JARVIS COCKER
Pulp’s acrylic afternooner brings gender-blurring, cool vocalese and below-ground unitars.
Pulp’s mis-shape-inchief presents five hot servings of vinyl uniqueness to joyously blow your mind!
1 JUDY HENSKE ROAD TO NOWHERE
(Reprise single, 1966)
“All these Mindblowers are examples of the power of the human voice. It’s still the main ingredient that can make or break a song for me. I first heard Road To Nowhere on a Jack Nitzsche compilation. I used to put it on when people came round for a drink. It’s about track 15 on the CD so I kept hearing the song when I was in a semi-inebriated state and thinking, Who’s the bloke singing this? Then one night I actually checked the CD cover and realised it’s a woman! I like ambiguous voices: it’s the humanity of the sound that’s important – the gender is completely superfluous.”
2 NORA DEAN AY AY AY AY (ANGIE LA LA)
(B-side of Hugh Roy’s Rule The Nation, Duke Reid single, 1970)
“My friend Jason [Buckle], the other half of Relaxed Muscle, brought this to my attention. I don’t know much about it – I don’t even know what kind of music it is: it was released on a reggae label but it’s not really reggae. It’s got elements of Martin Denny and Arthur Lyman as well – so you could call it a form of Jamaican Exotica, I suppose. Doesn’t really matter – the singer sounds drugged and sexy and keeps making exotic bird sounds and whistles – my kind of woman absolutely! And she’s called Nora.”
3 THE CRYIN’ SHAMES PLEASE STAY
(Decca single, 1966)
“Exhibit B – it’s a guy singing this but he doesn’t half sound feminine. I remember hearing this on the radio as a kid and it kind of cast a spell on me. It’s one of those that you have to stop what you’re doing and listen to intently – not one for a drive time show. The voice is so loud and almost furry and it wobbles in this really voluptuous way. I know these are supposed to be Mindblowers but this is a Heartbreaker as well. The two organs are connected, you know…”
4 MARK MURPHY LOVE IS WHAT STAYS (title track of Verve album, 2007)
“A mind-blowingly good song title. Sir Peter Blake sat in on [Cocker’s BBC6 show] the Sunday Service one week and played a track by Mark Murphy. I’d never heard of him before. Apparently he is a master of ‘vocalese’ – singing without words – but when he does use words his phrasing is fascinating – he’s kind of the Christopher Walken of jazz. Yes! I said ‘Jazz’ – he is primarily known as a jazz vocalist but his later albums – this is the title track to one of them – are lushly orchestral and beyond classification really. And you really ought to hear his version of Coldplay’s What If.”
5 BOB LANDERS & WILLIE JOE & HIS UNITAR CHEROKEE DANCE (Specialty single, 1956)
“The Hawley played me this one. An absolutely crazy low croak of a voice. A lorry-full of Strepsils wouldn’t even make a dent in it. I like songs that give you instructions on how you should dance to them. Takes the pressure off. But the complicated nature of said instructions plus the tricky beat could lead to injury on the dancefloor, or at least muscle strain. Bob Landers is backed on this track by ‘Willie Joe & his Unitar’ – I assume that’s a guitar with only one string. It makes a right good sound anyway. History does not record whether Willie was wearing a Unitard at the time.”