Evidently Chickentown

"Evidently Chickentown" is a poem by the English performance poet John Cooper Clarke. It was recorded and released as a track on Clarke's 1980 album Snap, Crackle & Bop. It became widely known internationally after being used in an episode of the HBO series The Sopranos in April 2007, and has appeared in several other films and TV series.

Background and description

The poem uses repeated profanity to convey a sense of futility and exasperation.[1] Featured on Clarke's 1980 album Snap, Crackle & Bop, the realism of its lyrics is married with haunting, edgy arrangements.[2]

The poem bears a resemblance to a 1952 work titled "The Bloody Orkneys", written by Andrew James Fraser Blair, author and journalist, under the pseudonym Captain Hamish Blair.[3][4][5] In 2009 Clarke said he "didn't consciously copy it. But I must have heard that poem, years ago. It's terrific."[6]

In film and television

"Evidently Chickentown" appears on the soundtrack of a number of films, including:

It also turns up on television, including:

  • at the end of "Stage 5", a 2007 episode of the American television drama The Sopranos,[12][13] leading Sean O'Neal of The A.V. Club to write that the poem "ranks as one of the show's sharpest and most effective musical moments, somehow capturing the vexation of a New York mafia guy with the words of a British punk who's complaining about flat beer and cold chips"[14]
  • in the 2021 two-part documentary HBO miniseries about Tiger Woods, Tiger[15][16]
  • in Danny Boyle's 2022 biopic miniseries Pistol[17][18]

References

  1. ^ Bennun, David (2006). British as a Second Language. London: Ebury Press. ISBN 9781409004677.
  2. ^ Mills, Peter (2003). "John Cooper Clarke". In Buckley, Peter (ed.). The Rough Guide to Rock. London: Rough Guides. p. 202. ISBN 9781843531050.
  3. ^ Blair, Hamish (1958) [First published 1952]. "The Bloody Orkneys". In Silcock, Arnold (ed.). Verse and Worse (2nd ed.). Faber and Faber Limited. p. 251. ISBN 978-0-5710-5132-8. {{cite encyclopedia}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
  4. ^ Blair, Hamish (2005). "The Bloody Orkneys". In McGovern, Una (ed.). Chambers Dictionary of Quotations. Pseudonym of Andrew James Fraser Blair 1872–1935. Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd. p. 132. ISBN 0550-10085-7.
  5. ^ Blair, Hamish. "The Bloody Orkneys". Snap Dragon: Poetry Corner. Archived from the original on 20 August 2018. Retrieved 12 February 2019.
  6. ^ Chalmers, Robert (8 November 2009). "A life of rhyme: John Cooper Clarke, the 'punk Poet Laureate', grants Robert Chalmers his first major interview in more than 20 years". The Independent. Retrieved 23 March 2015.
  7. ^ "Evidently Chicken Town". Christopher Eccleston News: 'Strumpet'. 19 January 2011. Retrieved 18 November 2025.
  8. ^ Boyle, Danny (10 August 2001). "The Friday interview: Danny Boyle". The Guardian (Interview). Interviewed by Smith, Rupert. Retrieved 18 November 2025.
  9. ^ Smith, Rupert (2011). "Back from the Beach". In Dunham, Brent (ed.). Danny Boyle: Interviews. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. p. 68. ISBN 9781604738353.
  10. ^ Murphy, Robert (17 February 2009). The British Cinema Book (3rd ed.). British Film Institute. p. 405.
  11. ^ Mault, DW (31 October 2012). "Rust And Bone – Reviewed". The Double Negative. Retrieved 12 January 2013.
  12. ^ Clarke, John Cooper. "John Cooper Clarke in Conversation with ZANI". ZANI (Interview). Interviewed by Sedazzari, Matteo. Archived from the original on 18 December 2024. Retrieved 18 November 2025.
  13. ^ "Happy Birthday John Cooper Clarke: Revisiting a Classic Interview". Hotpress. 2008. Retrieved 17 November 2025. Happy 73rd birthday, John Cooper Clarke! To celebrate, we're revisiting Róisín Dwyer's classic interview with The Bard of Salford – originally published in Hot Press in 2008. (25 January 2022)
  14. ^ O'Neal, Sean (6 March 2015). "A British punk captured the feelings of a Sopranos mobster". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 28 August 2017.
  15. ^ "HBO documentary shows the Tiger Woods we knew so little about". New York Post. 9 January 2021. Retrieved 18 November 2025.
  16. ^ Tiger (Pt. 1, 2021 HBO documentary) - "Evidently Chickentown" on YouTube, 19 January 2021.
  17. ^ "Pistol Season 1". Apple Music - Web Player. 11 January 2023. Retrieved 18 November 2025.
  18. ^ "Pistol". Tunefind. 31 May 2022. Retrieved 18 November 2025.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.