PJ Harvey - A Musical Journey Through Triumphs and Struggles
Polly Jean Harvey, known as PJ Harvey, born in 1969, is a British musician with a diverse talent in various instruments. She embarked on a musical career with the band "PJ Harvey" and achieved early success with albums like "Dry" and "Rid of Me." Despite critical acclaim, she faced personal struggles, including a breakdown and mental health speculations. Through her music, PJ Harvey has left a lasting impact on the alternative music scene with her raw and captivating sound.
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7. P. J. Harvey (born 1969)
EarlyYears Polly Jean Harvey was born in England on October 9th 1969 The daughter of a quarryman father and an artist mother, Polly Jean, or PJ as she is more commonly known, was raised on a sheep farm in Yeovil, Somerset She learned to play a number of instruments as a child (including guitar, saxophone, and violin) and as a teenager played in several bands She was torn for quite a while between her passion for music and her desire to become either a nurse or a vet
First recordings Eventually, at age 21, she formed the band dubbed "PJ Harvey" with bassist SteveVaughnanddrummerRobert Ellis. The newly formed trio recorded their debut EP 'Dress' for very little money, but the demos were good enough to get them signed to British indie label Too Pure who released the EP in late 1991 (to enormous acclaim from the British musicpress) PJ's first full-length record, Dry, was released the following spring, again to lavish praise fromthe musicpress
Pressure and breakdown Shortly after touring in support of the record PJ suffered what was very nearly a total nervous breakdown (due to the pressure of her new found acclaim, success, andthe strains of touring) Nevertheless, she recorded her second album Rid of Me with notorious alternative producerSteveAlbini later that year The record wasreleased in 1993andwasher biggest success todate After the tour for the album Polly Jean parted ways with the two other members of the bandandventured outalone for her nextalbum, 1995's'ToBringYou My Love'. Yet another critical success upon its February 1995 release, Polly toured the album for the next year,then took1996off It was around this time that she had the notorious love affair with the Australian musician NickCave
Speculations about mental health She recordedhernextalbum 'IsThis Desire?' inlate 1997 Its release in 1998 prompted speculation in the music press about her mental state, the album being adeeply disturbing, dark, andconfusingwork Ever stoical aboutherprivate life, PJ refused(forthe mostpart) to comment
The US years Two years later, after living in New York City for much of 1999, she reunited with her former bandmatesand recorded her fifth album 'Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea It was a slightly more mainstream effort than her previous "difficult" works, but nevertheless was well recieved by both old fans and newcomers to her distinctive musical sound She toured the album for most of 2001 and received the Mercury Music Prize (one of the highest honours in the British music industry) for it on September 12th She accepted the award by telephone from Washington DC (where she was on tour at the time) and called receiving the award "a very strange end to a very strange 24 hours" (in reference to the terrorist attacks of the previous morning in Washington and New York) In December 2001 PJ was named the Number 1 female rock star in history by Q magazine
Recent work WhiteChalk(2007) is analbum that bothmusically andlyrically embraces her childhood on theSouth-WestcoastofEngland andmarkeda dramatic change in artistic expression Let EnglandShake (2011), arguablyHarvey s best album, revisits England of theGreat Warandis lyrically inspired by British poets oftheGreat War, such as WilfredOwenorSiegfriedSassoon TheHopeSixDemolition Project (2016) continues the musical line established by the previous album butgoes global lyrically: it wasbornoutofHarvey s travels throughtroubled,war-tornlands such as Afghanistan andKosovo the yearbefore That journeyalso gave birth to her collection ofpoetry, TheHollowofthe Hand, written in collaborationwith the photographerSeamusMurphy
Legacy Quite undoubtedly, alongsideJanisJoplin andPattiSmith, P. J. Harveyis the greatest female rock star ofall times Her innovative style andthe far-reachingscopeofher musical andlyrical expression have been a major sourceofinfluence on the subsequent generation ofsongwriters andmusicians
Example White Chalk White chalk hills are all I've known White chalk hills will rot my bones White chalk sticking to my shoes White chalk playing as a child with you White chalk sat against time White chalk cutting down the sea line I know Mary's by the surf On a path cut 1500 years ago And I know these chalk hills will rot my bones
Dorset's cliffs meet at the sea Where I walked (Our unborn child in me) White chalk (Poor scattered land) Scratch my palms There's blood on my hands
Study questions What does white chalk represent in the text? Describe the landscape in which the lyrics are set. How does white chalk relate to time? What kind of transcending identity does the poetic voice seem to be aspiring to? How would you interpret the reference to an unborn child and blood on my hands towards the end of the song?
