Julian Cope Album by Album by Single by EP by Pseudonym Thread

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Summer of Malcontent, May 29, 2017.

  1. oldturkey

    oldturkey Forum Resident

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    I do like a bit of Beatles. I love Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey, My Sweet Lord and Band On The Run (the track) and Junior's Farm, but I sort of prefer Maybe I'm Amazed and Plastic Ono Band S/T. The Don't Worry Kyoko studio version is great (especially the long studio jam 9 minute version). What I really dislike is the 80s McCartney stuff like Say Say Say or Pipes Of Peace.
    I won't say I just like under-produced music, because I really like Sgt Pepper.

    Julian has something for everyone though doesn't he?
     
  2. Summer of Malcontent

    Summer of Malcontent Forum Resident Thread Starter

    This is a facile answer, but it could just be an eccentric variant on 'second album syndrome', since Skellington drew upon an archive of unreleased songs stretching right back to the pre-Teardrops days, whereas the follow-up was, as far as I know, all new material written after an extremely prolific songwriting run. I wouldn't be at all surprised if he'd started to exhaust his songwriting reserves by this point (and he'd already mined some of his best vault material in 1988-89 with Skellington, those Underground b-sides and the belated release of Everybody Wants to Shag. . .). I will shortly be calling Autogeddon as Exhibit A.
     
  3. Tripecac

    Tripecac Forum Resident

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    Wasn't Droolian sort of like Skellington 2? And Skellington 2 is more like Skellington 3? Or do you think Skellington and Droolian were on different tracks?
     
  4. Summer of Malcontent

    Summer of Malcontent Forum Resident Thread Starter

    I think of them in the same way, but I have no idea whether Julian does! Droolian came on the crest of the songwriting wave that brought us Peggy Suicide and Jehovahkill, so it could also be thought of as 'even more Peggy Suicide b-sides (including yet another version of Safesurfer)'.
     
  5. oldturkey

    oldturkey Forum Resident

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    BTW, I wonder if this was recorded as a result of the favourable response to the Skelly track on Floored Genius? Those two albums (Skelly&Droolian) had been sort of ignored on release but were sort of spoken of with high regard after FG.

    Also, we would mention that for the reissue Ye Skellington Chronicles HH7 the track Grimreaper Is A Krautrocker is removed, but great veesions of Sleeping Gas and Trampoline live from 1990 Brixton Fridge are added.
     
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  6. Summer of Malcontent

    Summer of Malcontent Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Really? I had no idea! Something more for me to track down.

    I'll knock up a fresh post for the rerelease, just for completeness' sake.
     
  7. Summer of Malcontent

    Summer of Malcontent Forum Resident Thread Starter

    [​IMG]
    YE SKELLINGTON CHRONICLES
    Reissue (1997)

    Reissued in 1997, removing ‘Grimreaper Is a Krautrocker’ and adding ‘Skellington Anti-Poll Tax Live in Lambeth England (Medley)’ – May ’90 live recordings of ‘Sleeping Gas’ and ‘Trampolene’.
     
  8. oldturkey

    oldturkey Forum Resident

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    I've been thinking about this, and I think a better question would be do you prefer the Skellington version of Little Donkey or the East Easy Rider single studio remake? For me the rough sounding first version is much better - it has a life and spontaneity which is removed by tarting it up in a studio. It's the same with the two versions of Jellypop Perky Jean (Droolian vs the remake on FG3).

    I think you guys have highlighted the best tracks from Skellington 2 ie Poppins and TV And My Pills.
    Poppins is a total Rip Off (pun intended!) of T.Rex's Get It On (Bang A Gong).
    Contrary to my point above, I really prefer the Interpreter version of TV and Pills (!) but they're both good. The Flo & Eddie style backing vocals are another tribute to T.Rex unless it's a coincidence. I like the German Kosmische Music accent he uses (and again much much better on Interpreter). I love the lyrics about how he needs help but his "friends just keep skinning away" :laugh:.
    Electrical Stormgirl sounds like it should work,and nearly gets there, but it's just not as inspired or natural as Skelly One.
    Skip is quite nice, another eco song, but this time more of a throwaway (pun intended!).
    The Angel & the Fellatress - I quite like it - it's quite funny and psychedelic - but just doesn't get to the level of what we know Julian can achieve without really trying. I like the bass/guitar/is it a dulcimer(?) jam ending.
    Waco-Pops sounds like it's going to be good from the guitar opening, but I just don't enjoy it. It has the Skellington reverb guitar solo, but it never really gets there imo.
    Common Land At Water's Edge is a love song but dull really. The lyrics are not his best moment to say the least.
    Scud-U-Like is very catchy but only 45 seconds long.
    Grimreaper Is A Krautrocker - it's an ok jam but out of place on a Skellington follow-up.
    American Tragedy - I really like this one. The gothic 60s keyboard riff is good.
    Wayland's Smithy Has Wings. - I have been there. It's cool and quite spooky.

