evidently chicken town is a poem by "punk poet" John Cooper Clarke, notable for its use of the f word twice in each line
the fucking pies are fucking old
the fucking chips are fucking cold
the fucking beer is fucking flat
the fucking flats have fucking rats
the fucking clocks are fucking wrong
the fucking days are fucking long
it fucking gets you fucking down
evidently chicken town
The poem has inspired a new blog on politics, news, culture and Wales
Alwyn that gave me a good laughwhile eating my lunch
ReplyDeleteta muchley
mam
Is he the new Poet Laureate? The Sex Pistols did this kind of thing with more panache of course
ReplyDeleteThe Sex Pistols did this kind of thing with more panache of course
ReplyDeleteJohnny Clarke use to tour with the Sex Pistols and other punk groups in the 1970's
Sex Pistols? It's far less original than that... circa 1940
ReplyDeleteThis bloody town's a bloody cuss
No bloody trains, no bloody bus
And no one thinks of bloody us
In bloody Orkney.
The bloody folk are bloody mad
The bloody roads are bloody bad
Good night the bright is bloody sad
In bloody Orkney.
Oh bloody crows, Oh bloody rain
No bloody kerbs, no bloody drains
The council's got no bloody brains
In bloody Orkney.
The bloody things are bloody dear
A bloody bob for a bloody beer
And is it good? No bloody fear
In bloody Orkney.
The bloody dances make you smile
The bloody bands are bloody vile
It only cramps your bloody style
In bloody Orkney.
The bloody flicks are bloody old
The bloody seats are bloody cold,
You can't get in for bloody gold
In bloody Orkney.
No bloody fun, no bloody games
No bloody times. The bloody dames
Won't even give their bloody names
In bloody Orkney.
There's nothing greets your bloody eye
But bloody sea and bloody sky
Roll on the mob! we bloody cry
In bloody Orkney.
?Sex Pistols? It's far less original than that... circa 1940
ReplyDeleteShame that you are publishing your comments anonymously, because you make an important point about what many consider to be John Cooper Clarke's most notable poem.(Oft published in standard "anthologies" of political poems).
If Bloody Orkney is, indeed, an older poem than chikentown then Clarke is guilty of plagiarism. But one can't make such a charge on the basis of an anonymous comment quoting an unnamed poet!
Roll on the mob! we bloody cry
ReplyDeleteIn bloody Orkney.
If this is a 1940's Tommy's moan - shouldn't this line read "roll on de-mob" ?
evidently chickenshit is none other than David Taylor, otherwise known as Arsembly, Natwatch or Leighton Andrews' right hand shit stirrer.
ReplyDeletehow the hell is he guilty of plagarism? he didnt copy the song he copied the structure and wrote his own lyrics, idiot.
ReplyDeleteLook at recent court records on plagiarism!
ReplyDeleteIt is obvious that Johnny Clerk was influenced by Bloody Orkney. If John Cooper Clerk hadn't been influenced by the original, then the original may never have survived.
If he is guilty of plagiarism, or not, is an academic point that is worthy of discussion.
Calling people idiots doesn't add to the academic debate - tosser!
Even if Clerk did copy the structure from Bloody Orkney, he was only doing what Homer and many others did by reusing existing material in a new way.
DeleteAs Kipling said in response to aligations of plagiarism, "When Homer smote his blooming lyre he heard men sing by land and sea, and what he thought he might require, he went and took the same as me".
Also Blair did not invent all the lines in Bloody Orkney himself. My father, who served as an anti-aircraft gunner in Orkney from 1942 to 45, said many of the lines are copied from stuff scribbled on toilet walls by soldiers of the garrison.
Bloody Orkneys is by Captain Hamish Blair, stationed in the Orkneys during WW2 (I think)
ReplyDeleteAnd published in the '70s in a book calle "Verse and Worse"
ReplyDeleteIt was publishec before "Verse and Worse" - I vividly recall my English master reading this in the 60s. The only thing that did not bore me rigid during my A level english course. It originated late 40s, early 50s, from the hand of Captain Hamish Blair.
ReplyDeleteThe first time I heard "Chicken Town" I realised that it was based on "Bloody Orkney", which I'd heard in 1970 at a concert evening in an outward bound centre in Eskdale. I like John Cooper Clarke's stuff but this is a case of deriving one poem from another. Clark admits that his rhythms and format are inspired by old rhyming poems he heard at school and liked eg Longfellow and Tennyson. He said this on the TV retrospective on him recently. It doesn't matter.
ReplyDeleteThe first time I heard Chicken Town I knew it was based on Bloody Orkney which I heard in 1970 in an outward bound centre in Eskdale. I like John Cooper Clark and I've seen him twice. This is clearly derivative but it doesn't matter. Clark admitted in a TV documentary that he was inspired by old rhyming poems he heard at school. Anonymous is right about the Blair poem.
ReplyDeletestill stuck in chicken town
ReplyDelete