Sheela-Na-Gig

Harvey wrote it in April 1990 and recorded it with Rob Ellis and Head at The Icehouse in Yeovil during the Dry sessions in November and December 1991. Too Pure released it as a single on 17 February 1992. It reached 69 in the UK and nine on the American modern rock chart. The video, directed by Maria Mochnacz and T. Farthling, mixes live footage, Polaroids, religious imagery and carvings of sheela-na-gigs.

Harvey has said the image of a sheela-na-gig appealed to her because it combines pulling yourself apart with laughing at the same time, and that she wanted that humour. She described the song as a set of moments between lovers about laughing at yourself, with some anger in it. She did not intend it as a feminist song and called it autobiographical.

Live

The band recorded it for John Peel in 1991, and the session appears on The Peel Sessions 1991-2004, released in 2006. Setlist.fm logs it 87 times.