is there a difference between "hella catchy" and "grating" other than taste?
― da croupier, Friday, 3 September 2010 14:42 (thirteen years ago) link
Songs that are about "a specific individual" can still be taken up and used as a trope in a way that leaves that individual behind.
And I never said it was an attack on the middle classes, it's much more of an attack on the upper classes, and on class tourism itself. But, as the Lex pointed out, I really resent the way that many of the middle classes take it up as a kind of battle cry, completely ignoring the fact that the lyrics are an attack on privilege itself, rather than on "someone more privileged than me".
Yes, I'm also aware that my takeaway from the song is also dependent on its context within the album and other songs and their themes. Which is perhaps where the conflation comes from, but I'm not the only person who has made that conflation in either a positive or negative sense.
― cymose corymb (Karen D. Tregaskin), Friday, 3 September 2010 14:43 (thirteen years ago) link
"da funk" is many things, but for an instrumental single, i'm not sure if it's "memorable" in the sense that a pop instrumental is "memorable." (if you heard it once, on mtv, years ago, i'm not sure anyone can hold it against you for not being able to name the artist if you heard it again 10 years later.)
― strongohulkingtonsghost, Friday, 3 September 2010 14:43 (thirteen years ago) link
i mean it's no "sandstorm."
I voted for it, it is my precious. xp
― (¬_¬) (Nicole), Friday, 3 September 2010 14:44 (thirteen years ago) link
too many favourites to choose from, but i plumped for depeche mode.
― village idiot (dog latin), Friday, 3 September 2010 14:47 (thirteen years ago) link
btw "sandstorm" robbed in both this and 2000's poll
― strongohulkingtonsghost, Friday, 3 September 2010 14:48 (thirteen years ago) link
Common People is the only song where the William Shatner cover is better than the original; wtg p4k etc.
― rotting-month story (Drugs A. Money), Friday, 3 September 2010 14:49 (thirteen years ago) link
tbf if shatner any pulp song it'd be better than the original
― da croupier, Friday, 3 September 2010 14:52 (thirteen years ago) link
still need to make this happen somehow eight years later:
what would you like andrew wk to cover?
Not all messages are displayed: show all messages (100 of them)View Previous Page...
"common people"
― jess (dubplatestyle), Tuesday, October 29, 2002
― strongohulkingtonsghost, Friday, 3 September 2010 14:52 (thirteen years ago) link
oh wait forgot Joe Jackson taking the chorus, I'll take the Pulp version over that actually
I fuck w/ every song here except for Beck, Weezer, Neutral Milk Hotel, Pavement, Belle & Sebastian. Voted "Enjoy the Silence" -- was a toss-up between that and MBV based on the insane # of times I've listened to each.
― ilxor has truly been got at and become an ILXor (ilxor), Friday, 3 September 2010 14:53 (thirteen years ago) link
xp Yeah I'm also surprised about Sandstorm's absence. You'd think it fits in perfectly with p4k's pop reclamation efforts over the last decade.
― Davek (davek_00), Friday, 3 September 2010 14:53 (thirteen years ago) link
good point, where is "sandstorm" on this list!!!
― ciderpress, Friday, 3 September 2010 14:54 (thirteen years ago) link
was it 1999 or 2000?>
it was both.
― strongohulkingtonsghost, Friday, 3 September 2010 14:54 (thirteen years ago) link
originally released in 1999, went massive in 2000
― strongohulkingtonsghost, Friday, 3 September 2010 14:55 (thirteen years ago) link
I have to really rrrrreaaallly resist the urge to make a "I prefer the Fake Blood remix" joke every time anyone mentions Sandstorm.
― cymose corymb (Karen D. Tregaskin), Friday, 3 September 2010 14:55 (thirteen years ago) link
btw pretty sure i am the only "sandstorm" fan on staff tho
It's surely as rushy as Euphoria (Nino's Dream)..
