SHE CAME FROM Greece, she had a thirst for knowledge.
She studied sculpture at St Martin’s College. That’s where this guy (Jarvis Cocker) caught her eye.
But was the subject of Pulp’s Common People a woman named Danae Stratou, who happens to be married to current Greek Finance Minister, Yanis Varoufakis?
The internet is ablaze with rumours that Stratou is indeed the very person. And yes, Cocker did say that the song was based on a real woman.
“We were at a bar and she was going on about how she wanted to live in Hackney, with the common people,” he recalled of the unnamed student.
The rumours have been freshly stoked by Athens Voice, in an article where it says that the “urban myth” is that Stratou is the commoner-seeking artist in question.
Stratou hasn’t publicly commented on the suggestion, but here’s what we found when we compared the lyrics of Common People with Stratou’s real life:
Reality: Stratou was born in Athens, Greece.
Reality: Stratou did study sculpture at Saint Martin’s College, from 1983 to 1988. Today, she works as an acclaimed artist.
Jarvis Cocker studied at St Martin’s from 1988 to 1991.
Stratou’s dad Phaedon is said to be “wealthy industrialist”, and her mother Eleni Potaga-Stratou is a famous sculptor.
Predictably, the internet is going a little wild at the thought of Stratou being the wannabe commoner from the classic indie track:
However, there’s another twist to the tale: an artist named Katerina Kana said in an interview that she was the one who told Jarvis Cocker she wanted to live like common people.
Come on Jarvis, put us out of our misery.
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