With the Pulp reunion firing on all cylinders and a successful BBC 6 Music show, Jarvis Cocker is to add a another feather to his hat by publishing his first collection of lyrics. Mother, Brother, Lover: Selected Lyrics will be published in October, and you can watch a video interview with Faber publishing director Lee Brackstone below. Cocker says that he’s an accidental lyricist: "it’s not like you really want to write words, but if you’re the singer you’ve got to. That’s how it happened to me." He says that his first ever lyric (thankfully not in the collection) ‘Shakespeare Rock’ "got a a baby / only one thing’s wrong / Quote Shakespeare all day long / I said baby why are you ignoring me / She said to be or not to be." There’s also an interesting discussion of his liking of the former Poet Laureate Philip Larkin. Anyway, you can watch that below:
Jarvis Cocker on Writing and Publishing his Lyrics from FaberBooks on Vimeo.
