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

Don't know any of the personal history of that particular song, but there are a bunch of songs that he returned to over the years, sometimes after decades.

Off the top of my head, there's:
Sleeping Gas - original single version, album rerecording, Sleeping Gas '90 (Floored Genius 4, and actually recorded in 1993, I believe).
Screaming Secrets - Teardrop Explodes outtake, Saint Julian
Just Like Leila Khaled Said - Wilder, Kiss My Sweet Apocalypse
I've Got My TV and My Pills - Skellington 2, Interpreter, Floored Genius 4

The version of 'Land of Fear' on the Fried CD was originally released on the Sunspots EP in 1985, so I've always heard that ghostly early version as an anticipation of that full-blown recording, and the later album version as a 'cover' rather than part of a continuous evolution.

 

Thank you. You truly are a Drude.

 

A few titles you can add to that list:

"Books" - original by The Teardrop Explodes on b-side of "Treason", then re-recorded for KILIMANJARO, and third solo version on CHARLOTTE ANNE ep
"Suffocate" - on US version of KILIMANJARO, re-recorded for b-side of "You Disappear From View"
"Little Donkey" - original on SKELLINGTON, re-recorded for EAST EASY RIDER ep

 

Onward to 2012!


PSYCHEDELIC REVOLUTION (2012)

Side of Che Guevara: Raving on the Moor / Vive le Suicide / Cromwell in Ireland / Revolutionary Man / As the Beer Flows Over Me / Hooded & Benign
Side of Leila Khaled: Psychedelic Revolution / X-Mass in the Woman’s Shelter / Roswell / Because He Was Wooden / The Death of Rock ‘n’ Roll


WODEN (2012)

Woden

 

Psychedelic Revolution never did much for me as an album but i found the song Hooded and Benign to be spectacular. Classic Cope.

 

Does anyone know why Psychedelic Revolution and Revolutionary Suicide cost quite a bit more on the second-hand market than some of its 2000s' predecessors these days? Were fewer copies pressed perhaps? Psychedelic Revolution is one I missed at the time of release, but I'm not inclined to pony up the going rate on Discogs.

 

The alternate version of 'Psychedelic Revolution' is much better than the album version, and I'd consider that classic Cope as well.

Woden, however, is just about the worst thing he's ever released.

 

Playing catch-up...

"The Unruly Imagination" starts off acoustic and catchy, sort of like a better-produced Skellington project. Very nice! Heavy Metal is a thing of the past. Yay! The last few songs drag on a bit, and sometimes the bass drum isn't completely in time, but overall this is a very nice (if low-key) effort.

 

Kiss My Sweet Apocalypse - Long, trancy, dirges... not particularly musical. Or inspired. It sounds like a bunch of stoned non-musicians banging on things and calling it "music". And not in an intentionally back-to-basics avant garde sort of way. No, it's more like a bunch of middle schoolers "borrowed" some equipment from the band room, scrounged up a tape recorder, pressed the record button, and then beat and honked on their instruments repetitively for several hours, and then edited it down to the "best" bits which they burnt to a CDR on their big brother's computer, and that is what you are listening to now.

Not bad for middle schoolers, but very disappointing after the concise catchiness of the first half of The Unruly Imagination.

Oh well. We'll just file it under "side project" and call it a day.

 

REVOLUTIONARY SUICIDE (2013)

Disc One: Hymn to the Odin / Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road? / The Armenian Genocide
Disc Two: Revolutionary Suicide / Paradise Mislaid / Mexican Revolution Blues / Russian Revolution Blues / They Were on Hard Drugs / In His Cups / Phoney People, Phoney Lives / Destroy Religion


RAVE-O-LUTION (2013)

Download only.

 

Still catching up...

Floored Genius 4 - Great variety of songs from various eras. It's a nice breath of fresh air after that Black Sheep smog! The songs might not be as well-produced as the "proper" studio tracks from the 1990s, but the performances and writing are consistent in quality with Cope's 1980s/90s b-sides. Very nice!

 

More catching up...

Jehovahcoat Demos - Ugh. This starts off with bleepy bloopy synths which really annoy me. They're mixed wayyy too loud. The rest is a bunch of jams. Decent energy, but nothing really inspired. I just don't think the band were good enough musicians (or soloists) to make the jams very interesting. Either that, or they just weren't feeling like doing much. Despite the "wild" (read: incoherent) vocals whoops here and there, it's really quite restrained. And boring. To be honest, I think Cope's experiments work best when he's working alone, or at least is the focal point. Here he just seems to be one part of an only partially enthusiastic band. The crappy production doesn't help.

