Julian Cope 🇬🇧 has been a treasure in the indie music world for over 40 years.
Originally he was part of an ill-fated outfit from Liverpool that never recorded a song. They were called THE CRUCIAL THREE and were comprised of legends IAN McCULLOCH (ECHO & THE BUNNYNEN) and PETE WYLIE (WAH HEAT!).
Then, he was a founding member of UK outfit TEARDROP EXPLODES. When they imploded (get it?) after 2 great LPs – “Kilimanjaro” (1980) and “Wilder” (1981), he stuck out on a highly creative solo career.
Julian Cope (front and centre)
That career includes many critically regarded LPs such as his debut “Fried” (2982), World Shut Your Mouth“ (1984), “My Nation Underground” (1987) and “Peggy Suicide” (1991), “20 Mothers” (1995) and many more..,
He has written exhaustively on music with the book “Compendium”
He was the original target of serial groupie Courtney Love when she travelled to Liverpool at 17.
He created the creature Sqwubbsy to wear at protests against Margaret Thatcher’s controversial Poll Tax in 1990.
Here is picture from the Poll Tax riots
For many years now he has functioned on the fringes of the music world, self releasing records under different monickers- over 40 in total. It is an incredible discography that includes many songs that permanently and profoundly affected me.
Around 2005, for his 20th solo album, Cope released it as 2 CDs totalling 70 min of music because he claimed it was “too intense” for a straight listen.
He was right.
“Citizen Cain’d” is a masterpiece of great songs and societal/ geo- political observations. A track that has stuck with me strongly since I first heard it is “World War Pigs”.
FAIR WARNING BEFORE YOU LISTEN. This song may cause you to think that you have just turned on your television or looked at a current news feed on your device.
Here goes…
SPOTIFY-
https://open.spotify.com/track/6bgEQ1ytlti1n3yOaNgZQi?si=rxERRtdIS8SzJqCVT4xLFA
(SONG 846)
I may be getting carried away but there is more, In 2013 COPE released the album “Revolutionary Suicide”
[Ed. Note- rex STOP! It is Monday. You may be on vacation but others in the group are not, and, even if they are, this is too much intensity for one day. Too much.]
Okay- on the direction of our crack editorial staff, more on this LP in a future post. On reflection, a là Cope, i agree it might be too much for today. I wouldn’t want members driving erratically if going to work, or hooking drives if playing golf whilst on vacation, because of this…
So, if you are still with me, I will wrap up this vacation length post by saying
PLAY LOUD OR PERISH
(November 25, 2024)
underground365 
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