― Davek (davek_00), Friday, 3 September 2010 14:55 (thirteen years ago) link
― strongohulkingtonsghost, Friday, 3 September 2010 14:55 (2 minutes ago) Permalink
certainly not
― the embrace of waka flocka is v pertinent (deej), Friday, 3 September 2010 14:59 (thirteen years ago) link
in college parties at the 'russian suite' would play it three times over the course of one night
― the embrace of waka flocka is v pertinent (deej), Friday, 3 September 2010 15:00 (thirteen years ago) link
haha i almost added "except maybe drake"
― strongohulkingtonsghost, Friday, 3 September 2010 15:00 (thirteen years ago) link
it's a poorly-written song because cocker doesn't actually manage to portray this character as unsympathetic enough - she doesn't come across as malicious or unpleasant, just naive, and his vitriol comes off as disproportionate. your sympathies end up with her, not him.― لوووووووووووووووووووول (lex pretend), Friday, 3 September 2010 14:40 (14 minutes ago) Bookmark
― لوووووووووووووووووووول (lex pretend), Friday, 3 September 2010 14:40 (14 minutes ago) Bookmark
I would disagree that this song is badly written, and I'm a bit surprised you hate Pulp, Lex, I would of thought there is enough "non-indie" stuff going on with them to make it potentially of interest.
The whole album that this single comes from is pretty vitriolic, in particular "I Spy", the album's centrepice, a tour-de-force of bitterness and class resentment.
― Neil S, Friday, 3 September 2010 15:00 (thirteen years ago) link
heady times
xpost. Sure, I guess so, but I'm still amazed that anyone could hear those lyrics and not clock that it's a song about class.
We, or at least I as a 13-year-old, knew it was a song about a rich person slumming it but the story didn't really MEAN anything. It was just a story, certainly not anything philosophical or political or even particularly meaningful. Having learned more about the British class system I get where Karen is coming from, but the song simply doesn't and can't resonate in the same way to people who haven't lived it firsthand.
― skip, Friday, 3 September 2010 15:01 (thirteen years ago) link
no "sandstorm"?! another lol/smh @ this list
― لوووووووووووووووووووول (lex pretend), Friday, 3 September 2010 15:01 (thirteen years ago) link
Lex in "disagreeing with Pitchfork list", more news at 10.
― Neil S, Friday, 3 September 2010 15:02 (thirteen years ago) link
How about something like Wannabe? Heheheh..not sure how big SG were in the states. They would surely place on an ILM pop-centric list.
― Davek (davek_00), Friday, 3 September 2010 15:02 (thirteen years ago) link
no "sandstorm"?! another lol/smh @ this list― لوووووووووووووووووووول (lex pretend),
― لوووووووووووووووووووول (lex pretend),
Who knew the lex was such a huge Cast fan ;)
― pfunkboy (Herman G. Neuname), Friday, 3 September 2010 15:03 (thirteen years ago) link
the video is obviously important but windowlicker still sounds like the apotheosis of afx's phase (95-01) of hyperactively programmed dsp fuckery (or w/e), w/ the catchy central motif, some parodic relation to late 90s futurist rnb and the amazingly distorted cadenza
it's a perfectly formed track! come to daddy is also great but more obviously a pisstake
― nakhchivan, Friday, 3 September 2010 15:04 (thirteen years ago) link
xpost. OTM. It's a vicious, vengeful, score-settling album and Common People has to be set against Mis-Shapes, in which unthinking working-class bullies are the villains. I don't think Jarvis is presenting himself as representative of his class, which is why I think Mis-Shapes is one of the weakest tracks because it says "we" instead of "I". Jarvis doesn't really convince as a spokesperson for anyone other than himself. If there's a major criticism to be levelled at the album, it's that sense of embittered, finger-pointing superiority, a la Dylan, but I find that bracing and fascinating rather than unpleasant (and there's enough compassion and ambiguity in tracks like Sorted and Underwear to counterbalance it).
― Haunted Clocks For Sale (Dorianlynskey), Friday, 3 September 2010 15:06 (thirteen years ago) link
it's the joke that needed to be made xxp
― great British wasteman = u (DJ Mencap), Friday, 3 September 2010 15:06 (thirteen years ago) link
man cant believe they left of sandstorm
― max, Friday, 3 September 2010 15:07 (thirteen years ago) link
xp to Dorian Well put. Whatever you think about Jarvis' current public persona, he was IMO an always-interesting lyricist, but not always likeable, which actually contributed to him being interesting.
