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Ian


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Parallel Universe 1992 and 1994 Albums
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I was listening to "Intro" and the deluxe version of "His 'n' Hers" yesterday and it got me thinking... if they were able to release "Separations" in 1990 and leave Fire straight away, they could have released an album in late 1992. They certainly recorded enough quality material during this period to make it possible. 

So, this would be the theoretical 1992 album:

  1. Live On
  2. OU
  3. Babies
  4. Razzmatazz
  5. The Boss
  6. Sheffield: Sex City
  7. Stacks
  8. Inside Susan
  9. 59 Lyndhurst Grove

Singles would be:

  1. OU b/w Space
  2. Babies b/w Styloroc (Nites of Suburbia)
  3. Razzmatazz b/w Watching Nicky

So it's not a million miles away from "Intro" and granted, there would be less B-sides but that looks like a very solid album.

Of course, I thought it would be a bit strange if "Babies" was to appear on two albums so this led to me reimagining the "His 'n' Hers" tracklisting as follows:

  1. Joyriders
  2. Lipgloss
  3. Acrylic Afternoons
  4. Have You Seen Her Lately?
  5. His 'n' Hers
  6. She's a Lady
  7. Your Sister's Clothes
  8. Seconds
  9. Do You Remember the First Time?
  10. Pink Glove
  11. Street Lites
  12. David's Last Summer

Singles:

  1. Lipgloss b/w Deep Fried in Kelvin and You're a Nightmare
  2. Do You Remember the First Time? b/w Someone Like the Moon and The Babysitter
  3. Street Lites (radio edit) b/w Happy Endings and You're Not Blind

Now, I do like "Someone Like the Moon" but I just can't see it fitting on the album alongside the superior "Street Lites" which I think would have made a great single if trimmed down by about 30-45 seconds. I don't mind "Happy Endings" but the "round and round and round" bit ruins it for me and for this reason I think it would have been better suited as a B-side.

There you go! 



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andy


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cool thread i love the parallel universe tracklisting.

9 tracks is always a bit off for me so i would add another track to the 1992 album. Styloroc (Nites of Suburbia) being a favorite of mine, i'd include it. I also love the OU + Babies + Styloroc / razzmatazz sequence so i'd swap Live On on track 5. It serves as a breather after 4 very "heavy" tracks.

And what an album !

1. OU
2. Babies
3. Styloroc (Nites of Suburbia)
4. Razzmatazz
5. Live On
6. The Boss
7. Sheffield: Sex City
8. Stacks
9. Inside Susan
10. 59 Lyndhurst Grove

singles:

OU b/w Space
Babies b/w ? (a live track)
Razzmatazz b/w Watching Nicky

For the His and Hers album i'd swap also a few tracks: I love Happy Endings and You're a Nightmare, and since we are in a parallel universe, Pulp has recorded a studio version of it. I also include the Baby Sitter instead

1. Joyriders
2. Lipgloss
3. Acrylic Afternoons
4. Have You Seen Her Lately?
5. His 'n' Hers
6. She's a Lady
7. You're a Nightmare
8. Seconds
9. Do You Remember the First Time?
10. The Baby Sitter
10. Pink Glove
11. Happy Endings

Singles:

Lipgloss b/w Deep Fried in Kelvin and Street Lites,
Do You Remember the First Time? b/w Someone Like the Moon and Your Sister's Clothes
Pink Glove b/w David's Last Summer and You're Not Blind

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Ian


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I agree with you on most of that, I do like "Styloroc: Nites of Suburbia" but I have never viewed it as a potential album track.

If "Sheffield: Sex City" was on the album then the instrumental could have still been used as a B-side so that's your "Babies" single sorted.

In any case, songs like "Live On" and "The Boss" would have worked really well on the 1992 album. 

I have just edited "Street Lites" to see what I could do: a radio edit that clocks in at 5 minutes



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Eamonn


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Almost fully in agreement with you, Ian. What a Side A to Intro that is. And 9 tracks as an album is OK cos S:SC is an 8 minute epic.

Pink Glove and She's A Lady were both written in '91 weren't they, so would be in danger of missing His'n'Hers and instead making the peerless Intro be even more, well, stacked.

Oh and Frightened is much more fun than both Watching Nicky and You're Not Blind and is far deserving of B-side status before either of those imo.

Street Lites is interesting. For some Pulp purists (Sturdy, Sleeve, FussFree?) it's a high watermark for Pulp's artistic imperial phase, pre-fame. And that chorus is very catchy. The long, spoken verses probably ruled-out any pretensions as a single. Will check out your edit...



