So what did North America make of Julian Cope?

His wife, Dorian, an American also has an interesting website

10th December 1907 – The Brown Dog Riots

Julian's website for one of his novels which also had fictitious bands and their music he made up:
The One Three One Doorway – One Three One: A Time-Shifting Gnostic Hooligan Road Novel by Julian Cope

 

I didn’t really care for Teardrop Explodes all that much. From what I read about them, I expected something closer to the Seeds or 13th Floor Elevators, but they had that unfortunate “horn rock” sound you used to hear from UK bands in the early 80’s, and were more of a “quirky” new wave band than psych gods. I saw a copy of Fried at a college record store around 1984, and it was one of those “if the music is anywhere near as whacked out as the cover albums “ie. Trout Mask Replica, was that I had to hear it. I liked it, but he was up and down in the 80’s. I really liked his 90’s albums, however, and enjoyed the first two Brain Donor albums. His writing about music is enthusiastic and infectious. I bought his Krautrock book and it got me thinking about a lot of bands I wouldn’t have heard of in the pre internet days. His anthology book from a few years ago is very entertaining.

 

I first focused on Julian Cope when he was singing about his love for an abalone. I had heard of The Teardrop Explodes but had not made the solo artist connection. Purchased Peggy Suicide on the strength of "Beautiful Love." Great freaking album - start to finish. I've probably played it more than 1000 times.

Agree that Floored Genius is a great sampler.

 

Julian's "World Shut Your Mouth" video got a lot of airplay on MTV, so he headlined a tour or two based on that. The Teardrop Explodes never had anything near the kind of exposure of post-punk contemporaries like Joy Division, Echo and the Bunnymen, etc. There are precious few goofballs like me in the US who have most or all of the Cope catalog.

Too bad, really, because a life lived without the splendor of, say, "An Elegant Chaos" (whose third verse features some of the greatest lyrics ever written in English) or "Sleeping Gas" is a poor thing indeed.

 

Another personal fave (and total earworm), "Unisex Cathedral":

 

This is from Wilder, don't see how you can argue with a song as good as this.

 

Peggy Suicide through Interpreter for me. Some of these are concept albums but I have no idea what they're really about. I just like the songs.

 

This, definitely.

 

Mik Mak Mok from the Sunspots EP caught my ear long ago (still love it) and I have a decent sized collection of Cope (and Teardrops) stuff now. I couldn’t keep up with all his self releases but at one point I was mailing in money to the UK to get some of his exclusive stuff. Guy really is some kind of genius... I’m still not sure exactly what kind though.

Anyway, here’s the one that got me:

 

His cover of The Vogues' "Five O'Clock World" got some airplay on alternative radio and college stations around 1989. I also remember these same stations playing The Teardrop Explodes' "Poppies In The Field" and "Treason" in 1981-82.

Other than that, if you wanted to hear Julian Cope in these parts, you had to seek him out.

 

Unless you were at a college radio station in say 1987-91 or are/were a real student of 80s UK alternative, he has basically no name recognition. He's better known for his music writing among even really knowledgeable record heads I'm friends with.

 

To my memory, "Trampoline" was the one song (after Teardrop Explodes) to get any radio play. He opened for the Go Gos around this time, probably the closest to US success he ever got.

Yet somehow he maintained US label deals for a good decade afterwards.

 

I remember when the original Krautrock Sampler book came out. I was working in the record department of our college bookstore and we couldn’t keep it in stock. I bet we sold 30 copies of that book.

 

I recall Julian talking about the US when Island dropped him in late '92, about a fortnight after "Jehovahkill" had been released and had caused consternation at the label (and indeed the manufacturer of the cassettes, who refused to make them). It was in a UK magazine called Select. He said that the US label just didn't like him. They refused to release "Peggy Suicide" but it began to sell on import - IIRC, JC said that they'd sole 60,000 on import. So they eventually released it but the moment had gone and they sold 20-30,000. So when he arrived with Jehovahkill, they knocked it back saying that they'd only sold 20,000 last time so it wasn't worth it.

Whatever he may have said at various points, Cope was always destined to be a cult figure. He made too many records too quickly for the music industry and several of his best were made with absolutely no regard for commerce (especially Jehovahkill and it's immediate follow-up, the marvellous "Skellington 2", popped out as side one of "The Skellington Chronicles"). The only album where he completely played ball was "My Nation Underground" and it is rightly regarded as one of his poorest efforts.

He suits his current role - part krautrocker, part troubadour, part wordsmith, part mystic. There is only one Julian Cope.

 

Same I was about to say. Cope is great, but he's very little-known in general in the US. To the extent that he's known here, it seems to usually be via word of mouth from adventurous music fanatics turning friends on to undeservedly obscure artists. That's how I found out about him. A musician friend turned me on to him around the time that Autogeddon came out.