― Neil S, Friday, 3 September 2010 15:08 (thirteen years ago) link
The problem is, really, that "Common People" made it very clear to me that *I* was not going to be allowed to be in the team of "we" described in "Mis-shapes". So that really made the whole album kind of fall down for me in a way that I really just could not ignore.
― cymose corymb (Karen D. Tregaskin), Friday, 3 September 2010 15:10 (thirteen years ago) link
1. "Nuthin' But a 'G' Thang," 2. "Loser."
― clemenza, Friday, 3 September 2010 15:11 (thirteen years ago) link
it's that sense of embittered, finger-pointing superiority
yeah i think this is def part of what k8 and i take issue with. i think this also has a lot to do with how you listen to music, how you align yourself with narrators. as you said, cocker doesn't work as a spokesperson for anyone other than himself, so you can't identify with the one pointing the finger (and if you do, that song gets even uglier) - you can't sing along as him. but then what role are you left playing? the one being pointed at? fuck off! or no role at all? well, maybe, but that's prob why the entire narrative leaves me cold.
― لوووووووووووووووووووول (lex pretend), Friday, 3 September 2010 15:12 (thirteen years ago) link
"Nuthin' But a 'G' Thang" = "Common People"
― cee-oh-tee-tee, Friday, 3 September 2010 15:12 (thirteen years ago) link
like, "common people" works as neither a song that the listener gets to sing, nor as one that is sung to them...
And I disagree about Cocker not speaking for anyone but himself. He very clearly spoke for quite a number of people who identified with that angry, embittered, finger-pointing superiority. And it was almost *more* insulting to be told that people like me weren't going to be welcome in his army-of-the-different because I was different in an unacceptable way, even while he was gathering his flock of the different around him.
― cymose corymb (Karen D. Tregaskin), Friday, 3 September 2010 15:13 (thirteen years ago) link
He often plays characters, though, although admittedly Common People is to some extent autobiographical. Identifying with an artist is such a subjective thing, I suppose.
― Neil S, Friday, 3 September 2010 15:14 (thirteen years ago) link
"Nuthin' But a 'G' Thang" = "Common People"― cee-oh-tee-tee, Friday, September 3, 2010 4:12 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark
― cee-oh-tee-tee, Friday, September 3, 2010 4:12 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark
hmm, i'd never thought of it that way before
― i am legernd (history mayne), Friday, 3 September 2010 15:18 (thirteen years ago) link
truthbomb
― Neil S, Friday, 3 September 2010 15:18 (thirteen years ago) link
I'd agree with that but also say that it's not a problem for me.
― Haunted Clocks For Sale (Dorianlynskey), Friday, 3 September 2010 15:19 (thirteen years ago) link
I find the same with most hip hop to be honest. I don't need to identify with either the narrator or the subject of a song in order to like it.
― Haunted Clocks For Sale (Dorianlynskey), Friday, 3 September 2010 15:21 (thirteen years ago) link
Thing is, as is usually the case with pop records, most people engage with Common People because they find it a powerful piece of music, and don't get detained by worrying about who they should be relating to.
― Haunted Clocks For Sale (Dorianlynskey), Friday, 3 September 2010 15:23 (thirteen years ago) link
this is an excelent song, fits in with what its like to live in towns when u dress 'alternatively' in yr 11 there were 2 gangs the 'grebs' and the 'roodies' the 'roodies' being the ppl who were like pretty hard, but were compleatly senceless, wondered around creating trouble with mindless vandalisum and beating ppl up. the 'grebs' on the other had had quite a few intalectuals in, we didnt go round beating ppl up, cus most of us would get our heads kicked in if we tryed. but in 10 years time we are all going to be in decent jobs and they are going to be on the doll, in prison or a dustbinman (no offence to dustbinmen)
― olivia tribble control (kkvgz), Friday, 3 September 2010 15:23 (thirteen years ago) link
^^^ this. It's all performance.
― Gucci Mane hermeneuticist (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 3 September 2010 15:24 (thirteen years ago) link
Agreed. I don't identify much with e.g. John Lydon, doesn't stop me liking (some of) his records.
― Neil S, Friday, 3 September 2010 15:24 (thirteen years ago) link