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Eamonn


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Listened to the edit...for radio play, I think I would have cruelly lobbed-off the entire last verse and let the final chorus repeat to fade with the ba-da-de-ba-ba harmony overdubs which you've hastily cut! That's the catchiest bit!

Either way, it's too idiosyncratic to be a single but if 6Music had been around at the time, it might have become a discerning DJ favourite. It was definitely good enough to be on the album.

My "controversial" opinion is that I don't rate Glass/Your Sister's Clothes half as much as most people. The arrangement is a bit...I dunno, as subtle as a brick. I think both Seconds and His'n'Hers tower over it.

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weej


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Space is the perfect album opener AFAIC.

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Ian


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Eamonn wrote:

Listened to the edit...for radio play, I think I would have cruelly lobbed-off the entire last verse and let the final chorus repeat to fade with the ba-da-de-ba-ba harmony overdubs which you've hastily cut! That's the catchiest bit!

Either way, it's too idiosyncratic to be a single but if 6Music had been around at the time, it might have become a discerning DJ favourite. It was definitely good enough to be on the album.

My "controversial" opinion is that I don't rate Glass/Your Sister's Clothes half as much as most people. The arrangement is a bit...I dunno, as subtle as a brick. I think both Seconds and His'n'Hers tower over it.

You mean like this? I can see how that would work as a radio edit as it lasts just over 4 minutes. As for my choice of "Street Lites" as a single, I have considered alternatives: "Joyriders" is a song of two halves and I don't think that it is an appropriate single from a structural point of view, "Acrylic Afternoons", "Have You Seen Her Lately?", "Pink Glove" and "Seconds" work too well as album tracks to have been singles and the others are too long.

Whilst I like "Your Sister's Clothes", I can understand why some people don't. I'm probably going to sound even more controversial here but is there perhaps a bit too much Russell in there on a bad day? I did consider that as a single: releasing the follow-up to "Babies" two years later seems like a good idea but ultimately it's more of an album track for me.

Sure, "Frightened" could have been used as a B-side to any of the singles. 

"She's a Lady" was performed live in 1991 and "Pink Glove" in 1992. However, I don't think that they were recorded until 1993 and 1994 respectively so would have probably missed the boat for the 1992 album. 



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Eamonn


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Unless Intro had been conceived as a studio album from the start rather than recording three singles and their B-sides as they went along.
If Pulp had looked at the list of 20 songs or so in their arsenal in '92 and were free of Fire completely and with real recording budget, I think it's fair to say Cheesy Lady and PG (Pink Glove. Parental Guidance?) both would have been chosen for this alternate-reality LP!
Ian wrote:

You mean like this? I can see how that would work as a radio edit as it lasts just over 4 minutes. 

 Now you're talking. What a banger!



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saw119


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Street Lites is a classic, just a perfect performance. I really wish Russell had got his **** together cos his Violin should be all over She's A Lady. I would probably consign Joyriders to b side status and replace it with His n Hers. I think this 92-94 period of Pulp is the best.

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Eamonn


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Did Russell's dodgy playing make Buller reduce the levels of violin on the album? Or did he just bury it anyway...?

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saw119


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Eamonn wrote:

Did Russell's dodgy playing make Buller reduce the levels of violin on the album? Or did he just bury it anyway...?

 Buller wasn't happy with Russell's playing, told him to go practice but completely cut him out of the final song. I love Russell's Violin on She's A Lady and I'm surprised Senior was treated like that. The BBC session version has a truncated Senior intro but it's still preferable. 



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andy


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Ian wrote:

I agree with you on most of that, I do like "Styloroc: Nites of Suburbia" but I have never viewed it as a potential album track.

 

hehe Styloroc (Nites of Suburbia) cant be beaten for me, it was the main theme of my fake radio show when i was a teenager. I was doing one even before Jarvis dreamt of being a radio host. Of course it was all in my head and with limited cassettes and CDs. 




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Ian


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Interestingly enough, the song could have ended up sounding very different. Jarvis said this in the 1994 Record Collector interview:

"Styloroc" was taken from demos we'd done earlier for Island. I tried to sing along with it, but it sounded like Whitesnake, so I recycled some lyrics from an old song that never got recorded, "Nights Of Suburbia" and recited them over the top of this stylophone music.

He doesn't specifically tell them whether or not the "Whitesnake" version was recorded. It could have just been a product of rehearsals but would be interesting to hear if it is in the vaults somewhere.

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andy


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Yeah i'd be happy to hear it ! i'm sure they still have a lot to offer. If they did things right, there's probably lots of unused recording to release, bits here and there that you can build, alternate takes, bits taken out of released songs. Even do alternate mixes like the Beatles did.

Styloroc to me could have been a good opener for their gigs.

