Belle and Sebastian released their first two albums in 1996: Tigermilk, recorded over three days, and If You're Feeling Sinister, recorded in a week, at the peak of the chamber pop movement. At first, some critics in Britain's music weeklies tied the band into the subgenre, yet the group was too pretty, too delicate, to bear that label. Through their first two years of public existence, the band shielded their personalities, submitting publicity photos featuring a girl, who was a friend of the band and reluctantly posing for photo shoots. Furthermore, they performed in odd venues, playing not only the standard coffeehouses and cafes, but also homes, church halls, and libraries.
Prior to the formation of Belle and Sebastian, Murdoch suffered from a protracted battle with chronic fatigue syndrome, which forced him to drop out of school and spend seven years living in his parents' home crippled by his condition.Whilst in his parents home, Murdoch wrote a short story about a boy named Sebastian and a girl named Isabelle based on the names from Madame Cecile Aubery's children's book Belle et Sebastian. On New Year's Day 1996, Stuart attended a party at which he met a young singer and cellist named Isobel Campbell. In a letter to his brother Fraser, Murdoch explained how he was making a single for Stow college at the end of February. Murdoch opted to use the name Belle&Sebastian for the project because it was occupying him at the time. Murdoch took to songwriting as an escapism from the four walls surrounding him in his room and eventually recorded demos with bassist Stuart David whom he met at a government training programme called Beatbox. Murdoch quickly met a series of other musicians through social and musical circles in his hometown Glasgow and they agreed to help with the Stow project. The members he found for this initial lineup were Stevie Jackson (guitar), Mick Cooke (trumpet), Chris Geddes (keyboards), Stuart David (bass), Richard Colburn (drums), and Isobel Campbell (cello). The Stow College record was to be issued by Electric Honey, but it turned into a full album. The course instructor Alan Rankine determined that Murdoch had enough good material to record a full LP and could do so if they could get it all done in three days, studio time allotted for the single. Murdoch and his musicians rose to the challenge and recorded ten tracks putting the songs in order as they would appear on the record and mostly completing them in just a few takes.
In May of 1996, Belle and Sebastian self-released their debut album, Tigermilk, on Electric Honey Records. Only 1,000 copies of the album, which was only pressed on vinyl, were released, but it unexpectedly became a sensation, earning terrific word of mouth throughout the UK. As a result, the band became slightly more than a school project — it became an actual band. If You're Feeling Sinister, released on the independent Jeepster label, followed in November of 1996. By the time the album was released in America on the EMI subsidiary The Enclave, it had earned considerable critical acclaim in the U.K. — not only from music weeklies, but from newspapers like The Sunday Times and magazines like The Face — and a large cult following; by some accounts, Tigermilk was being sold for as much as 75 pounds. Over the course of 1997, word of mouth continued to grow in America, even as the band pulled out of an American tour because The Enclave went bankrupt and closed.
As the band cult continued to build in 1997, Belle and Sebastian released three EPs — Dog on Wheels (May), Lazy Line Painter Jane (July), and 3.. 6.. 9 Seconds of Light (October). Each subsequent EP placed higher on the indie charts and received great critical acclaim. Later in the year, violinist Sarah Martin became a member of the band. By the end of the year, the group finalized an American deal with Matador Records, issuing The Boy With the Arab Strap in September 1998. The following year saw the eagerly anticipated wide re-release of Tigermilk, the album that started it all. It was the biggest selling album but is unpopular with the group themselves. Following completion of 2000's Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant, Stuart David left Belle and Sebastian to focus full-time on his solo project, Looper, being replaced by Bobby Kildea of V-Twin. In 2001, the group released two EPs — Jonathan David and I'm Waking Up to Us — and recorded the soundtrack for Todd Solondz's film Storytelling. Just before the soundtrack's release in spring 2002, Belle and Sebastian embarked on a comprehensive tour of the United States and Canada before returning to Europe for the summer festival season. Midway through the tour, Isobel Campbell left the band, citing the usual differences.
Another major change that soon took place was the band leaving Jeepster and Matador to sign with Rough Trade, with their next record, late 2003's Dear Catastrophe Waitress, produced by the inimitable Trevor Horn (who also produced Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Yes, and scores of others). The record spawned the brilliant "Step into My Office, Baby" and "I'm a Cuckoo" singles, the latter of which was the group's biggest U.K. hit, reaching number 14 in early 2004. After a long worldwide tour that found Belle and Sebastian reaching new levels of success, they retired to Scotland and began preparing for the recording of their seventh full length album, The Life Pursuit, released in 2006.
In 2010, they released their eighth full length album, Write About Love.
