It feels like an age since there's been a Julian Cope selection (I've just checked, it's been a couple of months), so I can't think of a better way to usher in this Sunday than with the Arch Drude in his imperial pop/rock phase, or at least as close as he ever came to it.
After the slightly disappointing My Nation Underground album, which did have some good songs but suffered from the ubiquitous 1980s (over) production, Julian Cope released a brace of lo-fi but seminal albums in April and May 1990, Skellington and Droolian respectively. Cope's record label Island wasn't keen to release either album, so they came out on the independent(s) Zippo Records and CopeCo. The latter was Julian Cope's first foray into a mail order-only label (which initially released Skellington in November 1989) and paved the way for his future approach to releasing albums, which continues to this day with Head Heritage.
This selection draws quite heavily on these albums, as well as various EPs and the first three albums; Fried gets a slightly better deal on Side 2; My Nation Underground only gets one song on each side, and you'll probably be able to guess what the other one is.
The
title was inspired/directly lifted from a VHS compilation released in
1989, compiling the videos of Julian Cope and The Teardrop Explodes.
That's pretty much where the similarity ends as very few of the featured
songs were represented on my mixtape.
I've made one slight change to the Side 1 tracklist. The original cassette ran well short, at a touch over 44 minutes. This became really annoying when I was backpacking around Australia and constantly having to manually spool the tape to the end, to conserve battery life for my Walkman. For this recreation, I've swapped out the album version of Eve's Volcano for the limited edition 12" remix. It's by Tom Lord-Alge, so the drums are typically HUGE, but overall I quite like it and I don't think it ruins the flow of the selection overall. It does stretch Side 1 to a tape-straining 47 minutes, but what the hell, you're worth it.
1) Sunshine Playroom (Album Version) (1984)
2) Quizmaster (Album Version) (1984)
3) Umpteenth Unnatural Blues (1986)
4) Non-Alignment Pact (Cover of Pere Ubu) (1986)
5) I'm Not Losing Sleep (1988)
6) When Will I Get To Hold You (1990)
7) Eve's Volcano 'Covered In Sin' / !Vulcano Lungo! (Extended Remix By Tom Lord-Alge) (1987)
8) Sunspots (Album Version) (1984)
9) Commin' Soon (1989)
10) Commin' Down... (1990)
11) Crazy Farm Animal (Single Version) (1989)
12) Jellypop Perky Jean (Album Version) (1990)
13) Kolly Kibber's Birthday (Album Version) (1984)
1984: World Shut Your Mouth: 1, 2, 13
1984: Fried: 8
1986: World Shut Your Mouth EP: 3, 4
1987: Eve's Volcano 'Covered In Sin' EP: 7
1988: My Nation Underground: 5
1989: China Doll EP: 11
1989: Skellington: 9
1990: Droolian: 6, 10, 12
Great to hear another Cope compilation - many thanks. This list reminds me of two trips i did with my uni - one to Keele University and one to Amsterdam. With my Copey obession in the mid 80's i tried to get a few mates to watch a concert which was shown on BBC at Westminster City Hall thinking that the later 80's stuff eg China Girl etc would appeal. It didn't - they all hated it..On the trip to Amsterdam we were on a coach and the tape selection was mainly Queen and Tina Turner. (OMG!) At about 2am I tried to sneak in 'Fried' on the coachdriver's cassette deck and got roundly booed when I thought people were mostly asleep... so I hadn't really learnt my lesson. Heaven forbid I end up on a lads trip anywhere nowadays I still have a feeling i might try and sneak in a bit of Peggy suicide or Jehovahkill - that commercial cope isn't it??
ReplyDeleteThat's a great anecdote, Mike. I can certainly relate to coach trips as an attempt to commandeer the cassette player as an opportunity to enlighten my fellow students. Apart from one friend who loved Cope's music as much as I did, I got pretty much the same reaction...
ReplyDeletePeggy Suicide and Jehovahkill definitely have their moments and did shift a few copies, relatively speaking. You'd be a braver person than me for attempting to get a lads trip to sit through the likes of Safe Surfer, Leperskin, Poet Is Priest or The Tower, though... ;-)
Stay tuned, you may enjoy Monday's selection.
I've been booed off all sorts of stereos for playing 'weird' music.
ReplyDeleteTop mix btw
I've distinct memories of coming home to play my newly acquired 12" single of World Shut Your Mouth and, shortly after it hit the chorus, my Dad bursting into the room, exclaiming, "Shut your mouth? Shut your mouth?! What kind of rubbish is this?"
DeleteI don't think he was a fan of the gigantic 4ft by 6ft Saint Julian poster I got with the Eve's Volcano 12" either...
I travelled around Europe on several organised coach trips to see Bob Dylan throughout the 1990s and was once almost left by the side of a road in Switzerland for daring to ask that we might hear something other than nonstop Bob over the stereo for the third day running. I have a feeling that I'd still be up a mountain somewhere if I'd suggested Julian Cope as an alternative.
ReplyDeletePlaying the JC mix as I type - great stuff!
I suspect your fellow travellers may have wondered what was 'wrong' with you, Swede. Whilst in Australia, I spent a couple of months working as a kitchen hand at the Swan Brewery in Perth. I got a lift every day and was subjected to pretty much wall-to-wall Aussie music the whole. Unfortunately not of The Go-Betweens & Nick Cave variety, more Skyhooks and Jimmy effing Barnes. I'm still traumatised by the experience and it was three decades ago!
Delete