Pulp -- Babies -- ??

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I've recently reacquainted myself with His'n'Hers by Pulp (such high peaks, such low valleys...).

Babies is a fantastic poppy song -- it certainly ranks with my fave Pulp songs.

I know I am dense but ...
what exactly happens at the end of this song? Who is speaking to whom and what is the meaning of what they say?

Here are the lyrics:

Well it happened years ago when you lived on Stanhope Road.
We listened to your sister when she came home from school
'cos she was two years older and she had boys in her room.
We listened outside and heard her.
Alright. Well that was alright for a while but soon I wanted more.
I want to see as well as hear and so I hid inside her wardrobe.
And she came round four and she was
with some kid called David from the garage up the road
I listened outside I heard her.
Alright. Oh I want to take you home.
I want to give you children. You might be my girlfriend, yeah.
When I saw you next day I really couldn't tell 'cos you might go and tell your mother.
And so you went with Neve and Neve was coming on
And I thought I heard you laughing when his Mum and Dad were gone.
I listened outside, I heard you. Alright. Oh I want to take you home...etc.
Well I guess it couldn't last too long.
I came home one day and all her things were gone, I fell asleep inside.
I never heard her come. And then she opened up her wardrobe and I had to get it on.
Oh, listen we were on the bed when you came home, I heard you stop outside the door.
I know you won't believe it's true, I only went with her 'cos she looks like you.
Oh I want to take you home...[etc.]

― Matt Sab (Matt Sab), Monday, 2 August 2004 13:47 (twenty-one years ago)

he stayed in the wardrobe in the older sister's room, outside which he and the younger sister used to listen to the elder's sexual escapades.
the older sister found him, and they had escapades of their own, with the younger girl listening outside, not realising it was him inside with her sister.

i always listened as if the younger was his "long time steady" and that he was singing it to her apologetically - and saying "i only slept with her because she reminded me of you", although not exactly with full sincerity.

that's been my take on it all these years...

and yeah HnH is my fave Pulp album. So many great tracks.... Acrylic Afternoons, She's A Lady, Lipgloss, Joyriders, etc etc

Funny thing, though. I don't consider babies to be a HnH track, cos i got the single when it came out and it was also on that Intro record that compiled the three singles on Gift...

― rentboy (rentboy), Monday, 2 August 2004 13:55 (twenty-one years ago)

oh and that bit about her going with another boy also setrs up the jealousy/retaliation/i fucked your sister scenario rather well

― rentboy (rentboy), Monday, 2 August 2004 13:58 (twenty-one years ago)

although not exactly with full sincerity.
I think the chorus makes it clear that it's the older sister that he really wants. So yeah, there's no need for him to speak those lines sincerely, since he was only using the younger sister to get closer to the older one.

― Barry Bruner (Barry Bruner), Monday, 2 August 2004 15:29 (twenty-one years ago)

We've all done it.

― Alba (Alba), Monday, 2 August 2004 16:43 (twenty-one years ago)

This is the royal we, I assume.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 2 August 2004 17:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Hmm? I always saw it as being totally sincere - he never got past the platonic stage w/ her, and she went off w/ someone else (even tho they both really wanted each other); him having sex with her sister ended any possibilities of this ever changing. I dunno, for me the last line works a lot better as a statement on the irony of the whole chain of events than as him trying to talk himself out of a problematic situation, the idea that neither of them got what they really wanted adds a bit of poignancy to the song, plus it's very in tune with the title ("babies" as a signifier of a lack of maturity, they were all too young to deal with things like they should have.) He sounds very bitter and regretful, and the "it happened years ago" line suggests that he's only thinking back on her, or maybe talking to her after a long time has passed (tho of course they could have been an item during all that time too, so the other interpretation is credible here, too, but I still prefer mine)

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Monday, 2 August 2004 18:07 (twenty-one years ago)

I agree with Daniel generally, and particularly like his interpretation of the title.

― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Monday, 2 August 2004 18:10 (twenty-one years ago)

"And so you went with Neve and Neve was coming on
And I thought I heard you laughing when his Mum and Dad were gone."

Those two lines have confused me for years; I've never, ever heard of a bloke being called Neve, except in this song. It's a bit of a strange name to choose.

― Kate Jane Connolly (fixitgirl), Tuesday, 3 August 2004 07:41 (twenty-one years ago)

maybe it's short for neville?

― purple patch (electricsound), Tuesday, 3 August 2004 07:46 (twenty-one years ago)

But if it was short for Neville, wouldn't you pronounce it "Nev"?

― Kate Jane Connolly (fixitgirl), Tuesday, 3 August 2004 08:23 (twenty-one years ago)

When I saw you next day I really couldn't tell 'cos you might go and tell your mother.
And so you went with Neve and Neve was coming on

This is a terrible non sequitur, anyway.

