Details
- Status: A live version was released on a compilation cassette in limited numbers
- Released: See You Later, Agitator! (various artists compilation) (July 1987)
- First played live: '85 probably
Lyrics
Nights of suburbia
Frost, ice and cold here
All my life I was born to be with you here
Frozen in boxes inside makes you dance
So we danced
And we danced
And the virgins became whores
Rolling in green pastures again
Because nights of suburbia
Go on and on and on and...
They go on
One after another
Like if all the nights were similar nights
In reds and that green stocking lace
Piles of stinking crimplene
Behind closed doors faked orgasms
I sit and face the night
You've done it now
For your nights of suburbia
Work, suds and grime here
I was the wrong height
I was rushed
I was born to be with you here
Flaws and cracks said to dance
And we danced
Oh we danced
And we danced
And the virgins became whores
Rolling in green pastures again
Because nights of suburbia
Go on and on and on and...
They go on
It's just one more fish and chip supper away
Sat under a, a fluorescent lamp
Your dead grey potato flesh
Or am I locked
In the rooms of this fuggy house
Paying so dearly now
For all your nights of suburbia
Nights of suburbia
All your words are too cold here
All my life I was born to be with you here
Oh, what's that you wanted?
You danced
And you danced
And you dance
And we danced
And the virgins became whores
Rolling in green pastures again
Because nights of suburbia
Go on and on and on and...
They go on
Just on and on and on and on
(?) cigarettes and pizzas
Making love between sweaty nylon sheets
Thousands of breasts sag behind suburban window panes
Oh, nights of suburbia!
Oh, no
Lend us a quid, Joe?
(indistinct mumbling)
Notes
This song was played live around '85 and '86. It was never recorded properly, however, a live version was released. This was recorded at the '85 Dolebusters Festival in Sheffield. It appeared in '87 on the See You Later, Agitator! cassette, which was a compilation of Sheffield bands put together by Dolebusters (an organisation set up to help unemployed musicians in the city).
In Martin Lilleker's book, Beats Working For a Living: Sheffield Popular Music 1973 - 1984, Jarvis comments that the idea for the song originally came from a song by obscure Sheffield band the Fatales.
Jarvis:
[...] somehow Pulp were always losing bass players, and we'd lost one and we auditioned an ex-member of the Fatales. He wasn't right for us but he did a song of theirs called Night of Suburbia which I liked the title of because I thought it was 'Knights', as in shining armour, and it conjured up images of blokes in suits of armour trampling through Woodhouse or something. So we ripped it off. I then wrote a song called Knights of Suburbia which was basically a rip off of my memory of him singing it in my mother's garage.
Nights of Suburbia is almost entirely different from Styloroc (Nites of Suburbia), which was released on the Babies single in '92. Although the latter does include a few of the same lyrics. However, there is another connection. The See You Later, Agitator! compilation came with a booklet that contained pages produced by many of the bands featured. Pulp's page contained the following notes:
After many weeks in the wilderness we came upon a strange and exotic land. A land of happy hours where the skies are always grey & the food always greasy. We drank strange dark brown liquids & our stomachs swelled like balloons. A thousand fake orgasms every night behind the thick dralon curtains. breasts hang slack beneath synthetic lace negligees. We sank back into mauve P.V.C. sofas & called out for chips, peas & curry sauce open on a tray. Outside the dogs roamed the streets & the rooftops glistened with rain but now we have grown so fat that we can no longer pass through the door. So stay we must, amidst the piles & piles of stinking crimpelene, sprouting thick, black hairs beneath our Bri nylon underwear. Yes, here we will stay for evermore.
Because Nights of Suburbia go on & on & on &.........
Curiously, these are essentially the lyrics to Styloroc (Nites of Suburbia).
This is the page:
