ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN SINGLES : #044

aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Sexy Loser

#044– John Cooper Clarke – ‘Suspended Sentence’ (Rabid Records ’77)

Hello friends,

as I mentioned numerous times by now, I suppose, I didn’t grow up with the music we all love so much, because I was a bit too young back then. Joy Division being a prime example, I missed them by, say, four or five years. They, like The Clash, soon became absolute favorites and after having bought the six records widely available, I started to delve deeper – into the Warsaw corner, to be precise. Back in those days, getting hold of the unreleased RCA album was like finding the holy grail, so naturally it took me quite a while to achieve this. But in the meantime I got my hands on a copy of ‘Short Circuit’, a 10” EP on Virgin, which featured live recordings from the Electric Circus, if memory serves correctly it was some ‘protest’ against its closure – but I might well be wrong here.

Either way, on this EP were some great tracks, ‘At A Later Date’ by Joy Division – that’s what I bought the record for, of course, but also The Fall, Buzzcocks, Steel Pulse, plus two tunes by John Cooper Clarke – a chap until then totally unbeknownst to me. I didn’t understand everything he went on about on the two songs on this EP, ‘(You Never See A Nipple In The) Daily Express’ and ‘I Married A Monster From Outer Space’. But what I understood was simply great, I listened to those two tracks over and over again – fantastic stuff, I thought!

Then, not very much later, Peel played a track from John Cooper Clarke’s very first output, the ‘Innocents’ EP. As it is often the case, first records are the best records, and although I listened to the two early albums in their entirety, the old theory proved itself right again here. I always thought that if John Cooper Clarke could have kept the level he showed on the first record, he would probably rule the world by now. You think I’m exaggerating? Oh, just listen to this:

mp3: John Cooper Clarke – Suspended Sentence

Apparently I was not the only one who thought that Cooper Clarke was – and probably still is – some sort of genius: in 2013 Salford University made him an honorary doctor of arts for delivering poetry and influencing artists for five decades. John’s reply: “Now I’m a doctor, finally my dream of opening a cosmetic surgery business can become a reality.”… great!

What else is there to mention? Well, most importantly perhaps, that our man is still going strong, there are loads of gigs in the UK and in Ireland in spring next year – and John will be 75 years of age then! Me, I’m 20 years younger but still tend to moan just when getting off the couch, so bloody go and see him when you get the chance!

And finally, to those of you who, like me, always had some trouble in understanding all of the lyrics – his website is ace, and it has the lyrics to each and every song (if I had had this internet thing 40 years ago, my life would have been much easier indeed): 

John Cooper Clarke – Poems

so there is no excuse not to sing along loudly to today’s choice, right?

Enjoy, friends – and take good care,

Dirk