"She came from Greece, she had a thirst for knowledge," and she's apparently now married to the Greek finance minister. One of Britpop's longest-running mysteries may have finally been solved, as the Athens Voice is claiming it's uncovered the identity of the woman in Pulp's 1995 hit "Common People."
The song tells the story of a privileged young woman studying sculpture at St. Martin's College who decides she wants to slum it with the folks mentioned in the title.
But even songwriter Jarvis Cocker has never been able to track down the lady he based the song on, as revealed in a 2006 BBC Three documentary about the track that came up pretty inconclusive. Now, though, the aforementioned Greek paper is claiming that the song was written about Danae Stratou.
The daughter of wealthy industrialist Phaidon-Stratos and sculptor Helen Portagas-Stratos, Stratou studied sculpture at St. Martin's College from 1983 to 1988 — fitting the description of the song's main character pretty much to a tee. She's currently married to Greece's finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, a member of the left-wing Syriza party. They are pictured above.
And while the parallels may be striking, we doubt that she'll be jumping at the chance to own up to being the song's inspiration. It's not a very flattering portrait, but you can give it a listen nonetheless in the player below.
In sadder news, another one of Cocker's musical muses made headlines recently when Deborah Bone from "Disco 2000" passed away earlier this year.
UPDATE: According to a tweet journalist Yiannis Baboulias, this mystery may still be unsolved after all.
The song tells the story of a privileged young woman studying sculpture at St. Martin's College who decides she wants to slum it with the folks mentioned in the title.
But even songwriter Jarvis Cocker has never been able to track down the lady he based the song on, as revealed in a 2006 BBC Three documentary about the track that came up pretty inconclusive. Now, though, the aforementioned Greek paper is claiming that the song was written about Danae Stratou.
The daughter of wealthy industrialist Phaidon-Stratos and sculptor Helen Portagas-Stratos, Stratou studied sculpture at St. Martin's College from 1983 to 1988 — fitting the description of the song's main character pretty much to a tee. She's currently married to Greece's finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, a member of the left-wing Syriza party. They are pictured above.
And while the parallels may be striking, we doubt that she'll be jumping at the chance to own up to being the song's inspiration. It's not a very flattering portrait, but you can give it a listen nonetheless in the player below.
In sadder news, another one of Cocker's musical muses made headlines recently when Deborah Bone from "Disco 2000" passed away earlier this year.
UPDATE: According to a tweet journalist Yiannis Baboulias, this mystery may still be unsolved after all.
#MYTHBUSTING: No, #Varoufakis' wife cannot be the girl from "Common People". She graduated June 1988, Cocker enrolled September same year.
— Yiannis Βaboulias (@YiannisBab) May 7, 2015