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“Mis-Shapes” – Pulp
(Words/music: Nick Banks/Jarvis Cocker/Candida Doyle/Steve Mackey/Pulp/Russell Senior/Mark Webber, available on Different Class, Island 1995)

Eddie Izzard, while on a riff about the biblical notion that “the meek shall inherit the earth,” quips that if the meek “should be having meetings all over the world” in order to plan their acquisition.  If nothing else, Jarvis Cocker’s persona in “Mis-Shapes” isn’t standing around waiting for control to fall into his lap.  Instead, “Mis-Shapes” lays out the agenda for the thoughtful misfits.  He calls together his bookish brethren to rise up and take control on their terms.  “We won’t use guns / we won’t use bombs / we’ll use the one thing that we’ve got more of / that’s our mind.”  Where others see meek men and women, he sees a dormant revolution.

Of course, this sort of underdog fantasy rarely sounds either as confident or grand as “Mis-Shapes.”  From the opening notes, Cocker lets his words casually fall asunder, delivering lines with the right mix of spoken swagger and melody.  Behind him, the band builds from a couple guitar notes to a moderate stomp to a distorted gospel revival.  By the time he hits the chorus, Cocker sounds like a preacher singing his sermon to his tambourine-tapping congregation.  However, Pulp’s popularity would eventually swell to a point where Cocker wasn’t just preaching to the misfit choir (at least in the UK, where the entire crowd at the Glastonbury festival seemingly knew the words to “Common People”).  His effortless cool and cunning turns of phrase made him a compelling spokesman for the “meek,” and ultimately it was this charm (and a spot-on flair for the dramatic) that made Different Class such a compelling listen, whether you’re misshapen or conventionally pegged.

More on Pulp: Allmusic | Amazon MP3 | Emusic | Last.fm

TAGGED UNDER: pulp | jarvis cocker | eddie izzard | 1995 | 1990s | island records |
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“Common People (f/ Joe Jackson)” – William Shatner
(Words/music: Nick Banks, Jarvis Cocker, Candida Doyle, Steve Mackey, Russell Senior, available on Has Been, Shout! Factory 2004)

Generally, I’m not a fan of gimmick cover songs; perhaps naively, I want bands to cover songs for a reason other than being ironic.  Maybe I went overboard in high school on mall punk covers of ‘80s songs, but I generally approach cover songs with a skeptic eye.  This made me nervous when I heard that William Shatner and Ben Folds were tackling Pulp’s “Common People.”  Different Class got a lot of spins in college (and I still listen to the first side of the album a fair amount), and even though I came around to “Common People” a half a decade after it was a hit, I fell for it entirely.  I loved Jarvis Cocker’s vocal delivery as he toed the line between melody and spoken word.  I loved how his narrator sets the scene, viewing this woman with a mix of scorn, awe, and a tiny bit of attraction.  I also loved the dramatic build in the song – both in the music and in Cocker’s lyrics.  Not only could he craft an interesting story, he knew how to tell it.

When I finally succumbed to my curiosity and listened to Shatner’s version, I felt relieved that it was ridiculous for all the right reasons.  Shatner and Folds (the executive producer of Shatner’s Has Been album) take the song and tug at the most absurd strands.  They push the tempo and let Shatner slide into his familiar vocal delivery.  Oddly enough, his syncopated over-enunciation brings out the smarminess in the lyrics; Shatner’s narrator just seems less tactful than Cocker’s reserved smugness.  Just as Pulp’s version gets bigger and bigger as the track progresses, Folds keeps adding onto the track, first with Joe Jackson’s energetic chorus and later with a chorus of “common people” to sing the hook.  By the time Shatner and Jackson “sing together” with Shatner over-performing and Jackson rushing through the verse, it’s impossible to resist the song.  By making it so overblown, Shatner simultaneously plays to his strengths (his eccentricities and his deadpan delivery) and reveals the original as an absurdly wonderful pop song.  Ultimately, however, the song works because it’s an excellent composition both melodically and lyrically; all Shatner, Folds, and Jackson do is turn it inside-out to reveal the giddy energy propelling it forward.

More on William Shatner: Allmusic | Amazon MP3 | Emusic | Last.fm

TAGGED UNDER: william shatner | ben folds | joe jackson | pulp | jarvis cocker | 2004 | 2000s | shout! factory | cover song | track comparison |
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“Don’t Let Him Waste Your Time” – Jarvis Cocker
(Words/music: Jarvis Cocker, available on Jarvis, Rough Trade 2006)

One thing that made Pulp such a compelling band is Jarvis Cocker’s engaging ability to tell a story.  His songs always put great care into details, yet Cocker puts much of the emphasis onto the thoughts and motives of his characters.  He gets inside his characters’ heads in these songs, privileging the inner workings over exterior details.  One way he accomplishes this is by putting himself into the song.  By using the first and second person, he shares not only his narrator’s inner monologue but also this character’s read on other people.  This is why “you” and “we” fill these songs, letting Cocker’s audience experience everything (including his other characters) through his narrator’s eyes.  When this works best, these Pulp songs toe the line between filling in just enough details to get to know the characters while only hinting at the deeper stories underneath the song.

“Don’t Let Him Waste Your Time,” the first single from his first solo album, Cocker still runs his stories through his first person narrator.  However, unlike many of his songs with Pulp, his narrator stays out of the events in the song.  He doesn’t use “I” or “we” at all, yet we still feel the narrator’s presence in the song.  Rather than sharing in the song’s plot sequence, Cocker offers advice to an unnamed female acquaintance, insisting that she keeps her guard up against the slick “love ‘em and leave ‘em” guys she runs into.  Even if he’s removed himself from the song’s plot, Cocker’s narrator remains essential, as it’s his read on the guy (vacuous and smooth) and the girl (vulnerable yet deserving of more) that makes the song work.  If Cocker merely described the events in the song, it wouldn’t have the same traction.  If he wrote the song from the girl’s perspective, it would sound like a third rate Aretha Franklin rip off – something that an American Idol castoff might throw out hoping for some En Vogue karma to wear off.  Instead, the song benefits from Cocker’s perspective, hinging around the title’s advice and the supporting reasons why men like this will only waste his friend’s time.

More on Jarvis Cocker: Allmusic | Amazon MP3 | Emusic | Last.fm

TAGGED UNDER: jarvis cocker | 2006 | 2000s | rough trade | pulp | track analysis | exploration of narrative perspective |
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