Who was the Greek sculptor in Pulp song ‘Common People’?
On Pulp’s recent tour, they would play all of their hits, leave the stage, play a few more, and head back on where Jarvis Cocker would say, “That’s it, I think we’ve done them all”. It’s a statement that would be met with a mixture of laughter and cheers, as even with a band like Pulp, who have a plethora of hits, there is still no denying that they have one song that stands above the rest.
‘Common People’ is the band’s most popular song by far, as its simplicity, paired with how it builds and releases, makes for the perfect indie pop track, fit for drinking and dancing. The lyrics also play a massive part in its popularity, as the piece has become a slight ode to the working class as it depicts a rich girl who wants to live a common life, not realising how insulting that is to common people.
It has left many listeners scratching their heads, pondering over who the girl is, as the only clues Jarvis offers up in the song is, “She came from Greece, she had a thirst for knowledge, she studied sculpture at St Martins college.” A popular theory is that the work is about Danae Stratou, the wife of Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, as she fits the description and was at St Martins around the same time as Jarvis. However, the singer hasn’t commented on her involvement and is reluctant to provide further information.
“On that BBC Three documentary [2006’s The Story Of… Pulp’s Common People], the researchers went through all the people who were contemporaries of mine at St Martins and they tried to track her down. They showed me a picture, and it definitely wasn’t her. I dunno. Maybe she wasn’t Greek. Maybe I misheard her.”
What is the meaning of ‘Common People’?
Despite the narrative being relatively clear cut, the meaning of ‘Common People’ has been interpreted differently by different people. There are a lot of people who believe Cocker is channelling his own inner dilemma, as he himself doesn’t come from a working-class background. He said in an interview that he put together the chord sequence after buying a new synth, and it immediately reminded him of ‘Fanfare For The Common Man’.
“I always thought the word ‘common’ was an interesting thing. It would be used in ‘Fanfare For The Common Man’. as this idea of the noble savage, whereas it was a real insult in Sheffield to call someone ‘common’. That set off memories of this girl that I met at college.”
Cocker continued, “She wanted to go and live in Hackney and be with the common people. She was from a well-to-do background, and there was me explaining that that would never work. I hated all that cobblers you got in films and magazines in which posh people would ‘slum it’ for a while. Once I got that narrative in my head, it was very easy to write, lyrically.”
Was ‘Common People’ number one?
Despite being one of the band’s most popular works, ‘Common People,’ never quite made it to number one. Upon its release, it managed to climb to number two on the UK singles chart and skyrocketed the band to fame. Cocker even admitted that the track’s success helped him write more, “Eight other songs on the album were written while it was in the charts. Knowing that you had a mass audience for once in your life gave me the confidence to bring certain things out of myself.”
The piece was one of the most defining tracks of the entire Britpop era and helped bring the genre forward into the mainstream. In 2014, following a BBC poll, it was voted as the best Britpop song ever written.