    [​IMG]

    I also used to know a bloke called Wayland. Again, the song is again nowhere near as good as we know JC could achieve if he tried. I usually like this sort of thing by Julian, but this time I find it a bit tedious.
    Madonna Bag-Lady Blues - Soporific and dull imo. I hate saying this about Julian.
    London Underground - Again - it has no pizazz.

    The two live tracks on Ye Skellington Chronicles are well worth getting, but it only seems to be available on cassette on Head Heritage. They should do a digital download - the cd seems to be as rare as an OAP hen's teeth.
     
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  9. Summer of Malcontent

    Summer of Malcontent Forum Resident Thread Starter

    I like the new avatar, oldturkey. Let's hope we don't have to wait too long for a follow-up album!

    And you need apologize to nobody for preferring the remake of 'I've Got My TV and My Pills': it's an awesome rendition (and probably the best thing on that album).
     
  10. Summer of Malcontent

    Summer of Malcontent Forum Resident Thread Starter

    [​IMG]
    AUTOGEDDON (1994)

    Side One: Autogeddon Blues / Madmax / Don’t Call Me Mark Chapman / I Gotta Walk / Ain’t No Getting’ Round
    Side Two: Paranormal in the West Country (medley): Paranormal Pt. 1 – Archdrude’s Roadtrip – Kar-ma-kanik / Ain’t But the One Way / S.T.A.R.C.A.R.

    THE AUTOGEDDON SINGLE

    [​IMG]
    Paranormal in the West Country (with the Leone Quartet) / Paranormal in the West Country (Avebury) / Paranormal in the West Country (Krankenhausmusik) / Paranormal in the West Country (Orig.) CD (1994)

    Mail-order only single, available by sending Julian a sticker included with the Queen Elizabeth album.
    Track appears as ‘Paranormal Pt. 1’ in the album medley.

    THE BIG ISSUE ALBUM NO. ONE (1995): Highway Blues (demo)

    Included on Floored Genius 3.
     
  11. Summer of Malcontent

    Summer of Malcontent Forum Resident Thread Starter

    I was disappointed with this album when it came out, and I'm still disappointed with it today. 'Paranormal Pt. 1' is the only decent tune I hear on the album (and it's more interesting on the single variants). Some of the side one tracks would be pleasant enough b-sides or Skellington 3 detours, but they're pretty weak as the backbone of a major new album. 'Ain't But the One Way' is faintly embarrassing wannabe c*ckr*ck that doesn't belong in the same moshpit as 'Hanging Out and Hung Up on the Line', and 'S.T.A.R.C.A.R.' is 'Safesurfer's' boring cousin, who spent all his time listening to Pink Floyd when he could have been listening to Funkadelic.
     
  12. oldturkey

    oldturkey Forum Resident

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    Woah! I was expecting you to say "it's good, but not as good as Peggy or Jehovahkill", but you really dislike it!
    I have always loved this album, and it's a fight with Skellington and Droolian to be my top Cope album.
    I did actually grow up listening to Meddle and Dark Side Of The Moon rather than Funkadelic, and maybe that's why I really love STARCAR. For me that track is 100% perfect and seems like it was created by the Gods (although really it's a piece of Doggen Foster aka Brain Donor genius). I don't think I'm a boring old metalhead.
    I love this album so much I bought the UK cd, Japanese cd and vinyl just because there wasn't a special edition.

    I'm putting my fingers in my ears and saying "La-La-La-La-La". You can't alter my reality.
     
  13. Summer of Malcontent

    Summer of Malcontent Forum Resident Thread Starter

    It's all cool. I really wanted to like the album, and still do, but every time I put it on, it just seems like an underachieving sibling, and each track reminds me of better things Cope had already released.

    I don't completely hate it (let's save that for some of the forthcoming releases), but it just doesn't spark any enthusiasm for me, and was the first completely lacklustre album I heard from Cope.
     
  14. oldturkey

    oldturkey Forum Resident

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    You prefer Skellington 2?
     
