John Cooper Clarke - Evidently Chickentown

This recently popped up as the closing track in, of all places, a Sopranos episode. Which, on paper/screen, seems deeply strange - like Ted Chippington appearing as a guest star on The Simpsons - but it worked beautifully as the backdrop to an oppressive montage of Mob boss Tony and prodigal son/successor Christopher.

JCC is a manky Manc who, back in the '70s, had the gleaming brass bollocks to stand up in front of crowds of gob-happy Sex Pistols and Buzzcocks fans and bark his poetry at them. With its toytown synth metronome clattering away behind JCC's pummelling monotone, 'Evidently Chickentown' is, pretty much, rap. Comin' up from the streets. The back streets. Of Salford.

It's the first track on the album 'Snap, Crackle & Bop' which, when I was at school, had a peculiar, extra-obscure cult appeal. Because the voice sounded like someone your dad might know, because it had loads of swearing, because it featured JCC's other highlight, Beasley Street ("Belladonna is your flower/Manslaughter your meat/Spend a year in a couple of hours/On the edge of Beasley Street...").

But mostly because it was really hard to find. These days, of course, in cosy, homogenised Internetland, you can't move for the bastard thing. Shame, that. Kind of blunts the exotic edge of music that needs a bit of hunting down. The chase often being as good as/better than the catch. And that.

[MP3] John Cooper Clarke - Evidently Chickentown