Official website: www.belleandsebastian.com
Le Pastie De La Bourgeoisie
Belle and Sebastian Lyrics
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You'd stay home, oh if only they let you
Le Pastie de la Bourgeoisie
Municipal pool, you're a junior life saver
But you're friends are all serious ravers
Le Pastie de la Bourgeoisie
Reading Judy Blume
You're too tall, much too tall for a boyfriend
They run and hide, from your buck tooth and split ends
Don't be scared, like the books you've read
You're the heroine
You'll be doing fine
Wouldn't you like to get away?
Bestowing the memory of good and evil
On the ones you left behind
The heartless swine
And you love like nobody around you
How you love, and a halo surrounds you
Le Pastie de la Bourgeoisie
In the Autumn cool
Say cheerio to school
Listen Dear, I've been watching you lately
If I said all these things you would hate me
Le Pastie de la Bourgeoisie
At the church bazaar
I nearly went too far
Wouldn't you like to get away?
Give yourself up to the allure of
Catcher In The Rye
The future's swathed in Stars and Stripes
Wouldn't you like to get away?
Kerouac's beckoning with open arms,
And open roads of eucalyptus
Westward bound
The lyrics to Belle and Sebastian's song Le Pastie De La Bourgeoisie convey complex emotions with unusual descriptions. The verses tell the story of an introverted girl with a love for literature, a towering height, and eccentric looks. She's always the odd one out, excluded from social events and deemed unattractive by her peers. However, despite the scorn, the singer is brave and resilient, as she finds solace in reading and in a spiritual love that surrounds her.
One of the central themes of the song is the need to escape a mundane world into a more exciting life, full of adventure and freedom. The chorus repeatedly asks the listener, "Wouldn't you like to get away?" implying a longing for something beyond the confines of conventional society. The lyrics suggest that books are one of the singer's escapes, as she reads Judy Blume and Catcher In The Rye. Still, she also seeks real-life experiences, epitomized by Kerouac's open roads of eucalyptus, beckoning her to the west.
The song's structure is also noteworthy, as the storytelling is interspersed with repeated passages anchored around the phrase, "Le Pastie de la Bourgeoisie." The repeated use of this phrase reinforces the idea that the singer's story is part of a bigger picture, one that involves class struggles and societal constraints. The lyrics' cleverness lies in how they take a sympathetic approach to the singer, emphasizing her inner resilience and determination to flourish despite the challenges she faces.
Line by Line Meaning
Sunbeam shone, mousy girl on the end pew
A girl sits at the church, standing out with her reserved character.
You'd stay home, oh if only they let you
She would prefer to stay at home but societal obligations are pushing her to attend church.
Municipal pool, you're a junior life saver
She works as a junior lifeguard at the local pool.
But you're friends are all serious ravers
Her friends are deeply involved in rave culture.
Reading Judy Blume
She reads coming of age novels.
But you came too soon
However, she has reached an age of maturity earlier than her peers.
You're too tall, much too tall for a boyfriend
She is too tall and awkward for boys to be attracted to her.
They run and hide, from your buck tooth and split ends
The boys avoid her due to her unattractive physical features.
Don't be scared, like the books you've read
She should not be afraid of being different, like the heroines in her favorite coming of age novels.
You're the heroine
She is herself the artist of her own story.
You'll be doing fine
She will do well if she stays true to herself.
Wouldn't you like to get away?
She desires to escape from her mundane life.
Bestowing the memory of good and evil
She wants to leave behind a legacy of morality.
On the ones you left behind
To those who will come after her.
The heartless swine
She refers to those who do not adhere to such morals as "heartless swine".
And you love like nobody around you
She is capable of loving without being influenced by outside forces.
How you love, and a halo surrounds you
Her love is pure and righteous, as if she is an angel with a halo.
In the Autumn cool
The scene takes place in autumn.
Say cheerio to school
She is saying goodbye to the educational system.
Listen Dear, I've been watching you lately
The artist is addressing the girl directly.
If I said all these things you would hate me
The artist thinks that the girl would not appreciate their praise.
At the church bazaar
The story takes place at a church charity event.
I nearly went too far
The singer almost revealed their opinion on the girl's character.
Give yourself up to the allure of
She should surrender to the fascination of...
Catcher In The Rye
The novel 'Catcher in the Rye'.
The future's swathed in Stars and Stripes
Her future is closely tied to America.
Kerouac's beckoning with open arms,
The work of author Jack Kerouac is calling to her.
And open roads of eucalyptus
She desires to see the world, particularly places with eucalyptus trees.
Westward bound
She wants to travel westward towards new adventures and opportunities.
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: CAMPBE, CHRISTOPHER GEDDES, ISOBEL CAMPBELL, MICHAEL COOKE, RICHARD COLBURN, SARAH MARTIN, STEPHEN JACKSON, STUART MURDOCH
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind