The Operation

Album: 5.55 (2006)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • In this song, former Pulp lead singer Jarvis Cocker's lyrics compare obsessive love to an operation. The subject matter was uncannily echoed the following year when Gainsbourg had to have surgery following a brain hemorrhage.
  • Gainsbourg likes to sing behind a sheet in the studio. She explained why to The Mail on Sunday June 13, 2010: "My greatest struggle has been finding confidence as a singer. Though I've made three albums, I never think of myself as a singer. Stepping up to a microphone has always been traumatic for me, because I've felt like I was standing in the shadow of my father's greatness. When I was making the 5.55 album with Jarvis Cocker in 2006, he could see how intimidated I was in the studio. He'd been the same when he started out, and explained that he used to hide his face behind a cloth when he sang in the studio. That gave me the idea of singing behind a sheet. It was liberating to isolate myself in that way."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Chris Robinson of The Black Crowes

Chris Robinson of The Black CrowesSongwriter Interviews

"Great songwriters don't necessarily have hit songs," says Chris. He's written a bunch, but his fans are more interested in the intricate jams.

16 Songs With a Heartbeat

16 Songs With a HeartbeatSong Writing

We've heard of artists putting their hearts into their music, but some take it literally.

Dar Williams

Dar WilliamsSongwriter Interviews

A popular contemporary folk singer, Williams still remembers the sticky note that changed her life in college.

Vanessa Carlton

Vanessa CarltonSongwriter Interviews

The "A Thousand Miles" singer on what she thinks of her song being used in White Chicks and how she captured a song from a dream.

Timothy B. Schmit of the Eagles

Timothy B. Schmit of the EaglesSongwriter Interviews

Did this Eagle come up with the term "Parrothead"? And what is it like playing "Hotel California" for the gazillionth time?

Harold Brown of War

Harold Brown of WarSongwriter Interviews

A founding member of the band War, Harold gives a first-person account of one of the most important periods in music history.