Compare this to James' "Wah Wah" CD, which is a set of similarly "captured" jams and grooves from around the same time period. The "Wah Wah" tracks are much more engaging.

 

To be fair, Wah Wah had the distinct advantage of Brian Eno being there to fillet, finesse and transform those jams into an intriguing album.

 

Psychedelic Revolution - Much better!!! I like it a lot more than the Black Sheep side projects, and the oldy-moldy Jehovahcoat Demos. The production is a little rough, but there are lots of singalong melodies and toe-tapping grooves.

 

Woden - Ha ha horrible. The most interesting thing about it is I have a 1:12 version from 1998 and a 35 minute version from 2012. Any idea which is the "real" version? Not that I care in the slightest!

Revolutionary Suicide - This is a mostly pleasant mix of acoustic, synths, and melodic ideas. It's not bad or annoying (with a couple momentary exceptions), but there's nothing in here that really grabs me, although "The Armenian Genocide" has a low-key epic feel. This album doesn't really "rock", but it does "hum", or at least it elicits humming along with it. The title track is nice, as is "Paradise Mislaid". Imperfect production, but very tuneful.

Rave-o-lution is fun, though repetititve. Listening once every few years is enough.

And there, I believe I'm caught up!

 

Hi. I’m late to this party but I’ve been observing this thread for a few months, watching it grow, happy to read other’s opinions of the Arch Drude’s oveure.
I’m not gonna go and rate previously rated albums as I don’t think my opinion is really gonna add anything to proceeding, so I’ll muse some thoughts on Woden: This one gets a bad rep but I quite like it. I think I prefer it over Odin. For the above-poster, as far as I know the only version to exist is the longer one... there is a YouTube vid of the piece shortened to just over half an hour. I used the album as something of a medative aid when taking off in an aeroplane. The second half is much better than the first - very atmospheric but too repetitive and mundane for some? I dunno.

 

Off topic, but...Just in case anyone is looking for a last-minute Cope-related Xmas present, a limited bunch of deadstock has just been made available for sale via the Head Heritage Merchandiser. Info here.

 

not had time to scroll back 21 pages has - Rabbi Joseph Gordan
been mentioned yet ?

 

Thanks, just picked up the zoology cd

 

Great, glad it was helpful! I got that and the Skellington Chronicles double LP. Hopefully there are more treasures to come.

 

Thanks for the heads up. I've got a Jehovakill shirt on the way.

 

Fantastic! I’m in for a Jehovahkill T-shirt and a Zoology CD.

 

Wow, what a thrilling thread! Glad I found it. One of my personal obsessions in the past was unreleased Cope material, especially the Saint Julian demos from 1985 (the source for many SJ-era B-sides and for Prince Varmint and I Need Somebody)... Anyone else into those recordings?

 

I'm also baffled by some of his recording decisions in recent times. He was probably going for a Stooges Raw Power sound, but James Williamson was John McLaughlin, compared to whoever played this (Cope himself?) guitar part.

 

Happy New Year!

I'm going to skip over the One Three One recordings / releases and do them all in one or two big posts at the end, as it's a bit of a headache sorting out actual from fictional releases! In which case I believe we're up to:


TRIP ADVIZER – THE VERY BEST OF JULIAN COPE 1999-2014 (2015)

Compilation collecting self-released tracks from the previous fifteen years. Sources identified below:

These Things I Know – Black Sheep
Hell Is Wicked – Citizen Cain’d
Psychedelic Odin – Black Sheep
Raving on the Moor – Psychedelic Revolution
I’m Living in the Room They Found Saddam In – Citizen Cain’d
They Were on Hard Drugs – Revolutionary Suicide
A Child Is Born in Cerrig-y-Drudion – You Gotta Problem with Me
Cromwell in Ireland – Psychedelic Revolution
Woden – You Gotta Problem with Me
Julian in the Underworld – previously unreleased
Revolutionary Suicide – Revolutionary Suicide
All the Blowing-Themselves-Up-Mother****ers – Black Sheep
Conspiracist Blues – Floored Genius 3
Psychedelic Revolution – alternate version with Julian Cope vocal
Shrine of the Black Youth – Rome Wasn’t Burned in a Day


TRIP ADVIZER EP (2015)

Julian in the Underworld / Psychedelic Revolution / The Everlasting No (version)

A download EP that included the two new tracks from the compilation plus another unreleased track.