this song by p.j. harvey irritates me because of the overproduction. it irritates me more so because the song would be golden if that were to be remedied. the song is track #5 on the album is this desire?
on the single 'a perfect day elise cd2' there are handwritten some alternative lyrics, which let us see a more direct connection to j.d. salinger’s story a perfect day for bananafish than upon first hearing the song:
took her hands and took her to the shore
and waited on that girl all through the war
?? *de the white hot sun
held her back until he heard her scream
(* the first word cannot fully be seen in the booklet)
the story is about a couple, muriel and seymour, that go on a vacation. muriel is in a hotel room (room 507) convincing her mother, over the phone, that seymour won't do anything crazy. (when seymour came back from the war he was not quite right.) next we see seymour: he's on the beach and a young girl, sybil, begins talking to him. he tells her it's a perfect day for catching bananafish. he seems all cheerful and they try catching some of these legendary fish, but to no avail. when seymour returns to the hotel, muriel is asleep. seymour takes a gun, looks at his wife, and shoots himself in the head. the story is from salinger's collection entitled nine stories, and harvey also makes reference to another story in her song from the same album, angelene.
a perfect day elise was also featured in an episode of mtv's daria.