In a recent issue of the London Review of Books, editor-at-large Andrew O’Hagan wrote about SodaStreams, fax machines and various other objects from his childhood. Jarvis Cocker has also served as an editor-at-large for Faber and Faber, publishing an anthology of his selected lyrics for the imprint in 2011 entitled Mother, Brother, Lover.
In addition to founding and fronting Pulp, he is an erudite national treasure and erstwhile BBC presenter. Now, Cocker makes his first foray into long-form non-fiction with a deep excavation into the ephemera of yesteryear, shifting through the discarded detritus of his youth gathering dust in a tiny attic loft.
This storage space became a launch pad for Jarvis to take a deep dive into his past, offering precious insights into his childhood, adolescence and young manhood, while celebrating relics of the popular culture that forged him into the lead singer of a band who would create the defining song of the mid-1990s, and lots of other modern classics.
Good Pop, Bad Pop also addresses family, friendship, fashion, memory and, unsurprisingly, how music took hold of his life. The Velvet Underground and Andy Warhol provided a bridge for him between the Beatles and punk, all of which profoundly inspired Cocker. His musical vision was subsequently tweaked by Abba, The Fall, Scott Walker, The Stranglers and Barry White.
Cocker’s compendium of souvenirs, keepsakes, toys and flyers form an alternative biography, exploring what makes him tick creatively and the protracted genesis of Pulp, embellished with fascinating biographical details and a narrative rendered in a beautifully entertaining and evocative way. If it wasn’t for John Peel accepting a demo tape from a gangly bespeckled teenager in Sheffield’s Phoenix Hall, a moment commemorated by the inclusion of a ticket stub priced 50p, or his mum’s German boyfriend giving Jarvis his first guitar, today’s popular culture would be a poorer place.
Good Pop, Bad Pop is an innovative inventory, a marvellous memoir and nothing short of an instant classic to savour and cherish. The singer turned author also encourages and empowers the reader to explore their own creativity by showing us how magical our lives are. You will look at the junk in your attic in whole new light, even if you haven’t headlined Glastonbury.
