Taking Sides: Common People vs The Boys Are Back In Town

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

so where do you stand? i think they some up different eras of britian but kind of in the same way. but how? i dont know why i have started to link the 2 songs, they kind of do the same thing, but the pulp one invokes a kind of happy nostalgia, even though at time was bittersweet, the thin lizzy one a nasty nostalgia, i hear, and i think of 70s britian but in a depressing way, britain was shit! all these people in too tight faded jeans outside the bullring in birmingham or something, drinking shit drinks and having shit life. theres no happyness in boys in back in town, or rather there is, but its like "not enough".

i dont actually like boys are back in town at all, but it does hold a certain fascination for me, but one i'm unable to quantify to myself.

what do you think?

― gareth (gareth), Monday, 14 July 2003 08:39 (twenty-two years ago)

The Pulp one doesn't evoke happiness or anything once you get to the last verse though, it's more bitter.

― chris (chris), Monday, 14 July 2003 08:43 (twenty-two years ago)

agreed, but what i mean is that hearing it today invokes happy nostalgia for that period (at time was shot through with ambivalence obv)

― gareth (gareth), Monday, 14 July 2003 08:45 (twenty-two years ago)

I ♥ the 70s.

Happiness can fuck off anyway. I got sick of 'Common People' about two months after it came out, though the rest of the album I still listen to.

― N. (nickdastoor), Monday, 14 July 2003 08:48 (twenty-two years ago)

the boys are back in town seems very american whereas common people is self-consciously british, maybe this has something to do with it?

― Mary (Mary), Monday, 14 July 2003 08:51 (twenty-two years ago)

lyrics aside, "common people" just sounds happier. "boys are back in town" has that hard-to-define semi-grittiness that sounds cool at first but seems hollow and forced once you've heard it more than a few times. whereas i don't think i could ever get sick of the pulp song, it's their finest moment by far, and maybe the finest pop moment of the '90s (and there were lots!)

― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Monday, 14 July 2003 08:52 (twenty-two years ago)

ahem, "The Boys Are Back In Town" is Irish. And miles better.

― hstencil, Monday, 14 July 2003 08:52 (twenty-two years ago)

Regardless of the lyrics, both records feel like the greatest most joyful thing ever when you've had a few.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 14 July 2003 08:55 (twenty-two years ago)

Very true, Common people always makes me think of Glastonbury 95 and being in the middle of a huge crowd of people who, for a very big change, all sang along and *all knew the words*. It was bloody marvellous.

― chris (chris), Monday, 14 July 2003 08:58 (twenty-two years ago)

i meant that the boys are back in town song seems copied from '70s americana grit, but maybe i'm wrong? i only thought that when i heard it on that great cd that ally made

― Mary (Mary), Monday, 14 July 2003 09:01 (twenty-two years ago)

I can't hear "The Boys Are Back In Town" without thinking of Gladiators.

― j0e (j0e), Monday, 14 July 2003 09:02 (twenty-two years ago)

Common People being sung as a crowd anthem = dud and not for snobbish reasons.

― N. (nickdastoor), Monday, 14 July 2003 09:07 (twenty-two years ago)

I know N. but at that moment it was fantastic, the irony wasn't exactly lost though.

― chris (chris), Monday, 14 July 2003 09:22 (twenty-two years ago)

Common People being sung as a crowd anthem = dud and not for snobbish reasons.

Go on.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Monday, 14 July 2003 10:22 (twenty-two years ago)

a) it's a first to second person singular chorus
b) there's nothing very common about the majority of the crowds at Glastonbury.

― N. (nickdastoor), Monday, 14 July 2003 10:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Indeed, the everybody hates a tourist line being sung out by thousands of middle-class kids slumming it was slightly ironic

― chris (chris), Monday, 14 July 2003 10:29 (twenty-two years ago)

Jesus Christ. Feel the self-hatred round here! Anyway, Go. Read.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Monday, 14 July 2003 10:48 (twenty-two years ago)

I've read that, Andrew. It's not self-hatred at all. I just can't find a way of making sense bawling it at the top of my voice, let alone in a crowd. Maybe others can be more relaxed or super-irony-layered about it.

I've read that old thing of Tom's, don't worry. I agree with his line "that raging, clever songs like "Common People" don't fit anywhere easily, even after they've conquered the radios and shops".

― N. (nickdastoor), Monday, 14 July 2003 10:58 (twenty-two years ago)

It's a nice line, but it misses the obvious answer: they fit in a Pulp gig. With an audience of people common and not, some of the younger than Pulp the band (okay, I'm now talking more about when I saw them in 2001 than 1995).

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Monday, 14 July 2003 11:38 (twenty-two years ago)

Gareth keeps confusing the two boards lately. Ooh I like it.

This is a bizarre comparison. All this weekend my mom and I were emailing each other in code, using lines from "The Boys are Back in Town" to get things across. Not sure why. Both songs are great. I have been v. v. tempted to post the lyrics to "Common People" on a thread recently but bit my tongue, proverbially. "Common People" is one of the meanest, bitterest songs I can think of and for a long, long time it was something I related to severely and still do in a lot of ways. "The Boys Are Back In Town" I relate to in an entirely different way and I never ever think of the song as being "British" in any way (of course as hstencil points out, it's not).

That is all.

― Ally (mlescaut), Monday, 14 July 2003 12:43 (twenty-two years ago)

"The Boys Are Back In Town" connects Steely Dan to Sham 69. "Common People" sort of does too, but in the entirely opposite way.

― Kris (aqueduct), Monday, 14 July 2003 13:53 (twenty-two years ago)

(Ally, can I get copies of those 2 nice CDs? Please?)

― Mary (Mary), Monday, 14 July 2003 14:52 (twenty-two years ago)

(Yes! You have which one already? The one with the fish cover?)

― Ally (mlescaut), Monday, 14 July 2003 14:52 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm not sure if I like either of these songs, and they definetely don't evoke any memories for me. Especially considering I only lived for 4 years in the 70's, and they were pretty okay years.

― jel -- (jel), Monday, 14 July 2003 15:04 (twenty-two years ago)

(Yeah, I have the giant tuna with the gopi girls.)

― Mary (Mary), Monday, 14 July 2003 15:06 (twenty-two years ago)

(You got the one with the best cover art!! But technically the one with Steve McQueen is a slightly better CD I've decided this past week)

― Ally (mlescaut), Monday, 14 July 2003 15:08 (twenty-two years ago)

I last heard "TBABIT" in a lame Everclear cover = advantage "Common People."

― j.lu (j.lu), Monday, 14 July 2003 15:39 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm not sure there is any single I love more than Common People. A great record. Boys... is terrific too, but nothing much belongs in the same class as Common People.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Monday, 14 July 2003 16:57 (twenty-two years ago)

"Common People" doesn't purr happiness in life (you're bored with life, so you decide to go slummy with the rich chick.) I've always thought of "Boys" as being more peppy and positive. However, they both still have a catchy chorus I can't help shuffling to...

― Nichole Graham (Nichole Graham), Monday, 14 July 2003 22:46 (twenty-two years ago)

(I didn't know that Turbonegro covered Suffragette City!)

― Mary (Mary), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 01:15 (twenty-two years ago)

(Isn't it awesome!)

― Ally (mlescaut), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 02:53 (twenty-two years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.