  15. Summer of Malcontent

    Summer of Malcontent Forum Resident Thread Starter

    In that it's got a couple of songs I really like, yes.
     
  16. oldturkey

    oldturkey Forum Resident

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    Well, I've seen you around a lot of the threads I visit, so I know we both like a lot of the same music. That's partly why it's a surprise, and also because I am in love with this album.
    For me Autogeddon is a guitar lover's album. I think it's Mike Mooney from Peggy Suicide (Safesurfer and later the Bunnymen, Spiritualized and Lupine Howl) on this album (not Doggen as I erroneously said earlier - Discogs is wrong) although S.T.A.R.C.A.R. does sound like Brain Donor. I wouldn't call it c*ckrock, but there are elements of David Gilmour's guitar playing, George Harrison, James Williamson, John Williams etc etc. I have always been in love with this LP. If I was going to recommend one Cope album to show his array of talents (FG not included) it would be this.

    Your rose is my thorn (and vice versa).

    1 Autogeddon Blues - The opening track starts of with a lovely sounding acoustic guitar. In fact Julian's albums from this ecology trio were all recorded beautifully imo. "I had a dream in the middle of the day and now my waking dream won't go away." His lyric writing reaches a peak on this album. Poetic and caustic barbed arrows hitting their targets, but with a great deal of humour. It's a proper anti-pollution rant borne of a premonition. The theme overall is Julian getting out of the city and living in the West Country.
    This song builds as he gets angrier and more frustrated with the reluctance of people to stop polluting and trashing the environment. He's advocating direct action. His waking dream becomes a nightmare and the song ends with a helpless scream.

    2 Madmax - Yes the guitar sounds like George Harrison on Abbey Road (a good thing in my book), but it's a beautiful folk song. It's sung really well. Meaning is a mystery to me - is it about roadkill?

    3 Don't Call Me Mark Chapman - Julian's singing is great on these songs. This is another great lyric. It's about a man who can't take his neighbours playing Barry Manilow songs anymore so he puts them out of their misery and quite understandably chooses death by armed Police.
    "Don't call me Mark Chapman...'cause they deserve each other. Don't call me Sirhan Sirhan, cause they ain't Duran Duran."
    What a lyric! That is genius right there.
    (Sirhan Sirhan allegedly killed Bobby Kennedy under alleged mind control.)

    4 I Gotta Walk - A so-catchy punk guitar rage single. "Greedhead Police State admit your mistake Paranoid Paranoia" Beautiful. How can you not love this? Julian subverted the establishment by performing this on TOTP with a Mohawk and minimal underwear. Perfect. Thighpaulsandra is on analogue waveforms.
    There was an even more extremely synthed remix released on a free cassette with a music newspaper which I have somewhere. Julian creates wonderful previously unheard primal Shamanic gutteral sounds at the very end. Absolutely one of his best singles.



    5 Ain't No Gettin' Round Gettin' Round - Begins with a tuneful piano melody, but that is kicked into touch by a very deep bass and wah-wah guitar.
    The lyrics again capture the pollution problem perfectly. " Yes today I just feel so confused/Oh so battered and so psychically bruised (pollution makes him cough)...Like a pig drawing a cartload of sausages - I'm drawing my own conclusion." Clever, original, to the point and just hilarious. He nails it: "I need a car to get me around, but my car is a polluter and it's messing up my future." The song breaks down to a slow crawl wonderfully in the middle and then speeds up to a psychedelic distorted bass/guitar ending.

    7 Paranormal pt 1 A great folk song recorded inside West Kennet Longbarrow. again about getting away from the city.

    [​IMG]

    8. Archdrude's Roadtrip This happens to me all the time. I do a lot of driving and people are either aggressive pr*cks on cocaine or they are too hesitant. They desperately want to overtake you and once they are in front they slow down just to mess with your head. It's so annoying - no wonder people get road rage. Another reason to get rid of the car.
    It reminds me of the Small Faces Lazy Sunday Afternoon and it has mid 1960s Beatles eg Penny Lane brass. It has a great arrangement - I love the way the backing vocals and delicate piano merges into:

    9 Kar-ma-kanik
    Oh wow - Heavvvy!!! Guitar freakout number 1. I love this soooo much. Synths and guitar solos mashed together in a wonderful way. Performed live in 2003 at the Rome Wasn't Burned In A Day festival by Brain Donor and is on Cope On The Rope.

    10 Ain't But the One Way More guitar freakout. You've got to love it. Not the best song on here, but still great imo. Did I mention how good his voice is? It's again a plea for direct action "Make yourself some enemies...'cause the Greedheads ain't ever gonna go away".

