Bit cheesy i know but still cool. Why did Pulp hardly play this song on any of their tours? Ive looked at many setlists and this song was very rarely featured. Its also common amongst music fans to say that Pulp only ever did two commercial songs, this was one and i think you can all guess what the other one was. Have anyone from Pulp ever commented on it because it seems like people just tend to ignore this song or is it just more cool to say you like more obscure Pulp songs rather than a song like this which was popular and still has a following to this day.
It really is one of Pulp's worst songs: kitchy, dated, cliched, repetitive, and has one of the most desperate and amateurish rhymes ever written (recall, small, wall, call and all).
It may be fun, but it's not the kind of song a band wants to be known for, especially when they know they can do so much better.
-- Edited by Fuss Free on Tuesday 15th of September 2009 12:12:14 PM
Well I love it even after a thousand listens. The build-up, the chorus and the kiss-off coda. So there. As for the lyrics - the protagonist is still in adolescent mode so that get-out clause covers the weaker word sections.
I love Disco 2000! It was one of their "fun" songs, like Mile End. I hold it up as an example of how diverse Pulp's music is, when you compare it to some of the darker songs on DC like I Spy or F.e.e.l.i.n.g... The video was cracking too!
Disco 2000 has always been one of those songs which people like or loathe - i remember reading reviews back then claiming " ubber gash " then on the other hand " number one for weeks to come" kind of reviews. It is repetative, but such a climatic end to a fantastic pop song which is still played just as much on commercial radio today as is Common People.
Personally, Disco 2000 is up there in my top 10 ever of Pulp tunes.
Having looked through many many setlists i see the same songs cropping up over and over again and sometimes the exact same order. While i can understand there are quite a few songs they feel they must play i dont understand why Disco 2000 is completely absent. It was on their arguably best album album and their choice to put it there so why be ashamed of it? If Pulp ever get back together i can tell you 8 songs off the top of my head that will be garanteed to get played yet this song....which was popular at the time and still gets played on a lot of radio stations still play it will no doubt never get played.
I can understand some bands not wanting to be known just for certain songs but i don't think there is anything wrong with Disco 2000 at all. It isn't like Common People which was a huge worldwide hit and lets be honest they were never NOT gonna play Common People again. Even if they get back together that will definately be on the Encore. Surely being known as the band who plays the same songs over like Razzmattazz, Babies, Sorted For E's And Whizz,F.E.E.L.I.N.G and Common People in near enough EVERY set is much worse than being known for a simple song like Disco 2000 which just happened to be a popular single? And Pulp aren't like a lot of big bands who maybe played for 2 or 2 and half hours, most of the time their sets were no more than 13 or maybe 15 songs and that's INCLUDING the encore! Basically they focused their concerts on their most popular songs yet the one popular song that got released officially and made them money continues to be overlooked. I bet you if they get back together the only option they would have is to play material from previous albums, heck they could even call it a Greatest Hits tour and guess what?.....Disco 2000 would still never be mentioned.
i always got the impression that the band was bored playing it because it was so simple. by the end of '96, they'd done it a hundred times and didn't feel like doing it anymore. also, i think it's a difficult song to sing and Jarvis had trouble with it. the second verse is right against the chorus and the final bit goes even higher than the chorus, etc. i've only ever heard Jarvis nail the vocal live two or three times, really. the rest of them he seems basically flatlined by those final high notes.
i think it's a great pop song and a great sentiment. it's more sugary than sinister and that's unique for that era Pulp.
Disco 2000 was still being played in 1998 and was included in the "Hits" compliation, whareas Mis-Shapes, which is a cracking song and might I add, along side its a-side Sorted, actually sold more copies than Common People was last played in 1996!
Jarvis might have thought it was "shit", but I think it's a fabulous tune and it still hold a special place in my heart at least.
I can understand how it might be hard for him to sing but it's still no excuse IMO. Then again take a much simpler song like Baby's Coming Back to Me from his first record.....i've yet to hear or see anywhere that song being played live, why is that? For me Disco 2000 was the first Pulp song i liked and i never really paid much attention to Common People.
At that point i had been a lifelong Bon Jovi fan and after their These Days album (which is their best) i sort of went away from music for a little while. I had an East 17 phase and i was very aware of Pulp at the time but something in me decided to just reject anymore bands and the whole Britpop era for me was cringy. Im in the UK but not in England and just the hairstyles and dress senses and the accents in songs in general........made me cringe. It seemed very 'British' and i naturally go against what people try and force upon me. Then i discovered hip hop more in depth and discovered a new artist would soon take over the world lol. And many things he writes i can relate to very much more than any other artist. So because of that i was able to go back and reassess different things and different music groups and see them from a different perspective and for me when i think of Pulp in that time frame........i think of Disco 2000 and i think its a really cool song. Its a shame they couldnt put the album version on the 7" vinyl but hey.....i can live with it. You guys have obviously read all of Pulps interviews and seen every TV piece about them so you know what they really think. If i ever did ask Jarvis i don't know what he would say. Maybe since he isnt fond of it anymore he would maybe laugh it off or question how much of a fan i am. Probably best i just dont mention this song to him at all if i ever meet him lol.