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Sturdy


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saw119 wrote:
Eamonn wrote:

Did Russell's dodgy playing make Buller reduce the levels of violin on the album? Or did he just bury it anyway...?

 Buller wasn't happy with Russell's playing, told him to go practice but completely cut him out of the final song. I love Russell's Violin on She's A Lady and I'm surprised Senior was treated like that. The BBC session version has a truncated Senior intro but it's still preferable. 

It'd be interesting to dig into what happened here a bit more with Buller. I couldn't get hold of him at the time I did the book but it seems he's a bit more accessible now. On a podcast the other year he did talk about sending Nick home to practice and it making a huge difference to how the album came out, but I don't remember him talking about Russell. Personalities wise, I can imagine Nick being a lot more accommodating and easy to have that sort of conversation with than Russell!

Equally, I wonder if Buller fully appreciated how important Russell was to the sound and vibe of the band. Great as it is, a lot of His 'n' Hers is kind of softened and polished which I guess doesn't leave as much room for Russell's awkward sharp edges.



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andy


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Completely a theory but what if Buller was told to make them sound like dance bands of the time ? A mix between Ace of Base and early 90s danse music ? But in an indie way ? Violin was not really fashionable before britpop exploded.

Maybe that was a label request ? Was he chosen by the label or the band ?

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Sturdy


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Surely not. He was firmly from the indie side of the fence - CV included Suede, Spiritualized, ex member of the Psychedelic Furs etc. He was chosen entirely by the band as far as I know.

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Eamonn


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Can you remember what that podcast was, Mark? It is a shame that you never got to chat to him. I've seen him on Suede docs and he seems like an affable chap.

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andy


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Not saying he was not indie, but Pulp from 90 to 93/94 were closer than ever to sounding like a 50 dance / 50 indie band. So its not surprise they "hid" more adventurous instruments and put bass and synths upfront. It was the sound of the time, that and grunge. And Pulp was not gonna be grunge. 


Anyway, just did a listen with my tracklist and it's crazy how close the demo of Nicky and the Boss and the live Live On fit on Intro. It's like they all belong to the same session. 



-- Edited by andy on Monday 13th of October 2025 12:21:52 PM

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Sturdy


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Eamonn wrote:

Can you remember what that podcast was, Mark? It is a shame that you never got to chat to him. I've seen him on Suede docs and he seems like an affable chap.

 I can't I'm afraid. It was about 2 or 3 years ago if that helps!



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Sleeve


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I always felt like I understood why Ed Buller did that. It really seemed like Russell often couldn't be bothered to practice which would be a complete nightmare for a committed producer. Also, if you listen to the oddly hasty fade-in (compared with the live violin intro) on Pencil Skirt- that's possibly quite telling too: didn't nail it in the studio or messed it up in recording so they just gave up on it.

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andy


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Sleeve wrote:

I always felt like I understood why Ed Buller did that. It really seemed like Russell often couldn't be bothered to practice which would be a complete nightmare for a committed producer. Also, if you listen to the oddly hasty fade-in (compared with the live violin intro) on Pencil Skirt- that's possibly quite telling too: didn't nail it in the studio or messed it up in recording so they just gave up on it.

 

We talked about it in another thread: Russell violin is uncanny, weird, and they found a way to make it sound "right" though odd on Different Class. Maybe one producer managed to get it right and the other didn't. 

There's also the the problem of instruments working alongside each other. A violin and a synth, it's like trying to mix water and fire. 



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saw119


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So a couple of questions/observations about Shes a Lady.
The band had been playing the song live since 91 so could Russell really not nail it or did Buller allow his personal feelings dictate hos the recording went?
Is the version of She's a Lady on His n Hers the original backing track with Russell's violin contribution removed or is it a brand new violin-less recording?

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Sturdy


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Those are the exact sort of questions I'd love to dig into with Buller! Although who knows, it's one track from over 30 years ago, maybe he doesn't even remember all the ins and outs at this point.

For what it's worth, I think I can hear a tiny bit of buried violin at a certain point somewhere in the morass of the intro. But I could be completely wrong.

I can see why Russell's, erm, stubbornly untutored playing could have been difficult to capture for producers at times. But on the other hand it's that waywardness that made him special, and it always lost something when they tried to tidy him up too much. Alan Smyth maybe had it right - from what I understand from interviewing him, he'd basically let him do his thing, then chop it into bits and move those bits around till it hit the sweet spot.

It's worth noting as well that there are other tracks on His 'n' Hers were Russ is featured heavily on violin - Acrylic Afternoons, Have You Seen Her Lately, Someone like the Moon, David's Last Summer. Nearly half the album. So maybe it's not fair to say Ed Buller didn't appreciate or get what Russell brought to it all.

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