Official Julian Cope-The Teardrop Explodes Thread

Just sometime ago I decided and went to listen to Julian Cope on legal streaming-services.
I had only known by name for many years (stuck in my head from somewhere), might even have heard him before on radio but now just somehow actually listened the album "Peggy Suicide" in full and was wondering:
So tell me, what albums would you recommend me check out next?

 

Saint Julian
Jehovahkill
Citizen Cain'd
World Shut Your Mouth
20 Mothers

Those are my reccomendations.

 

Ok, thanks. I will check those albums then.
Not sure if all are available via streaming-services but gonna check also my local library.

 

Yes, but adding the great album 'Fried'.

The compilation 'Floored Genius' is very usefull for trying out fine tracks of different albums of Julian Cope. There are also songs to find of his past in The Teardrop Explodes.

 

Be forewarned that Saint Julian, though very good in its own right, is a lot more slick than Peggy Suicide. Jehovahkill was the follow up to Peggy Suicide and retains more of that sound.

I agree that the Floored Genius comp is a good way to get your bearings on the first part of his amazing and varied career.

 

All of them. He is the UKs best kept secret.

 

Keep checking back, it's been going for almost 2 years pretty steady. Lot's of post-punk 7" singles and other rare items.

 

I would start with the first Teardrops album, Kilimanjaro. IMO one of the greatest albums ever made, it's just a brilliant album full of great songs. Thief of Bagdad is one of my favourite songs of all time.

 

This makes JC all the more intriguing to me considering he did actually have a certain amount of success in the UK and was even making TOTP appearances into the mid 90s.

How the hell did I never even hear this guy's name before?!

 

The Teardrop Explodes were fairly well known in the UK, in the press from the NME to even Smash Hits. Cope was even portrayed as a kind of teen heartthrob to some extent.

His solo career was also quite well known initially, on TV and so on. His record company really saw him as a star in the making.

Then he just seemed to disappear after a while and made a series of quite obscure albums, which if I remember correctly you had to send away for from his label. This era is lost to many except those hardcore fans who stuck with him. He was doing some fairly weird stuff by then.

I was quite lucky as he performed at my companies annual conference in about 1997 (we were a music distributor) and he played a nice little solo set, including The Great Dominions.

Must say again though - his first book, about his early life, the start of punk and the early Teardrops, is one of the best music books you can buy, he's a great writer. Check that out for sure.

 

I recently acquired the double set of Head On/Reposession and you are spot on. Its a fantastic read.

 

Because he never really made a dent in the US besides a bit on the college charts, and he hasn't performed over here in almost 20 years. As an Echo and the Bunnymen fan, I occasionally saw his name pop up in articles discussing the old Liverpool scene.

But I still had never heard his music until one day in 1991 I was at a record store and the most amazing Kraut/Psych sounding epic was playing. I asked the guy what it was and he said Julian Cope. The song was Safesurfer, and I haven't been the same since!

 

Its just so weird to suddenly discover an artist as prolific as JC and have had no idea they existed, lol. It was so weird to me because you would think, being a big enough fan of music in general, constantly reading magazines and forums and reading books and watching documentaries etc. etc. that I simply had never even heard the dude's name.... lol.

 

Agreed. It doesn't happen often but I love meeting people who know about him. It's like meeting a fellow member of a secret society.

I wasn't aware of that DCFC cover. It's cool that they did that and hopefully turned some people on to him (in addition to yourself). I remember reading that Blur were very influenced by his early records also.

 

Anybody have the Deluxe edition of Wilder? Curious if I should pick it up or not.

 

I picked it up a few weeks ago and its a nice second disc of b-sides and bbc session tracks, not sure why the live 'sleeping gas' was added to this when its also on the deluxe 'kilimanjaro', they could have added a few extra bbc session tracks instead.

The liner notes are also good to read, especially to have Balfe's viewpoint as well as Julian Cope's.

I haven't A/B'd the main album though with my black photo cover cd version.

 

I'll have to give it a go

 

The live, long Sleeping Gas is a Wilder-era recording, from the b-side of Tiny Children, so it belongs on this disc. It only appeared on the previous incarnation of the deluxe Kilimanjaro, not the current 3 disc edition (which this is the companion to), as I recall.

 

You're right about the live 'sleeping gas' being a wilder era b-side but it was recorded after 'kilimanjaro' and to me, stands out from the tone of the rest of the wilder era.

Also looking at discogs, the live 'sleeping gas' was on the expanded 1 disc of kilimanjaro and the 3 disc deluxe version - so a bit of repetition across the 2 main teardrop explodes albums

 

this guy seems to be kind of a tool, his books on German and Japanese
music are completely ignorant, short sighted and full of stupid remarks...

 

The live Sleeping Gas was indeed recorded after Kilimanjaro, but it was recorded after Wilder too: December '81. It definitely belongs with the second album.

 

Kilimanjaro and Wilder for me they are just superb albums of that time-I loved them. His solo career was always interesting and live he was great. And to add to those who quote Head On as one of the best music autobiographies....they are 100% correct.

 

These are two albums I come back to time and time again. Mostly Kilimanjaro for me, but lately I've come to love Wilder as well. I took the DE of Wilder, the Peel Sessions Plus cd, the "Zoology" comp and the "Greatest Hit" cd that has some rare tracks and made a nice comp for the car. Kilimanjaro is fine all the way through for me, no editing needed.

I think I've got 5 different cd versions of Kilimanjaro : Original US cd, original UK, original Japan, the 2000 reissue with all the bonus tracks and the latest 3 cd remaster. I never did pick up the Skyclad or the Collector's Choice 2-fer with Wilder.

 

Which version of Kilimanjaro do you prefer?