Clark Datchler has revealed the deeply emotional reaction veterans have had to Johnny Hates Jazz’s I Don’t Want to Be a Hero.
Former servicemen and women approach him in tears after performances of the 1987 anti-war classic, which he stresses is not an attack on those who serve in the armed forces, but instead questions the decisions of those who put them in harm’s way.
The 62-year-old singer-songwriter told Contact Music: “The song isn’t directed at them. It’s directed at the people whose task it is to send them into harm’s way. Sometimes that’s for just reasons, and sometimes it’s for questionable reasons. That’s what the song is really about.”
He explained that veterans who have served in Afghanistan, Iraq, the Gulf War and Northern Ireland have shared deeply personal experiences with him after hearing the song performed live.
Clark said: “I’ve had veterans come up to me afterwards in tears. It’s released something in them that perhaps they couldn’t release before.”
He added: “They’ve told me they served in Afghanistan, Iraq, the Gulf War, and even in Northern Ireland during the troubles.
“They share their stories about how they don’t like being called heroes. That’s not how they saw themselves. They were simply doing a job. It was traumatic. They lost people close to them.”
Clark revealed that for some veterans, the song has provided rare recognition of experiences that can be difficult to discuss.
He said: “For some of them, I Don’t Want to Be a Hero was one of the few songs that acknowledged their experience.”
The reaction reflects Clark’s long-standing desire to use his music to explore subjects beyond conventional pop themes.
He explained: “Historically my musical trajectory took me into wanting to write about bigger subjects in music. I started that with our second hit, I Don’t Want to Be a Hero, which is an anti-war song.”
That socially conscious approach has continued throughout his career.
When Clark went solo, environmental issues became a major focus of his songwriting, and he later brought those concerns back into Johnny Hates Jazz when the band reformed in 2013.
He said: “When I went solo, I became very environmentally oriented and did a lot of work in that direction.”
The serious subject matter of I Don’t Want to Be a Hero provides a striking contrast to Clark’s latest collaboration with 69-year-old soul legend Jaki Graham.
The pair have joined forces on Soul Believer, an uplifting celebration of classic soul music which was released on August 21.
Unlike the weighty themes of I Don’t Want to Be a Hero, Clark describes Soul Believer as a chance to simply have fun and create something positive.
He said: “But then Soul Believer came up, and it was more, ‘This is just going to be fun,’ and I haven’t done one of those tracks for a long time.”
He added: “It’s quite uplifting, and a bit of a release. I think it is the way to collaborate in this case, where you just bring all the positive energy that we all have, combine it and send it out into the world.”
The song has a particularly clever construction, with Clark revealing that its lyrics reference 27 classic soul songs from the 1960s and 1970s.
He said: “The lyrics are made up of, or reference, 27 classic soul songs from the 1960s and ’70s.”
The collaboration came together after Clark and Jaki met backstage at the Uptown Festival in Blackheath, London. Although they had crossed paths before, the meeting revealed a mutual admiration that eventually led to Jaki being invited to sing on Soul Believer.
Clark said: “We went away saying to each other, ‘We’ve got to do something.'”
When Clark and his Johnny Hates Jazz colleague Mike Nocito, 63 proposed that Jaki join Soul Believer, she immediately embraced the idea.
He said: “We proposed it to her, she heard the track, and she jumped at it. It was very natural.”
Clark believes their voices work particularly well together, with the collaboration already opening the door to further musical possibilities.
He said: “Once Jaki was on there, it was clear that certain things had to change.”
He added: “What has been very interesting is that a song I was working on at the same time, which was going to be a very R+B, Earth, Wind and Fire-esque track for us, made me start thinking, ‘I’ve got to do this with Jaki. I can hear Jaki on this.'”
Johnny Hates Jazz and Jaki Graham’s track Soul Believer is out now.