OPO/POO: JULIAN COPE

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Pick Only One from the self-proclaimed Arch-Drude. A career flecked with hills and valleys in quality, please concentrate solely on his post-Teardrop Explodes solo work.

As brilliant as tracks like "Trampolene," "Reynard the Fox" and "Try Try Try" are, I'm going to have to go with "East Easy Rider," though "Out of My Mind on Dope & Speed" remains a perennial fave as well.

Yours?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 28 March 2003 03:57 (twenty-three years ago)

Oh me Gawd. One?!?

Forced to choose, I'd have to say 'Mystery Trend' is the one I'd have, y'know, played at my funeral..

― Gatinha (rwillmsen), Friday, 28 March 2003 04:01 (twenty-three years ago)

Incidentally, this hereis great

― Gatinha (rwillmsen), Friday, 28 March 2003 04:05 (twenty-three years ago)

"Pristeen."

― Neudonym, Friday, 28 March 2003 04:23 (twenty-three years ago)

"Passionate Friend"

― Arthur (Arthur), Friday, 28 March 2003 04:40 (twenty-three years ago)

"East Easy Rider" was the first Julian Cope track I remember hearing, and since I lived in New Hampshire at the time and couldn't find the album anywhere, I taped it off the radio to listen to over and over again.

And yet I'm going to go with "Sunspots."

― Tep (ktepi), Friday, 28 March 2003 04:49 (twenty-three years ago)

Sunspots is a very credible reply, but if youre going to go 80's you may aswell go all the way. I reckon that if it wasnt for all that over the top reverb effect on the drums, "Planet Ride" could have endured the test of time and appeared on say James' "Millionaires".

Its a cracker- especially the blissful "Its 1986, Ive had way to much E and Im surrounded by state of the art synthesisers" middle 8

― linda blair, Friday, 28 March 2003 05:46 (twenty-three years ago)

come to think of it in 1986 it may have been pre -E and more acid driven.."she leads me out to the pastures green!"

― bryceless, Friday, 28 March 2003 05:56 (twenty-three years ago)

Er um uh.

"Reynard the Fox"

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 28 March 2003 06:12 (twenty-three years ago)

must it be Julian solo, or can it be Teardrop Explodes?

if the former, "sunspots." if the latter, "treason"

― Tad (llamasfur), Friday, 28 March 2003 07:16 (twenty-three years ago)

OPO/POO the Teardrop Explodes will be a different thread at some point, Tad. Stick with Julian solo!

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 28 March 2003 07:20 (twenty-three years ago)

ok, it's "sunspots" then!

― Tad (llamasfur), Friday, 28 March 2003 07:22 (twenty-three years ago)

I really love that track from Autogeddon "I gotta walk"! And "Beautiful Love". Which to choose? I can't decide! I can't decide!

― MarkH (MarkH), Friday, 28 March 2003 09:36 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm tempted by Reynard The Fox but it's already been picked. I like Copey when he gets minimal so something like "Torpedo" is wonderful. There's plenty of scope for B-Side picks too - "Mik Mak Mok" coulda beena contendah (chartwise), "Port Of Saints" is his best self-mythologising song, and "Hey High Class Butcher" pisses on the roughly contemporary "Meat Is Murder" as a veggie-tract.

But in the end I'm going to pick "Kolly Kibber's Birthday" because sitting in an office at half ten in the morning its synthesised monogroove is exactly what I'd like to hear, now, loudly.

― Tom (Groke), Friday, 28 March 2003 10:38 (twenty-three years ago)

Can I take all of Jehovahkill as its a connected song suite? No.

Then It'd probably be the Subtle Energies Commision or Poet Is Priest - though if push comes to shove I'll take Fear Loves This Place.

― tigerclawskank, Friday, 28 March 2003 10:49 (twenty-three years ago)

"Fear Loves This Place" is what I thought as well, coz it's weird and kind of uplifting. But, I've got to pick "Sunshine Playroom". Gawd, I remember when I heard this on the radio when it came out, it was like the shifting floor! Like, what's it going to do next!? Just when yer used to its weird groove & stuff, along comes a middle 8 that sounds like it's been hax0red from another song entirely. I'm going to have to listen to it when I get 'ome tonight.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Friday, 28 March 2003 11:34 (twenty-three years ago)

"Bill Drummond Said". I can't really work out why. "Sunspots" second.

