Miscellaneous Irrelevant Ramblings

The song I have chosen to do for the lyrics task is ‘(Cunts Are Still) Running The World’ by Jarvis Cocker. The song is featured as a hidden track at the end of his debut solo album ‘Jarvis’ (released in 2006). The point that Jarvis makes is fairly self explanatory from the title of the song and he doesn’t shy away from saying what he really believes, this is one of the things I admire most about his song-writing. The song was written on the night of Live8 and is essentially a statement on capitalism as well the class system and government in Britain. Jarvis stated this in an interview for the South Bank Show: ‘when you get rampant global capitalism, it’s an economic model intit? but it becomes kind of an ideology and it’s not a nice ideology because it’s main thing is ‘thou shalt make a profit’ and the way to do that is to pay people peanuts’.

I have chosen this song because I admire the way Jarvis Cocker can write with a strong message but at the same time remain witty and dry. When I heard this song for the first time I was struck by the honesty and the emotion in the lyrics. I’ve never heard a song in which a lyricist writes about the way the world works in such a concise and (as far as I’m concerned) accurate manner where he does not censor his thoughts: ‘bluntly put in the fewest of words, cunts are still running the world’. The matter of fact way in which Cocker spits out the words does justice to the argument he is making and combining this with the wise, thought provoking lyrics makes a fitting partnership. The song is a basic pop song in terms of structure and has no instrumental show-offery (I want that to be a word) which I feel gives the lyrics greater importance.

Another thing I like about the song is the way the music progresses from slow, soft piano (not unlike John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’) to a rousing climax of Jarvis Cocker shouting the title in protest. I can’t think of another songwriter who can create a song with a catchy singalong chorus that features the most offensive word in the English Language and get away with it and still sound intelligent. I also love the way Jarvis can make an intellectual point on the state of the world and the way that it’s run but also manages to fit in some language which (if used by a lesser lyricist) may seem childish, anyone who can include, in the same song, the phrases ‘anthropologically unjust’ and ‘shit floats’ deserves a knighthood in my eyes. I feel this is something that very few songwriters can carry off. The latter phrase is used in the opening verse and is used as to convey how he feels about the rich and the powerful. The idea of Cocker’s dismissal of capitalism is introduced straight away:

‘Well did you hear? There’s a natural order.

Those most deserving will end up with the most.

That the cream cannot help but always rise up to the top,

Well I say: Shit floats.

If you thought things had changed,

Friend you’d better think again,

Bluntly put in the fewest of words,

Cunts are still running the world,

Cunts are still running the world.’

I agree with the point Cocker makes about capitalism. I don’t like that the world is controlled by money and that, ultimately, the people with the most dictate the way the world is. Having said that, either due to the fact that the world has always been this way in my lifetime or because of a lack of imagination or intelligence, I can’t honestly

think of that changing anytime soon or a way that I can make any kind of difference in any opinion. Although I don’t particularly feel like I belong to the old fashioned bracket of the ‘working class’, as I have lived a fairly comfortable life so far, I do feel like I can identify with working class (most of all in a hatred of the elitist toffs who control this country). I find that enables me to appreciate the theme of the average man’s struggle against the so called ‘cunts’ who possess all of the money and power and rule society which features increasingly as the song goes on.

I think I can relate to Jarvis Cocker in this way his stance is that of a typical working class man (this is evident in a lot of his songwriting, especially the Pulp album ‘Different Class’) though he is a flamboyant frontman of a britpop band. Aside from everything else, the money and fame which comes attached to being a rockstar means that Jarvis cannot be classed as being working class though he still feels it. I can relate to the way Jarvis feels in that it’s difficult to speak about working class issues when he doesn’t truly belong in that social tier as he describes (once again) in an interview for the South Bank Show: ‘me, the workshy fop, there’s no way I would be working in a steel works or down a mine, it is a bit rich for me to pontificate on this matter’ but that doesn’t stop him from attacking the way the working class are treated by the government. I’ve always felt somewhat guilty for feeling displeased at the way our society works as I know that there are millions of people worse off than I am and I really shouldn’t be complaining as I do genuinely feel lucky and privileged. In the second verse Jarvis comments on how industry in our country is dying:

‘Now the working classes are obsolete,

They are surplus to society’s needs,

So let ‘em all kill each other,

And get it made overseas.

