59 Lyndhurst Grove
by Pulp

Album: Razzmatazz Single (1993)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This song is the third and final part of the "Inside Susan: A story in Three Songs" trilogy (not including "The Babysitter", written and released later on as a B-side). Having detailed the main character Susan's early adolescence in "Stacks" and her teenage years in "Inside Susan," we find her here in "59 Lyndhurst Grove" having now grown up, married an estate agent, and moved to "somewhere in South London." Clearly domestic bliss is not to her taking, as she appears to be in an illicit fling with another man in an attempt to bring some excitement to proceedings.
  • Jarvis Cocker explained briefly about the "Inside Susan" trilogy when discussing the "Razzmatazz" single in the 1994 Record Collector interview, where he elaborated on "59 Lyndhurst Grove." Said Cocker: "You follow this character from early adolescence through to early thirties and married to an architect somewhere in South London. The last part, '59 Lyndhurst Grove,' was inspired by a party I'd been to the weekend before. We were thrown out by an architect but I got my own back by writing a song about the event. It was a really crap 'right on' party - there were children there. You don't take your children to a party in my book. I sent a copy of the CD to 59 Lyndhurst Grove, the lady of the house, because she was in a bad situation married to this prick, but she never wrote back. A Japanese fan went there and stood outside and asked if she was Susan!"

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Greg Lake of Emerson, Lake & Palmer

Greg Lake of Emerson, Lake & PalmerSongwriter Interviews

Greg talks about writing songs of "universal truth" for King Crimson and ELP, and tells us about his most memorable stage moment (it involves fireworks).

Mark Arm of Mudhoney

Mark Arm of MudhoneySongwriter Interviews

When he was asked to write a song for the Singles soundtrack, Mark thought the Seattle grunge scene was already overblown, so that's what he wrote about.

Artis the Spoonman

Artis the SpoonmanSong Writing

Even before Soundgarden wrote a song about him, Artis was the most famous spoon player of all time. So why has he always been broke?

Christopher Cross

Christopher CrossSongwriter Interviews

The man who created Yacht Rock with "Sailing" wrote one of his biggest hits while on acid.

Spot The Real Red Hot Chili Peppers Song Titles

Spot The Real Red Hot Chili Peppers Song TitlesMusic Quiz

The Red Hot Chili Peppers have some rather unusual song titles - see if you can spot the real ones.

John Doe of X

John Doe of XSongwriter Interviews

With his X-wife Exene, John fronts the band X and writes their songs.