Songfacts®:

• This, like many songs on the smash-hit Different Class album, went over very well in a live environment - it got a full performance on Later with Jools Holland in November 1995 (complete with full orchestra emulating the orchestral arrangement on the original track), and was a regular throughout the Different Class touring era, before being dropped and returning on the 2011-12 reunion tour and their farewell show at the Motorpoint Arena in Sheffield.
• The bitter narrator fantasizes about causing chaos in an affluent London neighborhood where he views its residents with hatred. "'I Spy' is probably one of the most savage songs that I've ever written," Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker told Melody Maker in 1995. "It's definitely the most vindictive. I wrote it about the time I was on the dole in Sheffield. Sometimes if you're in a real cocky mood, you can walk down the street and kind of despise people from above. You know that kind of superior hate. There you are, walking down the street and everyone just thinks you're this useless, jobless piece of crap. But inside, you feel really strong. Their hatred sort of helps you feel that way. You know what's going on, you've got their number, and you know you're gonna get your own back some day... I think it's important to acknowledge that you've got these feelings inside you. It's usually when you don't admit to those things, or fail to recognise them that they build up and explode."