The Pulp song that was 12 years in the making
Occasionally, songs can come together in the blink of an eye, erupting from the creative volcano of the band with unprecedented force. But it’s not always a straightforward affair. Astonishingly, one track by Pulp took them over a decade to get right, and it went through numerous iterations before landing on the final version.
‘Something Changed’ is a Britpop classic that they picked as the follow-up to their era-defining single, ‘Disco 2000’. However, if Pulp had originally released it when they first wrote it, the track would have pre-dated the Britpop boom by almost a decade, and it was fate that it ended up being released years later.
Strangely enough, the first version of the track was sung by Jarvis’ sister rather than himself. Furthermore, some of the lyrics were completely different to the one that eventually appeared on Different Class, and Cocker had forgotten entirely who his muse was who inspired the creation.
The single was released with two different sleeves, one stimulating the male gaze and another for the female market. As it was the fourth track chosen from Different Class, it understandably wasn’t a huge hit for the group, but ‘Something Changed’ still snuck into the top ten of the UK Chart.
It’s one of Pulp’s most beloved efforts, according to Jarvis, who told Rolling Stone in 2020: “That’s the one Pulp song that seems to crop up. I’ve been stopped by a lot of people who tell me that song was played at their wedding. They walked down the aisle to it.”
Around the time of the track’s release in 1996, Cocker discussed the track’s decade-long history in an interview with Melody Maker: “It was originally written about 12 years ago. My sister sang an early version, but it had different words. It never got used, and then I just remembered it. Because it had been written such a long time ago, it made me wonder what I was doing then. And I worked out that it must have been written quite near to me meeting this girl.”
He added: “It’s just wondering, really. If I hadn’t gone out and met this particular person in this particular nightclub, and formed a relationship with her, how different would my life have been? So it’s not really about fate, it’s more about the randomness of things. Which I like. As I’ve said before, that’s the main thing I feel is missing from my life. The worst thing about having a schedule and a timetable is that there’s less chance for unexpected things to happen.”
Undoubtedly, the 12-year wait to get into the recording studio greatly benefitted the final version of ‘Something Changed’. Cocker had accumulated a wealth of life experience, which he injected into his vocal delivery, making the track a song for the ages.
