Disguise in Love

by John Cooper Clarke

Overview

Although John Cooper-Clarke's caustic brand of "talking in tune" initially earned him the label of the new wave George Formby, he soon won recognition as the British punk scene's poet laureate. Following the Innocents EP and the 1978 album Ou Est la Maison de Fromage? (both on Martin Hannett's Rabid Records), Disguise in Love was Clarke's major-label debut. This album finds the Mancunian bard at his adenoidal, alliterative best, delivering some of his more memorable satirical verses. Fixated on the daily, warts-and-all miseries of life in postwar Britain and beyond, Clarke casts a wide misanthropic net, taking on everything from track suits to extraterrestrials. The Invisible Girls (featuring Bill Nelson, Pete Shelley, and Martin Hannett) provide musical backing that complements each poem, from a minimal, heartbeat-style jogging groove ("Health Fanatic") to a cheesy disco pastiche ("Post War Glamour Girl"). Clarke's performance works well with these arrangements, especially on "(I Married A) Monster From Outer Space" -- a story of intergalactic love gone wrong set to sci-fi electronics -- and "Readers' Wives," on which lurid observations on D.I.Y. polaroid porn are adorned with an appropriately kitschy soundtrack. Clarke's ear for the rhythms of everyday language and his galloping, sometimes staccato delivery can be best appreciated on two unaccompanied pieces: "Salome Maloney," an apocalyptic tale of ballroom dancing and death, and "Psycle Sluts 1&2," an amphetamine-paced paean to biker women praised by Frank Zappa as an example of Clarke's "exquisite diction." While it's a testament to Clarke's comic sensibility that these tracks remain laugh-out-loud funny, it's also important to recognize him as an innovator. Just as pop writers like the Mersey poets made Clarke's work possible, so Clarke opened the doors for numerous (less-talented) ranters and popular wordsmiths such as Attila the Stockbroker, Joolz, Seething Wells, and Benjamin Zephaniah. ~ Wilson Neate

Product Details

Release Date:	04/25/2025
Label:	Music On Cd
UPC:	8718627237182

Tracks

1. I Don't Want to Be Nice
2. Psycle Sluts 1 & 2
3. (I've Got a Brand New) Tracksuit
4. Teenage Werewolf
5. Readers Wives
6. Post War Glamour Girl
7. (I Married A) Monster from Outer Space
8. Salome Maloney
9. Health Fanatic
10. Strange Bedfellows
11. Valley of the Lost Women

Album Credits

Performance Credits

John Cooper Clarke   Primary Artist,Vocals
Pete Shelley   Guitar
Martin Hannett   Bass
Bill Nelson   Guitar,Guitar
Paul Burgess   Drums,Percussion
Steve Hopkins   Keyboards
John Scott   Guitar
Lynn Oakley   Guitar

Technical Credits

Martin Hannett   Composer,Producer
Ray Staff   Mastering
Paul Burgess   Group Member
Laurence Diana   Engineer
Janusz Guttner   Design
Steve Hopkins   Composer,Group Member,Synthesizer Programming
Peter Woolliscroft   Assistant
Peter Gravelle   Photography
Steve Maguire   Cover Painting
Roslav Szaybo   Design
Phillip Bush   Engineer