John Cooper Clarke - I Wanna Be Yours

 A poet who came to prominence during the 70's punk rock era, JCC has released books, records, appeared in movies (he reached a number of people via his performance in Urgh! A Music War) and does his best to dominate any media. While he made records with musical backing, his live act was generally just Clarke and his words, and he often appeared with some of the biggest punk rock bands of the time. He faded into a heroin addicted obscurity for a number of years before re-emerging in the new century and continues to perform in multiple media to this day. Funnily, his story intersects with other recent reads of mine, namely Nico and the Fall's Mark Smith due to his Manchester connections (where Clarke was born and raised).

Being a writer, he is a wordy cuss and is far from afraid of detailing every bit of minutia of his life's story, with plenty of asides - all interesting and witty, but not necessarily necessary to the tale, but then I suppose that simply telling his tale isn't his goal. He does his best to create the Manchesterian world that he grew up in during the 40's and 50's along with the rest of his sex'n'drugs'n'poetry lifestyle. 

Of course, a life-changing event was the emergence of rock'n'roll and, even more so, British rock'n'roll with the likes of the Beatles and the Stones and, being a fashion conscious young man, Clarke became affiliated with the burgeoning Mod scene. Manchester was a pretty happening music city too, and he got to see all of the best bands at the time, including some of the biggest acts from America, ranging from soul to blues to rock'n'roll. A pretty incredible time in our history and Clarke was smack in the middle of it.

Naturally he had to try his hand at being a rock'n'roller but what he really wanted to be was a poet, of all things, and got his chance at performing at a happening in the late 60's, accompanied by a hepcat trombonist, which led to more work at the Modernist jazz clubs in town. From there he moved into some cabarets, strip clubs, and lounges and was already working fairly steadily before "punk rock" hit and with that he found his true audience. Manchester was, of course, a major complex for British punk and he traveled with some of these bands (he was particularly close with The Fall) to London to expand his reach and he even got a recording contract, which pushed his fame even further. Not bad for a junkie poet that everyone said would never get anywhere!

The 70's and 80's were his biggest years as far as I can tell) and there are innumerable stories included here of those times - he is a uniquely talented gent, but he was also an incredibly lucky cuss, especially considering he was a complete junkie, and got more breaks than one would think humanly possible. He did eventually clean up once he found love and after a long dry spell, started writing and working again and, apparently, continues to this day.

Clarke absolutely has a way with words and can tell a tale and brings to life some of the more exciting times in rock'n'roll and pop culture. Definitely a recommended read!