Renowned poet, performer and punk icon Dr. John Cooper Clarke is marking his 50th anniversary in the entertainment industry with a tour of Ireland. Clarke, known for his sharp wit and gritty lyrics, reflects on his five-decade career and discusses his enduring influence on generations of artists.
Poet, performer and punk icon, Dr John Cooper Clarke has spent five decades weaving wit and grit into verse and as he prepares to celebrate 50 years in showbiz, he's still as sharp, irreverent and relevant as ever.
READ MORE: 'Combination of vulnerability, strength and passion': The The's Matt Johnson reflects on recording with Sinead O'Connor “If you read Chuck Berry's lyrics, you're singing the song, there's no other way to go. He writes them that way. You can take away all the music and recite it as poetry, and it will still sound like a song. Check it out with any Chuck Berry song.
Dr Clarke says that poetry should be heard, recommending that for the “greater enjoyment of poetry”, always read it out loud - especially if you are alone. “It doesn't have any pejorative value as a curse word. So I thought, I better change it to the international curse word, fucking. Then I realised, it should have always been fucking, it fit with the hard consonants. It's more percussive, bloody gets sort of lost somehow, but fucking that's always gonna be a propulsive word.
A stalwart of 1980s counter-culture, the punk poet shared how one aspect of the era remains elusive to modern media: its odour.
Dr John Cooper Clarke Poetry Punk Music Irish Tour
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