Not sure how many people would get beyond disc one... I'd cut right down on the early recordings and concentrate on their golden years.
And the song your friend heard on the radio was most likely Disco 2000 - seems to get more airplay than any other Pulp song.
-- Edited by fredthe3rd on Tuesday 14th of February 2012 07:23:38 PM
A few years ago, a friend asked me to make him up a compilation CDR of Pulp because he'd heard something on the radio (presumably "Common People") and wanted to investigate further. I don't copy commercially available material for anyone so I played him some songs in the car and told him to get on Spotify if he wanted to hear any more. However, it got me thinking, and seeing as Blur did it, if you were to make up a "Beginners Guide" compilation of Pulp, what would you include?
For me, it would have to be a 2 CD set as follows:
CD1
What Do You Say?
Please Don't Worry
My Lighthouse (single remix)
Wishful Thinking
In Many Ways
Little Girl (With Blue Eyes)
Dogs Are Everywhere
Simultaneous
Aborigine
They Suffocate At Night
Fairground
Being Followed Home
Death Comes to Town
My Legendary Girlfriend
Don't You Want Me Anymore?
She's Dead
Countdown (extended version)
CD2
Glory Days
Common People
OU
Babies
Razzmatazz
Sheffield: Sex City
Lipgloss
Do You Remember the First Time?
Seconds
I Spy
FEELINGCALLEDLOVE
This Is Hardcore
Wickerman
Bad Cover Version
Sorted For E's and Wizz
Party Hard
Sunrise
It would be interesting to hear what you would include...
I like to keep most of my mixes for other people to one disc.
And I generally like to stick to the singles to initiate people with Pulp.
My mostly comprehensive Pulp mix goes something like this:
My Lighthouse Little Girl with Blue Eyes They Suffocate at Night My Legendary Girlfriend O.U. Razzmatazz Babies Lipgloss Do You Remember the First Time Common People Sorted Disco 2000 Help the Aged This is Hardcore Party Hard Bad Cover Version Sunrise
And there's this alternate, which starts with Separations, which is what I consider the beginning of Pulp As We Know Them
My Legendary Girlfriend O.U. Babies Your Sister's Clothes Seconds His 'N' Hers Lipgloss Do You Remember the First Time? Common People Mis-Shapes Disco 2000 Help the Aged This Is Hardcore Party Hard Bad Cover Version Sunrise
The main advantage of this is that I lets me include the entire Sisters EP.
Were I too make a Pulp intro mix that included deep cuts... hmm, I'd have to think about that.
-- Edited by Mike on Wednesday 15th of February 2012 03:51:28 AM
Pink Glove Mile End O.U. Common People First Time? Countdown Razzmatazz Lipgloss Babies Seconds Mis-Shapes Monday Morning Party Hard Street Operator The Trees Birds In Your Garden FEELINGCALLEDLOVE
Disc 2
This Is Hardcore Acrylic Afternoons Ansaphone Being Followed Home Ladies Man Like a Friend (short version) Anorexic Beauty Sorted Legendary Girlfriend Wishful Thinking Blue Girls Little Girl (WBE) Something Changed Love is Blind Help The Aged A Little Soul TV Movie Wickerman TIH (End Of The Line)
I've only really paid attention to track listings for the starts and end of each disc. Oh, and I tried to put more accessible stuff on Disc 1.
I prefer single disc comps - was sticking with the Beginners Guide to Blur concept, and trying to make disc one more accessible, then if you like disc one disc two can be like further reading.
Also sticking with singles would make it very similar to Hits (which should have featured Mis-Shapes!)
Hell, just give them Intro... Excuse the pun, but it's all in the name: Babies and Razz are accessible; Sex City foreshadows the spoken-word majesty of I Spy/Hardcore/etc; and there's plenty of the lo-fi quirkiness and storytelling that the unsuspecting may find off-putting in the earlier recordings. Intro marks the transition, so if you want to help them love Pulp in their entirety, and quickly, make a Gift of it (you needn't excuse that pun).
(On the other hand, if you have 13 or so years to spare, make a gift of It. See what I did there? Pun-o-rama. It's all in the capitalisation. Grammar is wonderful. I wish I knew more about it.)***
Anyway, Intro: hook 'em with a couple of crowd pleasers whilst contextualising the earlier darkness and kitsch AND the later sweeping grandeur.
I'm off now to bash myself around the head a few times now so that I can forget Pulp, listen to Intro, and quickly learn to love Pulp again. Call it a project.
Attentive forum-goers may have read elsewhere that I just hid £15 in a book so I could buy an unconfirmed DVD release ASAP. Please don't let me forget THAT. I'm not made of money.
What would be really interesting is - having forgotten my love of Pulp and attempted to rekindle it via Into - is whether or not this unconfirmed release of remastered VHS recordings from 1991 would be as vital to my daily functioning as it seems now. Prior bashing.
***That's "it", not "It". Sorry. But then, don't we all wish we knew a little more about "It"? A little more. I mean, viscerally-more. Experiencially more. Has anyone heard Lighthouses live? Is there an MP3 in circulation? I never have. I've read things. Sturdy things. But to experience...................
-- Edited by superchob on Friday 17th of February 2012 11:12:49 PM
Haha, what a post. Even outfredded fred's zany style! Good question about a live version of My Lighthouse actually, strange that there should be none around?
I might be wrong but I think that the earliest concerts recorded were in 1982 then the next one is from the Leadmill in 1984. I am guessing most of the songs off "It" would have been played live in 1983.