Mother, Brother, Lover - Jarvis Cocker

 MOTHER, BROTHER, LOVER - JARVIS COCKER

A book of selected lyrics written by Jarvis Cocker and the obvious question it invites being 'Is Jarvis Cocker a great lyricist?' The immediate problem with this, however, is in the criteria in which the lyrics are judged as in do they retain their integrity when isolated from the music and when stood alone on a naked page? For the most part I'd say unfortunately not, that it's only when combined with the music of Pulp that they come into their own, though to be fair to Jarvis this is something he admits himself in the written introduction of his book where he highlights the instruction he includes with any lyric sheet that comes with the records - 'NB Please do not read the lyrics whilst listening to the recordings'. That's not to say he doesn't have his moments but in comparison to some genuinely great lyricists such as Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Elvis Costello, Lou Reed, Nick Cave and so on, they're few and far between. So is Mother, Brother, Lover an ill-advised vanity project or merely meant for Jarvis Cocker/Pulp fans only? The fact that mine is a signed copy and that this means very little to me suggests that yes, it might well be a bit of both.

I used to adhere to the Lemmy Kilmister school of thought that said if you can't say something in three minutes (in the context of the typical length of a song) then it's probably not worth saying, though nowadays I tend to rescind on that idea and sympathise a lot more with the epic song and lyric. I still believe, however, that anything too stupid to say is sung instead which is where the appeal of Jarvis Cocker lies because  at least he's always tried to inject some sense and meaning into a song. A prime and probably the best example of this being Cunts Are Still Running The World that not only makes for a good song title but is also a pretty meaningful and even sensible and reasoned thing to declare.

Another thing that makes Jarvis Cocker's lyrics of interest is his class consciousness which is actually a rare thing to find within music or for it at least to be so prominent. It's in evidence throughout his songs such as I Spy, Mile End, Catcliffe Shakedown, and Cocaine Socialism among others and of course it's there in Common People, the song that is perhaps the pinnacle of his song writing. There's a caveat, however, and that's in the way that however much Jarvis displays his awareness of where he's from and the class structure he was born into, there's a certain loathing if not even a fear of certain aspects of the working class culture he's of that actually outweighs his adversity to aspects of middle class culture he's encountered.

There's an unpredictability and a latent violence within working class culture that Jarvis encapsulates in Common People with the lines 'Like a dog lying in the corner they will bite you and never warn you - Look out, they'll tear your insides out.' It's an acknowledgment of not only something that Jarvis himself is frightened of but of something that others should be wary of too. What Jarvis does not acknowledge, however, is that this unpredictability and latent violence is a power that the working class hold and is in fact a key to their emancipation, for want of a better word. Rather than living their lives with 'no meaning or control and with nowhere left to go', the very things that Jarvis is frightened are what actually enables the working class to 'burn so bright' whilst all those possessed of wealth and privilege can only stand to be 'amazed that they exist' and be left to 'only wonder why'.

As I said, Common People is probably the pinnacle of his song writing and is a song Jarvis should be rightly proud of.

Jarvis Cocker nowadays is very close to being a national treasure, a kind of grand old dame of Britpop. He may not have a latent violent bone in his body - which of course is no bad thing at all - but because he is of the 'common people' he still has an unpredictability about him that is always going to stand him in good stead and is the ingredient that will always have him remain a person of interest. Even if his book isn't.

John Serpico

Go Now - Richard Hell

 GO NOW - RICHARD HELL

He was a punk rock originator, or so they say and so he claims. Not of the musical style but the look as in the spiky hair and the ragged clothes held together by safety pins. Malcolm McLaren had seen him in New York and wanted to bring him over to England to lead a band he was thinking of putting together. He declined, so McLaren simply stole or 'borrowed' his image and the rest is history. To have invented punk rock should be enough for any man and guarantees a legacy of sorts but if you're possessed of a creative urge then you've got to do something with it, hence Richard Hell and The Voidoids and his career as a poet and writer. A man's got to eat and pay his bills at the end of the day as well, of course. Not that I imagine he's actually made much money from his legacy, his music and his books, if any at all in fact. Which brings us to Go Now, written by Richard Hell and published in 1996, and though its reach is global as evidenced by a copy falling into my hands down here at the edge of the world it's very doubtful it's been much of a money spinner for the author.

The blurb on the back cover describes the book as a 'tragi-comic road novel. A walk, ride and fall on the wild side' and in one sense it is; like a cross between Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas, On The Road, and any number of books by Charles Bukowski. The plotline - or what there is of one - is very simple: A fading punk rock star and his ex-girlfriend are commissioned to drive a car from California to New York and to write a book about the experience, him doing the writing and the ex-girlfriend taking photographs. What it entails, however, is her taking photographs and him doing a lot of navel gazing.

'How are you supposed to spend your damned life?' he ponders at one point 'What is there to aspire to? Fame and money. Sex and drugs. What else is there to do with freedom?' And on it goes, which is fair enough though it doesn't make for the most riveting of reading it must be said. The problem is that there's too much self-loathing and pitifulness going on. Too much wondering where he's going to get his next bag of heroin from whilst at the same time juggling with the question as to whether he's an addict or not and if so why so? Too much junky business, as Johnny Thunders would say. The America he's describing being almost a desolate one, punctuated by cheap motels, diners and people pre-occupied with their own problems. Like an echo of the inside of the author's head, America is not a happy place.

A curious aspect of the book is when it comes to the question of how autobiographical it is? The narrator goes by the name of Billy Mud and this is clearly Richard Hell himself. The ex-girlfriend is called Chrissa and is French which suggests this is meant to be a representation of Lizzy Mercier Descloux, who was once Hell's girlfriend. The funder of the road trip and the person who wants to produce the book based on it is British and is called Jake. I was thinking Jake Riviera, the co-founder of Stiff Records, the label on which Richard Hell's debut Blank Generation EP was first released.

This all then begs the question did any of the events in the book actually take place? Did Hell ever take a road trip with Mercier Descloux and if so did they stop off at Hell's aunt's house where he ended up having sex with his aunt and being caught in flagrante delicto by Mercier Descloux, who then took photos of them in the act? Having read Hell's actual autobiography, I Dreamt I Was A Very Clean Tramp, it's entirely feasible from what he revealed in it in regard to his sexual peccadillos and his somewhat ungentlemanly disregard for discretion. 

Though does any of it matter? Of course not. Does any of it make for a great book? Well, no, not a great book as such but certainly not a bad one.

John Serpico