT DE NIRO SIT ON MY FACE

This is the best. Well not the actual best, I only had it no.11 - but woo, what an impact

Were we meant to specify between the demo and the b-side?

No - all versions get counted together, I was just asked upthread to put the album name after the track (if possible).

voted for "Reeling." Love that feedback screech.

In that case...

37. Reeling (4-Track Demos / 50ft Queenie b-side) - 132 points, 6 votes

http://www.whatalesyou.co.uk/ugc/beer/Stella%20Artois/Stella/st-patricks-beer-stella-artois-ss.jpg

36. O Stella (Dry) - 132 points, 8 votes
Live at Glastonbury 1992

(or possibly Reading)

let england shake may drop off toward the end, but "written on the forehead" is amazing. one of the last tracks i cut; wish i'd found a way to keep it.

and yeah, "reeling" has always been one of my favorites. as with "easy", i can't imagine why it didn't make the rid of me cut.

Reeling was high up on my ballot - I prefer the band version to the demo - but I wouldn't put it on Rid Of Me if only because the de Niro reference is too real-world (if bizarre) and might puncture the mythical atmosphere.

Holy fuck, I've just found the best PJ Harvey youtube item - the 1993 documentary "Reeling with PJ Harvey". I didn't even know this existed. Loads of behind the scene footage, interviews and live stuff. Here's part 1 - if the other parts don't follow on automatically click through to the uploader's account to get the rest. Amazing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyInQwNfIsA

Ha, that looks great

I enjoyed that, but there's almost nothing there about her art or what she thinks. Even the group dynamic is barely touched on. I don't feel like she's any more knowable. I prefer it like that tbh, but I'm not sure a filmmaker should count that as a success.

When you see her as her offstage self, there's a kind of Clark Kent effect. There are certain facial similarities, but there's no way I would ever suspect that it's the same person as the one onstage in sunglasses and feather boa yelling about sex etc.

I don't feel like she's any more knowable. I prefer it like that tbh, but I'm not sure a filmmaker should count that as a success.

audience victory and subject victory though right? i haven't watched it because i'm afraid of being disappointed. should i?

I can't imagine being disappointed, there are good live performances, lots of Polly, and Steve Albini doing something utterly ridiculous. Maybe if you're into pure cinematography, the aesthetic values are fairly low.

Polly herself seems like a very nice individual entirely focused on doing her job as best she can, which is a thing I am very happy to see.

If you're into her because she's the female Pete Doherty, then it would disappoint you.

yeah i would be disappointed in a lack of professionalism, or insisting that every room she's in be the peej show. if she doesn't do that, and is otherwise dignified, i would totally enjoy it. albini was funny in "you weren't there"

xp omg pls

she comes across as a generally nice, funny and grounded person, and the main hint of a connection between offstage polly and on-stage/record pj is an amount of obvious self-possession and confidence

an amount of obvious self-possession and confidence
now we're talkin

If you wanna skip to the P Doherty moment, here it is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QD5E6TZ9wgk&t=2m35s

Sorry, from 2:35 in that clip is the moment to look for.

No need to see Cocksucker Blues after that

http://www.verdensteatret.no/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/piano-2.jpg

35. The Piano (White Chalk) - 137 points, 7 votes

That's just a taster, much more coming up a bit later...

I sneaked that one in the bottom of my list, I like it. White Chalk is full of good stuff, isn't it?

Yay! I was worried that wouldn't make it!

really pleased that the devil and the piano made it

man I can't believe I never really sat down with White Chalk before now

yeah, it's p great

white chalk is so creepy and weird, it rules

Coming up - the first track so far to get a number one vote...

never seen that docu before! had no idea it existed. me and my sister were right down the front and very drunk for the gig she's talking about in Manchester right at the start. 20 years ago.. holy shit.

34. This Is Love (Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea) - 140 points, 2 first places, 6 votes

well.

Two first places?!?

Nowhere near my ballot

Hi!

Explain yourself

Life is complex. Sex is complex. Which is why the track sounds ominous as fuck.

"this is love" is one of the few genuinely incredible songs on stories

(can't remember whether it was incredible enough to make my ballot)

I wouldn't vote for it today but in the early 2000s it was the track I'd burn on CD-Rs for PJ skeptics.

9th best song on Stories, imo

http://www.billythefish.com/mediac/400_0/media/Uncle~Peter.jpg

Back to the documentary a minute. I don't get how this thing exists but even heads don't know about it. Any indie band from that era that did anything - an art gig, bit-part in a sitcom, even just a trip to America - had it hyped to fuck in the music press.

Was there an entirely separate scene somewhere that she was a part of? I'm having trouble placing where she came from and who her audience was. They're flicking through Q at one point, but I don't think it's that.

33. In The Dark Places (Let England Shake) - 158 points, 8 votes

^^^ a marvel

re: "this is love"

it's a damn good song. didn't vote for it, but see no crime. live, it kind of sounds like "chinese rocks".

OK, This Is Love is better and rawer (esp in the context of Stories) than I remembered it. I'm just surprised it's anyone's favourite.

I wonder how many more Let England Shake tracks will place. Maybe just Words and the title track, though I voted for Hanging in the Wire as well.