    11. s.t.a.r.c.a.r. As I said before - Godlike guitar playing by Moon-eye.
    A quiet beginning - Thighpaulsandra's little bleeps alongside a cheap drum machine as Cope's voice disappears on a Helium cloud. Then a warm acoustic guitar arpeggio repeated as a beautiful mournful reverb guitar solo takes you up there, very gradually adding a bit of feedback, drums and then a synth breeze starts to blow. The first 8 minutes are like guitar from the heavens...and then it gets better. The distortion begins to take over, and an echoed piano crashes in. At 9 minutes you have passed through the event horizon and time is doing strange things to your mind.
    It all ends as you get in an elevator to complete the journey.

    [​IMG]

    Star Carr | A Mesolithic site in North Yorkshire | Home
     
  17. oldturkey

    oldturkey Forum Resident

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    Oops! It wasn't a single - it should have been though. Top of the Pops were being very adventurous to say the least.
     
  18. Tripecac

    Tripecac Forum Resident

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    > The two live tracks on Ye Skellington Chronicles are well worth getting, but it only seems to be available on cassette on Head Heritage. They should do a digital download - the cd seems to be as rare as an OAP hen's teeth.

    Frustrating! These are 2 tracks I don't actually have. I have lots of boots from around that time but not the anti-poll-tax gig!

    -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    As for Autogeddon, I re-listened to it yesterday, and totally agree with Summer of Malcontent. I felt like Autogeddon tried to repeat things from previous albums, but with a more stripped-down, musically unpolished approach which lacked the lo-fi charm and humor of Skellington.

    The lyrics are mean, frequently about killing people, and the vocal delivery is often sloppy and hard to understand. The guitar work, while playing a more dominant role than usual, feels less professional. I really hoped "S.T.A.R.C.A.R." would be like "Safesurfer" part 2, but the guitar solos sound like amateurish noodling, and the underlying groove is unmemorable/nonexistant.

    I don't mind "Ain't But the One Way" because it injects some badly needed energy into the mix, but the song never really evolves and just fizzles out at the end.

    I think if Cope had just picked his most melodic and catchy songs from Skellington 2, Autogeddon, 20 Mothers, and Interpreter, he'd have a good album, something that feels a bit like Peggy Suicide. (I'd given up on his creating another Jehovahkill). But he rushed out these hit-and-miss albums (along with side projects), apparently desperate for a cash injection, and desperate to spend as little time in the studio as possible.

    It's a shame, because Cope still had the ability to create nice little ditties; he still got lucky sometimes. But he diluted his good ideas with sloppy execution... and lots and lots of not-so-good ideas.

    (Speaking of not-so-good ideas, I think we skipped The Jehovahcoat Demos, which were recorded in 1993.)

    ...

    Just read oldturkey's review, which was very good. Nice enthusiasm! If I forget all about grouping Autogeddon with Peggy Suicide and Jehovahkill (both 5/5 for me), then it's not horrible. Better than My Nation Underground, at least. If I lower my expectation and put away my critic's hat, I can enjoy it....

    But we're putting it under a microscope at this point... Shortly after Peggy Suicide and Jehovahkill. So it will always live in their shadows. Maybe if Autogeddon had been longer (perhaps boosted by some of the more interesting moments from The Jehovahcoat Demos) it would have at least cast a shadow of its own. But it is too small, more of a half-effort, like Skellington 2, and (for me at least) it is completely hidden by its predecessors' giant shadows.
     
    Last edited: Sep 21, 2017
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  19. oldturkey

    oldturkey Forum Resident

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    I understand your reservations about the angry lyrics. You're right about that, but he always writes with a lot of violence against the establishment. It's passionate anger so you know he's feeling it, and it has been there right up to his present recordings. His wife writes a lot about politics on her website.
    It's hard for me to understand anyone not having a big smile at his sense of humour though.
     
  20. oldturkey

    oldturkey Forum Resident

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    I don't think we're going to agree much for the rest of this thread! Post-Jehovahkill it's a great labyrinthine discographical path full of surprises and diversions. I was always aware that Autogeddon had the reputation of being poor in comparison to Peggy and Jehovahkill but I don't see it that way at all. Agreed that he spent less time on it in the studio, and it's more off-the-cuff, but I like that approach more. Sometimes you can kill an idea by going over and over it in the studio.

