Evidently Chickentown
"Evidently Chickentown" is a poem by the English performance poet John Cooper Clarke. The poem uses repeated profanity to convey a sense of futility and exasperation.[1] Featured on Clarke's 1980 album Snap, Crackle & Bop, the realism of its lyrics is married with haunting, edgy arrangements.[2] The poem bears a resemblance to an earlier work titled "Bloody Orkney", attributed to a naval officer during the Second World War. In 2009 Clarke said he "didn't consciously copy it. But I must have heard that poem, years ago. It's terrific."[3]
"Evidently Chickentown" appears in Danny Boyle's 2001 film Strumpet,[4] recited by Christopher Eccleston, in Jacques Audiard's 2012 film Rust and Bone,[5] and at the end of "Stage 5", a 2007 episode of the American television drama The Sopranos.[6] Clarke appears as himself reciting the poem in the 2007 British film Control, directed by Anton Corbijn.[7]
References
- ^ Bennun, David (31 October 2010). British as a Second Language. New York: Random House.
- ^ Buckley, Peter (1 November 2003). The Rough Guide to Rock. London: Rough Guides. p. 202.
- ^ Chalmers, Robert (8 November 2009). "A life of rhyme: John Cooper Clarke, the 'punk Poet Laureate', grants Robert Chalmers his first major interview in more than 20 years". The Independent. Retrieved 23 March 2015.
- ^ Boyle, Danny; Dunham, Brent (2011). Danny Boyle: Interviews. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. p. 68.
- ^ Mault, DW (31 October 2012). "Rust And Bone – Reviewed". The Double Negative. Retrieved 12 January 2013.
- ^ Yacowar, Maurice (31 January 2008). The Sopranos Season Seven. Raleigh: Lulu.com. p. 8.
- ^ Murphy, Robert (17 February 2009). The British Cinema Book (3rd ed.). British Film Institute. p. 405.
External links
- Baker, Danny (1980). "John Cooper Clarke: Britain's alternative poet laureate visits dockland for a laugh and a joke". NME. Retrieved April 10, 2014.
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