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Good Pop, Bad Pop: The Sunday Times bestselling hit from Jarvis Cocker Kindle Edition
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The Sunday Times bestselling hit memoir from Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker.
'It's real gold... its storytelling first class' Sunday Times
What if the things we keep hidden say more about us than those we put on display?
We all have a random collection of the things that made us - photos, tickets, clothes, souvenirs, stuffed in a box, packed in a suitcase, crammed into a drawer. When Jarvis Cocker starts clearing out his loft, he finds a jumble of objects that catalogue his story and ask him some awkward questions:
Who do you think you are?
Are clothes important?
Why are there so many pairs of broken glasses up here?
From a Gold Star polycotton shirt to a pack of Wrigley's Extra, from his teenage attempts to write songs to the Sexy Laughs Fantastic Dirty Joke Book, this is the hard evidence of Jarvis's unique life, Pulp, 20th century pop culture, the good times and the mistakes he'd rather forget.
This is not a life story. It's a loft story.
'Nostalgic, playful and beautifully designed' Daily Mail
'Brilliant...lurid, entertaining' Daily Telegraph
'Terrific... Very funny' Guardian
* A Book of the Year in the Daily Telegraph, Financial Times, Daily Mail and Uncut *
- Length
274
- Language
EN
English
- Kindle feature
Sticky notes
- PublisherVintage Digital
- Publication date
2022
May 26
- File size93.7 MB
- Kindle feature
Page Flip
- Kindle feature
Word Wise
- Kindle feature
Enhanced typesetting
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Editorial Reviews
Review
Poignant in a subtle, understated way;Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time for the age of the Ford Cortina... This book is about a very normal childhood and the everyday detritus it left behind. Common people indeed. -- Will Hodgkinson ― The Times
Incredibly entertaining...a trip through the things that have made him who he is. -- Jessie Thompson ― Evening Standard, *Books to Look Out For 2022*
Rummage through its pages - through the plastic and nylon, the tin and vinyl - and it's real gold, its shirts second-hand, of course, but its storytelling first class. -- Victoria Segal ― Sunday Times
Brilliant...Good Pop, Bad Pop is more than anyone dared hope for -- John Aizlewood ― i newspaper
Absolutely fabulous: at once very witty, self-depreciating and moving. ― Evening Standard
Thoughtful and very funny... terrific -- Caroline Sullivan ― The Guardian
Engaging and evocative. He [Cocker] paints a vividly drab picture of the north of England under Thatcherism. And his book is beautiful to look at, too, set out like pop art. ― Daily Express
Like a pop culture Proust... a testament to just how rich this junk is that Cocker can weave such a compelling take. ― Record Collector
Insightful and delightful. ― Hi-Fi Choice
Good Pop, Bad Pop... pulses with the thrilling energy of adolescence and early adulthood... Cocker uses his objects to tell real stories about the past, leaving in the dirt and disappointment around the moments of excitement. ― Prospect
With laugh-out-loud passages of comedy and stylish illustrations... [this] is the story of how he [Cocker] made himself into who he is, his acquisition of a personal style and outlook... Hopefully we will not have to hang around long before his next trip to the loft. ― Financial Times
Like little madeleines, each relic is offered up to the reader in the intimate, confiding voice familiar from Cocker's lyrics. ― Sunday Times, *Summer Reads of 2022*
Good Pop, Bad Pop is a joy. ― Choice
Good Pop, Bad Pop shows how he mapped out Pulp's path to glory at jumble sales and sparsely attended 1980s gigs... A winning formula on the page. ― Uncut, *Book of the Year*
An entertaining quasi-memoir based on decluttering his loft. ― Financial Times, *Books of the Year*
[A] nostalgic, playful, and beautifully designed book. ― Daily Mail, *Christmas Gift Guide 2022* --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
About the Author
Product details
- ASIN : B09LCNN8T1
- Publisher : Vintage Digital (May 26, 2022)
- Publication date : May 26, 2022
- Language : English
- File size : 95925 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
- Print length : 274 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #455,404 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #126 in Pop Culture Music
- #137 in Popular Music (Kindle Store)
- #296 in Pop Artist Biographies
- Customer Reviews:
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Well written, funny bio of Jarvis and the first years of pulp told through the objects he accumulated.
Top reviews from other countries
The book itself arrived in perfect conditions.
If you’ve forgiven me for that joke let’s get to the book. Starting with a pack of old chewing gum and progressing through exercise books to jumble sale clothes and broken glasses. Cocker uses each item to shed light on how he got into music, came up with the band’s style, and some hints at the ideas behind well known songs. It’s written in a chatty and amusing style and since there’s no real storyline as such it’s an easy book to dip in and out of.
Each of the chapters is illustrated with photos of the objects in question. This doesn’t really work very well in monochrome on a Kindle and some items can be hard to make out. Not that it really matters because it’s the stories they provoke that are important.
At first I found the book a bit odd. Why would anyone keep a pack of chewing gum or the label from an Imperial Leather soap bar in their loft rather than throw it away? A few of the items are oddities like that, but fairly quickly you realise Jarvis is telling you the story of his life through these items, from childhood to the pre-fame Pulp, and it becomes strangely fascinating. Pulp fans will love the old pictures of the band which appear from time to time, and Jarvis's notebooks about his plans for the group. The book is also really nicely designed, with pictures scattered throughout of each item he finds, and a few layout tweaks to keep things interesting, even on the Kindle edition which I read. For Pulp fans, a note at the very end will probably send them skipping back to the start to immediately re-read the book with a different perspective.
This was the last book I read in 2022, and even for someone who isn't a big fan of Pulp it was one of the most enjoyable.
I was slightly worried that Mr Cocker might come across as, err, seedy as some of his songs do. However, after hearing him in an Adam Buxton podcast, in which he came across as genuine and likeable, I was emboldened.
Jarvis is a natural raconteur and the tales from his life are vivid and engaging, with the added twist of links to things found during a clear out.
There was a little bit of seed, though, and I appreciate that it affects me more than others. If I have one gripe, it's the propensity to commence a sentence with '&', though I guess it's original.
Otherwise, highly recommended.