    For me this is him breaking away and opening the door to the rest of his career. Julian's finally put his personality on record without a major record company breathing down his neck. He's now on an indy label Echo, and from here on he gets more freedom til he forms his own label.
    I'm really looking forward to going over the next phase of his discography. It opens out now and becomes a lot less predictable.

    I've got an mp3 of Julian on Mark Radcliffe's show 14th July 1994.

    Radcliffe: "Have you got a sort of desperate fear of being seen as a kind of conformist in any way? Like you have to go on Top of the Pops and wear no pants, you have to tell your kids to be weird, you have to say you're gonna batter your mum, you have to shave the side of your head. Is that it? Are you just terrified of just mowing the lawn with a Flymo and thinking, you know, "I'll go to Sainsbury's in a bit?"

    Cope: "I think it's fear of falling asleep - you know? It's to keep myself interested."
     
  21. zwolo

    zwolo Forum Resident

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    I remember putting on the promo Autogeddon cd on at work. Needless to say it scared a few customers but something about that collection of songs made me respect Mr.Cope more and I thought it was insane brilliance. I think he just got to something...incredibly original music and it was like, where is this guy going to next?
     
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  22. citizensmurf

    citizensmurf Ambient postpunk will never die

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    Just threw this on today. It's the only version of it I own. Compared with Droolian, it's a masterpiece. But then Droolian sounds like a throw away single use collection of demos save for a couple okay songs. Skellington has good songs, if not perfect then certainly interesting. I played Droolian again after having not heard it for years, and the disappointment did not diminish. Skellington Chronicles however is fantastic, and I had forgotten how much I enjoy it. Swapping out the Krautrocker song for the live medley was a wise choice, as it was the clunker of the album. I loved reading about the clandestine recording of the album in Repossessed (are we not covering his books as well, not like he has that many), and its eventual release. Not many artists can break the mold after years of record company insistence of pop hits and streamlined genres. Like I said before, Peggy is where I truly got interested in Cope, but in hindsight, it was the spontaneousness and urgency of Skellington that led him in his current direction.
     
  23. oldturkey

    oldturkey Forum Resident

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    Oi!
    Where were you Citizensmurf? We are now on Autogeddon ;).
    I agree about Skellington 1 though, but it seems lovers of Droolian are a rare breed. I'm happy in my world.
     
  24. citizensmurf

    citizensmurf Ambient postpunk will never die

    Location:
    Calgary
    I couldn't disagree more. Autogeddon was one of the first albums I bought from him, after the introduction of Peggy and Jehovahkill. I may have already recanted this story, but please indulge me. After trying to find some Cope in Canada circa '97, not much was available. I visited a local used cd store, who had MNU and Autogeddon available. I asked the clerk which one was better. He informed me he didn't know much about Cope, only that the man had invested a lot of acid in the 80s, and then did a full stop and went clean for the 90s. At the time I was much more interested in music made without the help of drugs (truthfully getting tired of the excuses of drug riddled artists who come up short on creativity after their initial successes). I opted to go for Autogeddon. Having heard PS and JHVK, I was very surprised by the very low-key atmosphere, and the absence of "catchy hooks". At the time, I didn't drive either, and spent many hours on city transit listening to the songs.

    I would put Autogeddon as my top Cope album (only slightly behind Love Peace and ****) of all time. The lyrics are fantastic, and cut right to the exactedness of his worldview at the time. This approach to songwriting and recording, is what truly drew me into Cope's world. Experimental without being self-indulgent. Humour mixed with anger and personal reflection. Later knowing about the many projects and aims he had going on at the same time (Krautrocksampler, the field visits and writing that would become The Modern Antiquarian, the often dismissed glambient epic of Queen Elizabeth, his obsession with the underground rock scene that would reveal itself with his Head Heritage Album of the Month reviews). This was an artist I could and did get behind.

    Like I've probably stated before, I could give a **** about catchy melodies and guitar hooms. Anyone can formulate that. But not many people could write and release an album like Autogeddon. I truly love all the songs, but "Autogeddon Blues", "STARCAR" and "Ain't But The One Way" ( which is as far away from cock rock as you can get...if I had heard Vince Neil singing about killing a yuppie with a rock, instead of a never ending whiskey bottle, well I would have given him my attention) are the standouts. Hell, I love the entire album, hence my accolades. Bring on Queen Elizabeth!
     
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  25. citizensmurf

    citizensmurf Ambient postpunk will never die

    Location:
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    Sorry, I don't pop into the forum all the time, but I'll keep trying to listen to the albums and chime in now and then.
     

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