Ten Years In An Open Necked Shirt by Doctor John Cooper Clarke

Introduction

This is step six of Gary Ragnarsson's Frosted Primrose Challenge. In this part, I read a book (from start to finish) with a blue cover, then publish a review, rant, or recommendation.

I was wondering where I would find a book with a blue cover, and for some reason was wide awake at three o'clock this morning and saw that a lot of my books had covers in various shades of blue, and John Cooper Clarke's book stood out almost saying "Choose Me!!".

All his books on Amazon are here

The music is "Valley Of The Lost Women" which is one of the poems in the book.

Read all about it here:

Ten Years In An Open Necked Shirt

Around 1978 John Peel played the title track of the "Suspended Sentence" EP which was released on Rabid Records from Manchester. I saw John Cooper Clarke on a Granada Reports section probably interviewed by Tony Wilson at his job dispensing material for chemistry to students (I think).

I was impressed, sporting a sixties Dylan hairstyle he was reading poetry to punk audiences and winning them over.

When my band at the time, The Bok, were picked up by Rabid to release a single we went to Manchester, but everyone apart from one guy was in London for the CBS release of John's debut album "Disguise In Love". Jilted John (Graham Fellows) dropped in to record something for his album and said we looked like students.

Rabid folded soon after, I don't know if that was our fault, but John Cooper Clarke continued to release his accompanied poetry on album.

I've included "Valley Of The Lost Women" from the debut album for you to listen to while you read this. It is on page 69 of the book. As I listen to this I am listening to "Anthologia" a retrospective, which also has a blue cover as you can see in the main picture.

In July 2013 Clarke was awarded an honorary doctorate of arts by the University of Salford in "acknowledgement of a career which has spanned five decades, bringing poetry to non-traditional audiences and influencing musicians and comedians."

This a piece when I met the man, "The Bard Of Salford"

His poetry is available to read online for free on his website.

Anyway to what I think about the book.

Ironically, I bought it ten years ago, but the time wasn't always spent in an open-necked shirt.

It opens with a prologue featuring Lenny Siberia and then it goes into the poetry.

I just liked having his words in a hard copy format and it meant I could take it with me if I wanted to read poetry on a bus or train. These days I could have it on a Kindle or free from his website but I do like having a book.

I still think his finest work is "Beasley Street" but in the book it is spelt as "Beezley Street". If you click on the correct spelling it takes you to the full poem.

This is one verse to give you a sneak preview of what to expect

In the cheap seats where murder breeds

Somebody is out of breath

Sleep is a luxury they don’t need

– a sneak preview of death

Belladonna is your flower

Manslaughter your meat

Spend a year in a couple of hours

On the edge of Beasley Street

His Evidently Chckentown was quite lucrative when it was chosen to end an episode of The Sopranos. It is on YouTube here. It contains a lot of swearing but is one of the best Sopranos endings.

I really do like the book, and often pick it up and read a few poems. You can read them online, but if you want a book you can get yourself a copy.

Thank you for reading this.