|
Pulp
Jarvis
Side projects
Help
Site
Search
|
Details
- Release date: 24 June 1994
- Label: Fire
- Formats: CD, 12", cassette
- Catalogue numbers: FIRE CD36, FIRE LP36, FIRE TC36
Info
Masters of the Universe is a compilation bringing together the four Pulp EPs/singles released on Fire Records between 1985 and 1987, with the exception of Silence (originally from the Master of the Universe single) which was left off at Jarvis Cocker's request.
Sleeve notes
Below are the sleeve notes Jarvis wrote for this compilation. Fire Records boss Clive Solomon found the thinly veiled negativity towards his label too much to stomach and not surprisingly refused to use them.
Tunnel – The True Story
"I first entered the tunnel on the 10th of July 1985. It was a sunny day, just a few rolled-out wispy clouds, and I was wearing my best suit. I saw the entrance and went in – simple as that. I had nothing else to do; I was bored. That was fifteen weeks ago and guess what? I'm lost - it's so bleeding dark in here, that's the problem. But I'm not alone - oh no, there must be hundreds, perhaps thousands, down here with me. We all mill around and bump into each other in the darkness. And the stench of a thousand unwashed bodies hangs in a thick fog. That's city dirt, fanny. I walk for at least eight hours every day but I've still never seen even the slightest glimmer of light that would tell me that I was nearing the end of the tunnel. Most others are content to just walk on the spot and hum to themselves, but I still make the effort. Hoping that one morning I will wake up in the sun with the sky blue above me and to be clean again. But I know I will never be clean again."
The above piece of writing appeared on the rear sleeve to “They Suffocate At Night” when it was first released in late 1986. At the time I paid no attention to the date I had chosen for my entrance into the tunnel – the 10th of July 1985 – I presumed I had simply picked it out of thin air. It wasn't until I was looking through some old papers that I realised the date's significance – amongst the papers was a copy of our first contract with Fire Records. It was dated – you guessed it – the 10th of July 1985. Had my unconscious mind been trying to tell me something I wonder? Hmmmmm.
These songs stem from probably the most depressing period in my life (bar 9 months I spent living in a tower block in Mile End in 1989) and I guess that this is reflected in the music and lyrics. I think we were all frustrated and angry in some way and you can hear that tension on these tracks. They were recorded in Sheffield in crappy little studios for hardly any money – oh yes, you know the score, but despite all that I think that there is still a spirit that comes through them.
Listening to them again after all this time was quite an experience – I felt by turns excited, surprised, embarrassed, sad and proud. At least we were striving for something, reaching for something that we couldn't always attain, but trying all the same. Such intensity can't last forever and this incarnation of Pulp disintegrated during the filming of the video that accompanied "They Suffocate At Night". I wrote the following notes at the end of 1987 to accompany the inclusion of "Little Girl" on a compilation LP.
"Well it's funny to think of it now but at one time it was everything. I mean, he never thought of anything else, not one little thing. So, of course, it couldn't stand the strain and it eventually broke. Obvious, you might say; but sometimes you don't think straight – y'know sometimes you're just plain stupid. Anyway, it's over now and it all seems like some kind of dream. Did you really think that you could live off love for the rest of your life? Go and get a job, mate. Get your head out of the clouds. Get back in line. Yes, we're back from the moon and in circulation again. Come on, let's go for a business lunch, let's have an office party. Come on then. Yes, I must dash, there's such a lot to be done and I've got to do it. Kiss goodbye to the past with a smile. That's the way, babe. Now we can watch dogs devouring little girls with blue eyes and not feel bad about it. Bye."
That kind of sums it up for me.
Jarvis Cocker, 19th April 1994.
Below are the sleeve notes that appeared in the end, written by Clive Solomon, head of Fire Records.
I was first introduced to Pulp one day back in 1984 when my good friend and founding father in Fire Records, journalist Johnny Waller, burst in to my flat / office, clasping a copy of their debut album "It". "Listen to this", he insisted - a collection of plaintive mainly acoustic ballads, the best of which exuded a songwriting craftsmanship which would not have been out of place on a Jimmy Webb record. Fact freaks should note that "Wishful Thinking" was recently accorded cult status with a dance treatment by Golden on St. Etienne's Icerink label.
Pulp, along with Blue Aeroplanes and Television Personalities, soon became just about my favourite band in the unknown universe. They were simply awesome, ranging from Scott Walker balladeering to post-punk, avant-garde aggressiveness. And then they were undeniably strange - stories abounded, but I liked to tell the tale about their singer Jarvis having fallen out of a third storey while doing a Spiderman impression and continuing to use his wheelchair as a stage prop long after he'd regained use of his legs.
Pulp signed to Fire and the lovably awkward and lyrically controversial "Little Girl With Blue Eyes", which I've always thought plucked its intro from James & Bobby Purify's pop soul classic "I'm Your Puppet", set an almost impossibly high standard to follow. But when they delivered their next, the delicately kitsch "Dogs are Everywhere", it only confirmed my suspicions that this was indeed a deeply disturbed but unique Sheffield pop group and try as I could to recall the last pop song on the subject matter of dogs, I gave up at Lobo's "Me And You And A Dog Named Boo". "They Suffocate At Night", a blackly humorous, lush ballad is truly sublime and this collection is rounded off with the near Heavy Metal delusions of "Master Of The Universe".
In keeping with Fire's desire to promote value for money 12" singles, these four Pulp singles each featured four tracks ("Blue Glow" remains my personal favourite), all of which are gathered here, save for one, left off at the band's request. Shortly after, with a second album "Freaks" under their belts, but still almost a decade away from universal acclaim and pop stardom, Pulp departed to seek fame and fortune elsewhere. The freaks were to return to Fire some three years later, but that as they say, is another story.
Clive Solomon
|