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 3 August 2004 08:29 (twenty-one years ago)

His 'N' Hers is a ridiculously underrated record. "David's Last Summer" in particular is an awesome song.

― Marcello Carlin, Tuesday, 3 August 2004 08:43 (twenty-one years ago)

That's a better non sequitur.

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 3 August 2004 09:11 (twenty-one years ago)

i remember this moron irish journalist called barry egan wrote (in a glowing piece about pulp) something like "babies is a seedy tale of jarvis' incestuous relationship with his sister". uh, listen again, mr.egan?

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Tuesday, 3 August 2004 10:56 (twenty-one years ago)

*great* song, btw. i enjoy the album two - the first of the great pulp trilogy.

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Tuesday, 3 August 2004 10:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Brilliant song, from my favourite Pulp album - although I prefer 'She's A Lady' if I had to pick one, as it perfects the song-long climax thing that Pulp did so well.

Do you think 'I never heard her come' is a double-entendre? They had sex, but it wasn't great, and in all that time listening to her outside the bedroom he never actually heard her (hey, lets use the word again) climax?

Also, the 'YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH' bit at the end... It could just be Jarvis filling space, but I think it also has something to do with the climax, both of the song, and the sex.

Climax, climax, climax. Its such a nice word..

― hobart paving (hobart paving), Tuesday, 3 August 2004 11:05 (twenty-one years ago)

People, OPO = PINK GLOVE.

"His N Hers" isn't really underrated, it's just tremendously overshadowed by its successor. It was rated very high at the time.

― Barry Bruner (Barry Bruner), Tuesday, 3 August 2004 14:17 (twenty-one years ago)

*sigh* I suppose I should post here.

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Tuesday, 3 August 2004 14:34 (twenty-one years ago)

He does not sing 'Neve', I have always thought.

I think I have always thought he sang: 'And so you went with me / She was coming on', or something. Whatever - not 'Neve'.

― the babefox, Tuesday, 3 August 2004 20:25 (twenty-one years ago)

My favourite Pulp song.

rentboy's interpretation seems most reasonable to me - judging from the whole jealous-manipulation feeling Pulp have going.

― Sasha (sgh), Wednesday, 4 August 2004 03:52 (twenty-one years ago)

It says Neve in the lyrics booklet, though... I'll never understand! And if it was "and so you went with me" then the next line wouldn't make sense, "And I thought I heard you laughing/ When his mum and dad were gone."

― Kate Jane Connolly (fixitgirl), Wednesday, 4 August 2004 10:19 (twenty-one years ago)

One aspect I'd not considered is that the story is shared with the younger sister years after the events... relevant?

similar to Disco 2000's tale of missed love...

― Matt Sab (Matt Sab), Thursday, 5 August 2004 01:58 (twenty-one years ago)

I didn't know there was a lyric booklet!

Ca change tout.

― the pulpfox, Thursday, 5 August 2004 15:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Please do not read the lyrics whilst listening to the recordings.

― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Thursday, 5 August 2004 19:09 (twenty-one years ago)

five years pass...

This song, maybe only to me, sounds like a comic-sexual spin on "Just Like Heaven"

― Cunga, Thursday, 10 December 2009 00:38 (sixteen years ago)

"And I thought I heard you laughing when his Mum and Dad were gone."
...stalker!

― Paul, Thursday, 10 December 2009 03:39 (sixteen years ago)

with the younger girl listening outside, not realising it was him inside with her sister.

always took it that she did know it was him: "I heard you stop outside the door."
she stopped cos she heard/recognized his voice. and in the chorus it's the younger sister he wishes he had babies with.
unrequited lurve!

― Paul, Thursday, 10 December 2009 03:46 (sixteen years ago)

isn't this the sequel = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVPBgE9tZ0E ?

― piscesx, Thursday, 10 December 2009 11:41 (sixteen years ago)

twelve years pass...

Please do not read the lyrics whilst listening to the recordings.

otm

― We Have Never Been In Precise Modern Lovers Order (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 20 October 2022 18:27 (three years ago)

I always did though

― link.exposing.politically (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Thursday, 20 October 2022 18:28 (three years ago)

Did you sort out who Neve was then?

― We Have Never Been In Precise Modern Lovers Order (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 20 October 2022 18:39 (three years ago)

I wrote a looooooong thing about it once, not sure I made anything any clearer tbh

https://pulpsongs.wordpress.com/2013/08/17/103-babies/

― link.exposing.politically (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Thursday, 20 October 2022 19:00 (three years ago)

Thanks!

― We Have Never Been In Precise Modern Lovers Order (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 20 October 2022 19:47 (three years ago)

Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

― We Have Never Been In Precise Modern Lovers Order (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 22 October 2022 15:00 (three years ago)

Think I forgot one sorry

― We Have Never Been In Precise Modern Lovers Order (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 22 October 2022 15:17 (three years ago)

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