The Garden, a PJ Harvey Discussion Site

Someone has added a humorous (if you're aged about 9) intro to Polly's Wikipedia page. For some reason my IP address has been banned & I can't remove it. Perhaps somebody who can would like to remove this puerile rubbish?

Not really PJ I know, but he's one of the few artists I know whose integrity & desire to progress & innovate matched hers. He was so honest that once he thought he had gone as far as he could he simply stopped (not that Polly's reached that point I hasten to add).

For some reason I'm particularly ...

Many thanks for that. Really interesting insight into someone who seems to have contradictory characteristics - very shy, diffident, rather nervous, yet selfish & impulsive at the same time. Got the feeling there was an awful lot he wasn't going to tell us about!

It's certainly a bit different to Vaughan Williams' interpretation!

Apologies if this has been posted before, but I came across this highly academic essay on Polly's Man-Size Sextet by a professor at Cornell. I suspect it's a fairly old piece :

http://music.cornell.edu/sites/people/files/Peraino-Judith-PJ-Harvey1.pdf

Personally I'm not sure there is quite the ...

I'm dying to hear the full track. Her voice is the most magical thing I've ever heard.

Mentioned this on the Admiration thread. Really got the feeling that Paul Whitehouse (narrating) had the utmost appreciation of her. She seemed to get more time than nearly all the others. I wonder who chose the clips?

Possibly slightly OT, but 25 years of Later with Jools Holland was on tonight. There was a little section on Polly & I couldn't help but feel Paul Whitehouse (narrator) had the most respect & admiration for her out of all the acts.
But then I would feel that wouldn't I!

"But first the notion that man has a body distinct from his soul, is to be expunged: this I shall do, by printing in the infernal method, by corrosives, which in Hell are salutary and medicinal, melting apparent surfaces away, and displaying the infinite which was hid.

If the doors of perception ...

I know, but I can't let it lie! I think I'm actually using other people's opinions to test my own, to clarify my own thoughts about something. I try to argue in a rational way - if someone's prepared to offer a decent argument back! It's usually pretty pointless unfortunately.

I had a fairly long, ahem, discussion with somebody commenting on this video a year or so ago. He gave up in the end (I like to think because of my well argued points about her undeniable talent, but perhaps he just got bored).

Many thanks for that -what a wonderful interview! Just a shame we can't hear it (except in our heads, of course).

. So – if I was being mischievous – I’d say that that lovely, serene piece you linked to is the absolute polar opposite of the restless discontent of early Polly.

It's certainly the polar opposite, but I suspect that's because it comes from a different part of the brain; perhaps a 'higher' part ...

AineteEkaterini, thank you for a thoughtful appreciation of where you see Polly at the moment, & how it fits into her development. As I've said, I think she's up a blind alley at the moment & am hoping it may yet metamorphose into something new & wonderful, a new synthesis perhaps.

I think Paglia ...

AineteEkaterini, I think it's Paglia's contention that art springs from very deep & dark parts of the brain - the Id really I suppose - that become mediated by the higher brain centres & transformed into communicable art. She says it often has its source in dreams, & I think Polly has mentioned this ...