That's kind of weird, because the last band I was really into before I got into Pulp was East 17. Common People actually completely passed me by when it came out, and it really wasn't until Sorted... that I actually got into the band.
Wow, I've been a Pulp fan for 14 years and I'm 28 now...that's half my life!
Pulp got bored easily. They never had the stamina or inclination necessary for lengthy American tours to give that market a real crack. And as has been mentioned, soon tired of playing Misshapes too. I suspect the fact that Disco 2000 is a song so much of its time that when they got round to touring Hardcore, their new, darker direction sat uneasily with some of the more uplifting songs of before. Of course you've got to weigh that against giving your audience what they want, so they kept playing Common People and Babies instead.
I remember a quote from Candida around that time (or perhaps before) saying she never wanted to play Babies ever again. And they did relent with many of the shows in 1998 featuring Disco 2000 quite frequently. By 01/02, and the sentiment behind ''the year 2000 song'' kinda redundant, they turned their back on it even more. Even constant repetition of their signature song, Common People, drove them to re-working it so you'd barely recognise the first two minutes.
I think they are/were beligerent buggers as much as anyone but at times you have to admire their attitude.
Oh, and Bon Jovi and East 17?!?! Jesus Wept...Well East 17 weren't that bad actually but...yeah.
I love Disco 2000! It was one of their "fun" songs, like Mile End.
Bah! 'Mile End' is a masterwork.
I consider it their finest song from the Different Class era, and its often in the running for my all-time favourite song. Mile End does everything a Pulp song should do: it's catchy and has a great hook, but it's also structurally quite interesting and experimental. The whole band contributes, and it has brilliant fucking lyrics.
Mind you, it took me about 5 years to realize just how good it really is.
Mile End is kind of weird. I remember when I saw them in 1996 they played it immediately after I Spy ( the opening song), like it was a cheerful antidote to the bitterness of that song.
Mile End has always been one of my favourites too. It sounded so noisey and uplifting after I Spy - I have fond memories of that tour as it was the first concert I ever attended. I was barely 12!
That quote from Candida refers to the 1995/96 world tour after which Russel left/ She said that she never wanted to play Babies or Disco 2000 again. They played it a bit on the 1998 tour and Babies made a comeback as a regular appearence in the set but alas no Disco 2000. Personally I think it would have made a rocking opener at Reading/Leeds 2000.
If you look at the set list for Glastonbury 1998 it's bloody awkard really! Historically Pulp have dropped the old songs for the new but it being one of their live favourites I'm not sure why this one.
I too don't really listen to it these days and I understand the arguement that it's a bit difficult to sing and play. The fingers get a bit soar and achy playing the riff on guitar as your kinda stuck in the same position throughout and that last coda after the chorus does strain the vocals a bit!
'Baby's Coming Back To Me' was played at Jarvis' show at The Meltdown festival with Candida joining the stage along with a medium sized string section. I remember turning to my friend and saying "look, we've got Jarvis, Steve, Candida and Richard Hawley. It's almost Pulp up there!"
Supergrass never play 'Allright' anymore and they still have fantastic sets. I think it's because these bands want to prove (and rightly so) that they can play an amazing set without having to play the some old commercially popular songs over and over.
In comparison, would Oasis have ever played a gig consisting of mostly songs from their most recent albums and omitting Wonderwall and Live Forever etc. NO, because they are nowhere near as good a band!
That quote from Candida refers to the 1995/96 world tour after which Russel left/ She said that she never wanted to play Babies or Disco 2000 again. They played it a bit on the 1998 tour and Babies made a comeback as a regular appearence in the set but alas no Disco 2000.
Disco 2000 (with extended rawk intro) was one of the encores when I saw them at Birmingham in 1998. It had been out of the set a while by then though.
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"Yes I saw her in the chip shop / so I said get yer top off"
I am guessing the music is just an instrumental track but do you think Jarvis' vocal is live? Sometimes it sounds like its had some EQing done to it yet other times it does sound live like the way he pronounces certain words or the voice fading as he takes the mic away from his mouth. If this is indeed live i think it is amazing.
They should have released an official version with Jarvis vocals louder and not so buried in the mix as it is in the album version. The 7" mix.......hmm not so sure why it was created.
-- Edited by crazyshady on Monday 5th of October 2009 12:05:24 AM
It's a live vocal alright but there appears to be some backing vocals recorded in there as well. I remember seeing this the first time around but don't remember cringing quite so much then as I did today!
Still, nice to see Gary Glitter enjoying himself on a kids TV show innit?!
