The first ever autobiography of John Cooper Clarke, the Bard of Salford, punk poet, rock star, fashion icon, national treasure and acerbic wit.
John Cooper Clarke shot to prominence in the 1970s as the original 'people's poet'. Since then his career has spanned cultures, audiences, art forms and continents. Today, 'JCC' is as relevant and vibrant as ever, and his influence just as visible on today's pop culture. Aside from his trademark 'look' continuing to resonate with fashionistas young and old, and his poetry included on the national curriculum syllabus, his effect on modern music is huge.
This is not a ‘ponderous trudge through the turgid facts of an
ill-remembered life’ but the kind of autobiography Rimbaud might
have written if he had been a Mancunian stand-up comedian.
*Spectator Best Books of the Year*
The bookshop shelves have been clogged up for years by musicians
and artists who made their debuts in the sulphurous days of 1976-7,
but I Wanna Be Yours, the autobiography of the "punk poet" John
Cooper Clarke, aka "the Bard of Salford", knocked most of the
competition into a cocked hat.
*TLS 'Books of the Year'*
Any autobiography that features both Bernard Manning and Nico is
unlikely to disappoint; even less so when it’s written with such
brilliantly Dickensian vigour by the Bard of Salford, John Cooper
Clarke . . .this fast, funny book catches his life in its lines
*Sunday Times 'Music Books of the Year'*
Manchester punk poet John Cooper Clarke takes a rather different
approach to heroin addiction, treating it as a source of humour in
his sharply observed, entertaining memoir . . . “Relentless tragedy
is always hilarious,” he notes of his eventual recovery. “At some
point the laughter has to stop.”
*Daily Telegraph, Best Music Books of 2020*
[I Wanna Be Yours] might be the funniest book published this year.
Few memoirists have had better material to work with: heroin
addiction, years living in a squat with Nico, endless love affairs
and a TV appearance with the Honey Monster. Talk about getting the
most out of life.
*The Times, Best Music Books of the Year 2020*
The godfather of British performance poetry
*Daily Telegraph*
John Cooper Clarke is one of Britain’s outstanding poets. His
anarchic punk poetry has thrilled people for decades and his no
nonsense approach to his work and life in general has appealed to
many people including myself for many years. Long may his slender
frame and spiky top produce words and deeds that keep us on our
toes and alive to the wonders of the world.
*Sir Paul McCartney*
I say to people, have you heard of John Cooper Clarke and if they
say, yes, yeah he's an absolute genius and you just go, 'oh - ok,
you've saved me a lot of time
*Steve Coogan*
John Cooper Clarke uses words like Chuck Berry uses guitar riffs
melody and anger, humour and disdain in equal measure. He's the
real deal, really funny and really caustic, the velvet voice of
discontent.
*Kate Moss*
...nothing short of dazzling
*Alex Turner*
There are a legion of new young poets who rightly pay homage to
Cooper Clarke
*Independent*
It’s impossible not to hear Clarke’s voice, rhythmic & deadpan,
while reading his memoir. Like his poetry,his prose style is wry
and dry . . . Mad anecdotes & whimsical gags abound, but wisdom
often lurks beneath the wordplay.
*Guardian*
I Wanna Be Yours is fantastically entertaining . . . As a writer of
comic prose Clarke is the match of anyone alive, and his turns of
phrase are as sharp as his suits (the view over 1950s Manchester
from the fire escape behind his house was 'Coronation Street for a
million miles'). His drawl is as much a part of his peculiar ars
poetica as the words of the poems themselves. Every sentence he
writes, you read in his voice. By the end of the nearly 500 pages
of I Wanna be Yours I felt I’d not so much read a memoir as
listened to an outrageous confession from a psychoanalyst’s
couch
*The Times*
Riveting
*The Observer 'Book of the Week'*
An immensely engaging memoir that fizzes with wit . . . Though he
needs no such affirmation, it cements Clarke’s status as one of the
most distinctive voices in pop cultural history – it’s impossible
not to hear him read every word aloud in your head with that
unforgettable Manc drawl – and reveals much about a remarkable life
and career
*NME*
The most amusing autobiography of a literary aesthete you are ever
likely to read
*Telegraph*
An exuberant account of a remarkable life
*New Statesman*
A naturally splendid tell-all
*I newspaper*
John Cooper Clarke’s life story has been stranger than most and it
is told with great humour and penetrating honesty in his
autobiography, I Wanna Be Yours
*Choice Magazine*
The most entertaining and certainly the most culturally revealing
book I have read this year
*Literary Review*
Clarke’s primordial gift for language is everywhere in this book.
It is almost impossible not to read passages out loud — a meta
reminder of his contribution to the joy of spoken-word performance.
As Clarke puts it: 'Wherever people gather for amusement, that’s
where I’ll be.'
*Financial Times*
He became the first big-time performance punk poet – a warm-up act
for the Sex Pistols, with famous fans ranging from Sir Paul
McCartney to Kate Moss. And his life has been as chaotically
unpredictable as his next line . . . Now clean and, to his own
surprise, a happily married family man at 71, the bard of Salford
has written his memoirs.
*Sunday Mirror*
One of the most magnificent and hysterically funny memoirs of
modern times
*Irish Times*
Crafted, entertaining and educative
*Mojo Magazine*
A compelling read with highs and lows aplenty, in every sense of
the phrase . . . They say that every picture tells a story. Clarke
takes that concept and turns it on its head as, from start to
finish throughout the book, the words paint pictures so vivid you
can see the Salford streets and smell the hair pomade. Take a dip
into the weird and wonderful world of Dr John Cooper Clarke, he’ll
be there if you want him, ninety degrees in his shades
*Breaking Glass Magazine*
Elegantly sardonic . . . His writing remains spry and sparkly,
sweary but sweet, with this book testament to how 'a half-arsed
grafter with a rich vocabulary' became a kind of British
institution
*Uncut Magazine*
A poet who writes about darkness and decay but makes people laugh,
a human cartoon, a gentleman punk, a man who has stayed exactly the
same for thirty years but never grown stale. John Cooper Clarke is
an original
*Scotsman*
One of the most entertaining autobiographies of the year. Hilarious
and inspirational in equal measure, it’s the perfect panacea to the
misery of 2020
*The Quietus*
I Wanna Be Yours could not be more entertaining, charming and
optimistic . . . Its immense spirit-lifting qualities will do the
despairing – and everyone else – the world of good
*Strong Words Magazine*
I telephoned hardworking entertainer and poet Dr. John Cooper
Clarke to tell him how much I’m enjoying his memoir, I Wanna Be
Yours . . . a buxom read and a highly entertaining one.
*East Anglian Times*
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