Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker shares his favourite poetry

Emerging from the Britpop landscape amongst Liam and Noel Gallagher of Oasis and Damon Albarn of Blur was Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker. Whilst the former bands were battling to be crowned the kings of the era, Cocker reigned supreme with his effortlessly cool persona and observational socially conscious lyrics that advocated for the underrepresented. 

The most recognisable hit belonging to Cocker is, of course, ‘Common People’, a biting critique which chronicles an encounter with a privileged girl desperate to live like a commoner, “Cause when you’re laid in bed at night/ Watching roaches climb the wall/ If you called your dad he could stop it all, yeah.” The track became a working-class anthem, and its lyrics still ring just as true today, “Because you think that poor is cool.” 

Alongside Pulp’s infectious rhythms and jangling guitars, Cocker’s comedically-charged lyrics were always unforgettable, whether he was singing about living in squalor in ‘Mile End’ (“The lift is always full of piss/ The fifth-floor landing smells of fish/ Not just on Friday, every single other day”) or being a sexually curious teenager (I wanna see as well as hear and so I/ I hid inside her wardrobe/ As she came home ’round four”). 

Cocker’s lyrics were compiled into a book by Faber & Faber, suggesting the importance of the musician’s poetry. To write good lyrics, it helps to have a decent knowledge of poetry. Luckily, Cocker is more than equipped with poetic understanding. In an interview with Poet Laureate Simon Armitage for The Happy Reader, Cocker had a lengthy discussion about literature. Afterwards, he sent over a list of some of his favourite books, short stories and poetry collections. 

Discussing his love for poetry, Cocker said: “Poems work well in the middle of the night because your semi-conscious mind is content to let the words trickle through it without worrying too much about the meaning.” His first pick was Book of Longing by folk musician and writer Leonard Cohen. Published in 2006, the book contains a series of poems written over previous decades, as well as drawings by the singer-songwriter. 

Cocker shared, “I was involved in a series of concerts back in 2005 called ‘Came So Far For Beauty’ which featured various artists covering the songs of Leonard Cohen. At the end of the run of shows we were each presented with a signed copy of this collection. I actually finished re-reading it about a week before he passed away.” 

Another favourite of Cocker’s is Harmonium by Wallace Stevens. A modernist poet, Stevens published Harmonium in 1923; however, he continued writing into the 1950s. Famous literary critic Harold Bloom described him as “the best and most representative American poet of our time.” Cocker’s affinity for Steven’s work stems from his time presenting his BBC 6 Music radio show, Sunday Service, which ended in 2017. 

He said: “I discovered Wallace Stevens through my BBC 6 Music radio show: it was the anniversary of his birth, so we played a recording of him reading ‘So and So Reclining on Her Couch’, and I really loved the way he delivered it so I bought Harmonium. I find I have quite exotic dreams after reading a couple.”

The musician has also expressed an interest in poets such as T.S Eliot and Seamus Heaney, and recordings can be found online of the Pulp frontman reciting poems such as ‘The Love Song of Alfred J. Prufrock’.

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