Our pals Ramona had worked up a cover of Pulp’s 1995 classic “Common People”. Pulp were to the Kinks what Blur were to the Beatles and never more so on this vicious social satire that starts as a joke, a rich girl from St. Martin’s college hits on Jarvis Cocker to figure out how the lower classes live. Jarvis gets her to buy him a drink .
It is a seduction, “I want to sleep with common people like you” -a quip with a touch more vitriol in the still roiling from the class wars UK then over here.
Cocker agrees to teach her and explains to her what it means to have nothing at all, it is something unexplainable to the haves: “never live like common people” he roars near the songs end before putting the nail in the coffin of poverty: “never watch your life slide out of view”. An image so horrifying, young Brits must have been falling over their feet as they couldn’t dance their way out of this indictment.
Anyway, Ramona bottled it because Scouting For Girls -a terrible, terrible band, performed a terrible terrible version. I mean, really, who are these guys? They sound like toothpaste. Any way, Ramona’s is lost to us.
I saw Pulp on the Different Class tour (changed a train tix to Orlando to catch it) and they veered between really good and great and then saw em maybe two years later on the Harcore tour and they tour the roof down at Hammermith (I think).
As far as Ramona go?
I would recommend they cover the Kinks instead. How about “Better Things” -everybody is doing it. Or follow in Chrissie Hynde’s footsteps and do “I Fall Asleep” or “Stop Your Sobbing”. But maybe Ramona want some social stuff? “Oklahoma, USA” because, really, a lot of people are gonna be daydreaming about this band at some point or another. “Victoria”? Oooh, I got it, “I’m Not Like Everybody Else”.