'She came from Greece she had a thirst for knowledge. She studied sculpture at Saint Martin's College, that's where I caught her eye.'
'She came from Greece she had a thirst for knowledge. She studied sculpture at Saint Martin's College, that's where I caught her eye.' The mystery of who Jarvis Cocker wrote classic hit Common People about may finally have been solved.
Rumour has it that Pulp's iconic song is about Danae Stratou, wife of none other than motorcycle-riding, leather jacket clad, Greek finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis.
The Athens Voice newspaper thinks it has cleared up the mystery by naming Danae as the famous object of Jarvis Cocker's affections.
Let's look at the evidence, shall we, with a little analysis of the lyrics?
'She came from Greece' - Yep, this one's a given. 'She studied sculpture at Saint Martin's College' - Danae studied at St Martin's College between 1983 and 1988, specialising in sculpture. She overlapped with the Pulp frontman during his time at the same college from 1988 to 1991.
'She told me that her Dad was loaded' - her paternal grandfather ran Peiraki-Patraiki, which at one point was Greece's largest textiles company and one of the country's biggest employers. Cha-ching.
For his part, Jarvis Cocker has confirmed that the song was written about a real life student, but that she never actually wanted to sleep with him. In 2012, he said during an interview with the BBC: 'I did meet this girl. She was at Saint Martin’s doing a different course. We were at a bar and she was going on about how she wanted to go and live in Hackney with the common people.
'And I thought, well, that’s a bit much. But I did fancy her, so I thought, am I going to let it go or shall I take her to task?
'That’s where the reality of the song finishes… I wanted to get off with this girl but she wasn’t interested at all. She never said that to me.'
Could that be it? Mystery solved? Over to you, Cocker...