That’s the word don’t you know,

From the guys that are running the show,

Let’s be perfectly clear boys and girls,

Cunts are still running the world,

Cunts are still running the world.’

Here Cocker demonstrates how global capitalism’s fundamental aim to generate profit has lead to industry in this country suffering massively as companies can get

their labour far cheaper in places such as Indonesia or India. This, he believes, has lead to a breakdown in working class culture and greater divide between working and middle class. He explained this too in that same South Bank Show interview: ‘in a way now the working class are sort of the consuming class, all this cheap crap gets produced in Indonesia and therefore someone’s to buy it, and that’s the way to fulfil your role now is to get a lot of credit cards run up a hell of a lot of debt and buy stuff, then you’re contribute, a slightly cynical attitude but I think there’s some truth in it’.

One of the main problems I have with the current system is that the ‘guys who are running the show’ call the shots which affect millions of people and there is nothing that can be done about it. Jarvis Cocker, in this song, gives the working man the voice which is needed in order for this country to be fairer for all. It’s just a pity that people like Jarvis don’t become MPs.

Cocker continues his criticism of the wealthy elite:

‘Oh feed your children on crayfish and lobster tails,
Find a school near the top of the league,
In theory I respect your right to exist,
I will kill you if you move in next to me,

Ah, it stinks, it sucks, it’s anthropologically unjust,
Oh but the takings are up by a third,
Cunts are still running the world,
Cunts are still running the world.
(Cunts are still running the world)
(Cunts are still running the world)’

I love the way he Jarvis openly mocks the types of people who have power and money in our society. ‘crayfish and lobster tails’ is used to highlight his view on their way of life. These people can afford to give their children fancy foods and at the same time, in the same country, some people can barely afford to put food on the table. These upper and middle class people are spoiling their kids and are raising a new generation of overly privileged people who are born with power and will ultimately lead this country in years to come at the same time that others are born into poverty. ‘find a school near the top of the league’ is also mocking of their way of life and showing that these children will be born with everything done for them in order for them to follow in the riches of their parents as well as more likely to have a certain amount of power. Although this song was written under a Labour government, there is a correlation between this verse and the current Tory government where an overwhelming majority have come from a public school background (most notably Eton). It frightens me that for many years to come our society will be governed by people who have had everything on a silver platter since birth and honest tax-paying members of the public don’t have a say.

The idea of the working class not having the influence to effect the government features in the final verse:

‘The free market is perfectly natural,
Do you think that I’m some kind of dummy?
It’s the ideal way to order the world;
Fuck the morals, does it make any money?

And if you don’t like it, then leave.
Or use your right to protest on the street,
Yeah, use your right but don’t imagine that it’s heard,

Not whilst those cunts are still running the world,
Cunts are still running the world’

Jarvis’ view on capitalism is epitomised when he mocks the attitude of the all of the people in the world that have power by saying ‘fuck the morals, does it make any money?’. The line ‘use your right but don’t imagine that it’s heard’ is, for me, one of the most poignant messages in the song. It was an awakening when I heard this song for the first time and this line in particular as it did make me think about the fact that there’s essentially nothing I can do to change anything about the way we’re governed. The ‘cunts’ as Jarvis Cocker describes them won’t listen. It seems to me that politicians give the impression that they listen to the public but in actual fact they all just cater for themselves and people in their social bracket.

I think Cocker is also saying that this song is just an observation and although he is protesting he knows that it will never have the power to change anything. For me the song is a much needed a protest against the government which is rarely seen in music these days and I like how the music progresses to be a joyous sing along middle finger to global capitalism and this country’s government. As Jarvis says himself at the beginning of the promo video for this song: ‘smash the system!’.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=monyiOsoKxg

all-thats-interesting:

Answering the question: what if the largest countries had the biggest populations?

Editor’s note: The image was resized after it was discovered the original was gigantic.