Disco 2000

[Català/English] Ja s’han acabat les festes de nadal amb la melancolia que també queda reflectit en les millors cançons de nadal; aquella sensació agri-dolç de que, sí, és una festa, però també vol dir que ha volat un altre any i cada any falta gent (o en sobre segons com...), que els xiquets es fan gran, que les possibilitats de complir els somnis es van reduint etc. Llavors ve tot seguit la festa de l’any nou, que ve a ser el mateix sentiment. A més és un moment de mirar de cara al futur. Aquesta cançó – perquè el blog, en teoria, se basa en cançons – es dels 90, quan l’any 2000 era al futur però el significat és el mateix independentment de quan ho escoltem. Una lletra amb la qual molts es podem sentir identificats. Mentre passen els anys, creixem, les amistats van i venen, aquella noia/noi, pos, ja no tens possibilitats amb ell/a... però tots acabarem d’una forma o d’una altra vivint una vida simple i mundana, una vida que normalment no ens conten a les cançons.

...

Looks like Christmas is over. That sweet yet melancholic time of year, a time to enjoy life but also a time to remember those who aren’t here, and those dreams whose odds of happening are getting longer and longer. Feelings expressed so well in so many of the great Christmas songs. Then it’s New Year around the corner and the same story again – another year over, just what have you done? Also a time to look the future in the face, for better or for worse. Today’s song – because, as long-time readers may recall, the blog is supposed to be song-themed – sums up these feelings for me in a certain context. When it was written, by that great Sheffield poet Jarvis Cocker in the 90s, the year 2000 sounded a far-off exotic future, but the feelings the song offers are just the same whenever you hear it. We all grow up, friends change, that girl/boy you fancied has got married to someone else, your dreams have come partly true or landed in a drawer, but more often than not the future offers you a simple mundane life – unlike the futures most Hollywood-esque songs suggest.

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Oh we were born within one hour of each other
Our mothers said we could be sister and brother
Your name is Deborah, Deborah
It never suited ya
And they said that when we grew up
We'd get married, and never split up
Oh, we never did it, although I often thought of it

Oh Deborah, do you recall?
Your house was very small
With wood chip on the wall
When I came around to call
You didn't notice me at all

And I said let's all meet up in the year 2000
Won't it be strange when we're all fully grown
Be there 2 o'clock by the fountain down the road
I never knew that you'd get married
I would be living down here on my own
On that damp and lonely Thursday years ago

You were the first girl at school to get breasts
And Martyn said that you were the best
Oh the boys all loved you, but I was a mess
I had to watch them trying to get you undressed
We were friends, that was as far as it went
I used to walk you home sometimes but it meant
Oh, it meant nothing to you
'Cause you were so popular

Deborah do you recall?
Your house was very small
With woodchip on the wall
When I came around to call
You didn't notice me at all

And I said let's all meet up in the year 2000
Won't it be strange when we're all fully grown
Be there 2 o'clock by the fountain down the road
I never knew that you'd get married
I would be living down here on my own
On that damp and lonely Thursday years ago
Do it
Oh yeah
Oh yeah

Ah Deborah do you recall?
Oh, your house was very small
With wood chip on the wall
When I came around to call
You didn't notice me at all

And I said let's all meet up in the year 2000
Won't it be strange when we're all fully grown
Be there 2 o'clock by the fountain down the road
I never knew that you'd get married
I would be living down here on my own
On that damp and lonely Thursday years ago

Oh what are you doing Sunday baby
Would you like to come and meet me maybe?
You can even bring your baby
Oh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh
What are you doing Sunday baby
Would you like to come and meet me maybe?
You can even bring your baby
Ooh ooh oh oh ooh ooh ooh

Different Class - Pulp

Després de l’increible LP His ‘n’ Hers, arribaria el igualment bo Different Class l’any 1995. Trobarem peces classiques com Mis-shapes, Underwear, Common People, I Spy, Disco 2000, Something Changed, Live Bed Show.
Per què van calar tan a fons en el panorama musical de la gent? La música és molt bona, una bona barreja d’estils, electronic, però sense perdre el rock o pop, una interessant i original instrumentalització que pocs grups s’atrevien a fer. En fi, catchy! I

la lletra. Normalment sóc dels que penso que el 90% de les lletres de cançons no són res més que un pot-pourri de clitxes fets amb gràcia, però els Pulp estan clarament en l’altre 10%. Potser no ens explicaran el sentit de la vida (això deixarem pels Monty Python) però si que ens conten histories cotidianes que han viscut o vist la majoria de anglesos que han vingut de zones com Sheffield – lloc de neixament d’alguns dels millors músics anglesos! Les histories, res nou, però amb una gràcia i un saber-fer que pocs grups arriben a fer ni en somnis. I sobretot en un anglès natural, col·loquial, impossible de traduir.

De fet, ni les histories són transferibles a altres cultures, ni la llengua, però igualment veig que han tingut èxit a Catalunya – el qual és una nota optimista pels professors d’anglès!
Vinga, dos cançons, Disco 2000, I spy, del Different Class.
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After the unbelievably good album His ‘n’ Hers, would come the equally excellent LP Different Class in 1995. Songs like Mis-shapes, Underwear, Common People, I Spy, Disco 2000, Something Changed, Live Bed Show have gone down as unforgettable classics in the history of pop music.
So, why are Pulp so good and loved? Everyone has their own theory, but my two-penny-worth says it’s a mixture of the music and the lyrics (wow! Original theory!). Musically they are capable of writing many a catchy tune and backing it up with interesting and original instrumentalizations (?!), the likes of which few groups dare to risk. I usually believe that pop music lyrics are nonsense, 90% of them being a string of fair-sounding cliches, but Pulp are firmly in the other 10%. Everyday stories which every English music fan can recognise, told with humour and a fine twist of words, and, aboveall , in a natural, colloquial and realistic language.
Anyway, judge for yourselves. Two songs, Disco 2000 and I Spy, from Different Class.