The Quietus - A new rock music and pop culture website

Baker's Dozen

Evidently Chicken Supreme: John Cooper Clarke's Favourite Songs
Alex Burrows , November 18th, 2020 11:32

Performance poet, style icon and broadcaster John Cooper Clarke tells Alex Burrows about his most-loved songs of all time and growing up during the birth of rock & roll. Portrait by Paul Wolfgang Webster.

Ella_fitzgerald___manhattan_1605552672_resize_460x400

Ella Fitzgerald – ‘Manhattan’
Manhattan. I may never go there again, at my age and things being as they are. I may never visit Manhattan again which is very, very sad because I’ve got friends there. This is a beautiful travelogue. There seemed to be a craze for travelogue records around that time. They’re all great, like ‘Moonlight On Vermont’, ‘Autumn In New York’, ‘April In Paris’, ‘Route 66’. Manhattan is one of my favourites, a beautiful record. I don’t know what I got out of it as a kid, but my heart took flight whenever it came on the radio. Her voice, her range is absolutely fabulous. So sweet. She sounded like a young person. It really is a thing of great beauty. Lighter than air.