The Operation

Album: 5.55 (2006)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • In this song, former Pulp lead singer Jarvis Cocker's lyrics compare obsessive love to an operation. The subject matter was uncannily echoed the following year when Gainsbourg had to have surgery following a brain hemorrhage.
  • Gainsbourg likes to sing behind a sheet in the studio. She explained why to The Mail on Sunday June 13, 2010: "My greatest struggle has been finding confidence as a singer. Though I've made three albums, I never think of myself as a singer. Stepping up to a microphone has always been traumatic for me, because I've felt like I was standing in the shadow of my father's greatness. When I was making the 5.55 album with Jarvis Cocker in 2006, he could see how intimidated I was in the studio. He'd been the same when he started out, and explained that he used to hide his face behind a cloth when he sang in the studio. That gave me the idea of singing behind a sheet. It was liberating to isolate myself in that way."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Donny Osmond

Donny OsmondSongwriter Interviews

Donny Osmond talks about his biggest hits, his Vegas show, and the fan who taught him to take "Puppy Love" seriously.

Mike Love of The Beach Boys

Mike Love of The Beach BoysSongwriter Interviews

The lead singer/lyricist of The Beach Boys talks about coming up with the words for "Good Vibrations," "Fun, Fun, Fun," "Kokomo" and other classic songs.

Emilio Castillo from Tower of Power

Emilio Castillo from Tower of PowerSongwriter Interviews

Emilio talks about what it's like to write and perform with the Tower of Power horns, and why every struggling band should have a friend like Huey Lewis.

How "A Rolling Stone Gathers No Moss" Became Rock's Top Proverb

How "A Rolling Stone Gathers No Moss" Became Rock's Top ProverbSong Writing

How a country weeper and a blues number made "rolling stone" the most popular phrase in rock.

Bill Withers

Bill WithersSongwriter Interviews

Soul music legend Bill Withers on how life experience and the company you keep leads to classic songs like "Lean On Me."

Lou Gramm - "Waiting For A Girl Like You"

Lou Gramm - "Waiting For A Girl Like You"They're Playing My Song

Gramm co-wrote this gorgeous ballad and delivered an inspired vocal, but the song was the beginning of the end of his time with Foreigner.