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Friday, 28 March 2003 11:50 (twenty-three years ago)

Robert Mitchum - What a Dude!

― Samson, Friday, 28 March 2003 11:51 (twenty-three years ago)

I believe "World Shut You Mouth" is incredibly the only solo thing I have ever heard by him. "Treason (Just a Story)" is better though.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 28 March 2003 12:31 (twenty-three years ago)

Oooh, it's got to be Elegant Chaos. Brings a tear to my eye just to think about it.

Re above, if 'Planet Ride' appeared on 'Millionaires' then at least there'd be one good song on a James album.

― Kim Tortoise, Friday, 28 March 2003 13:07 (twenty-three years ago)

Ooh, I think I will have to go with "Passionate Friend" too. But it's a tough choice.

― Nicole (Nicole), Friday, 28 March 2003 13:27 (twenty-three years ago)

So would I, and I WILL when there's a Teardrop Explodes OOP

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Friday, 28 March 2003 13:34 (twenty-three years ago)

D'oh! I really should stick by a rule of not posting in the morning before I've had my coffee. "Sunspots", then.

― Nicole (Nicole), Friday, 28 March 2003 13:44 (twenty-three years ago)

Oh, solo, sorry. "Out of My Mind on Dope & Speed".

― Arthur (Arthur), Friday, 28 March 2003 14:30 (twenty-three years ago)

I didn't mean to sound bitey, I've been itching to say "Passionate Friend" the whole time

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Friday, 28 March 2003 14:33 (twenty-three years ago)

Difficult...

Gogmagog from the Fear Loves This Place E.P.

― christoff (christoff), Friday, 28 March 2003 14:34 (twenty-three years ago)

It's gotta be "World Shut Your Mouth". Special extra mentions go to his covers of Roky Erickson's "I Have Always Been Here Before" and Pere Ubu's "Non-Alighnment Pact" 'cos very few artists come THAT clean with their influences.

― Stimro Nero, Friday, 28 March 2003 14:44 (twenty-three years ago)

probably "Out of My Mind on Dope & Speed" tho "World Shut Your Mouth" was the first Cope I heard and still have fond memories

― H (Heruy), Friday, 28 March 2003 16:10 (twenty-three years ago)

One? Oh God, that's hard... one per album or period would be easy, but picking one song over all others? Shit.... "Sunspots", but the cheesy Casiotone Peel Session version over the over the top Fried version.

― Rob M (Rob M), Friday, 28 March 2003 16:55 (twenty-three years ago)

Elegant Chaos, yes.

― OleM (OleM), Saturday, 29 March 2003 16:38 (twenty-three years ago)

three years pass...

Land Of Fear!!! Fried is a superb record, but it's trumped by its own bonus track, a jolly and upbeat yet subtly melancholy keyboard drift-along. The last coupla minutes are perfect.

― Obvious Ninja (Haberdager), Tuesday, 29 August 2006 23:25 (nineteen years ago)

IF YOU DON'T GROPE BOUNCING BABIES YOU ARE PITTA-FUELED

― I Supersize Disaster (noodle vague), Tuesday, 29 August 2006 23:29 (nineteen years ago)

"I Come From Another Planet Baby" from "Interpreter" another great solo album.

― everything (everything), Tuesday, 29 August 2006 23:36 (nineteen years ago)

I have great love for most of Julian's work - I can't disagree with any of the tracks champpioned here.

However, one to add to the mix: "The Greatness and Perfection of Love." It strikes me as simply the archetypical 80s "alternative rock" song - whether it is the template for or the distillation of "alternative rock" I am unsure, and I don't care. I just bask in its greatness.

― EZ Snappin (EZSnappin), Wednesday, 30 August 2006 13:06 (nineteen years ago)

four years pass...

I eat too much rabbit & turn into a cereal,
I eat too much rabbit & turn into a cereal,
It's just like a cartoon by L.A. people,
Yeah Yeah Yeah!

― Blazes Boyband (Pillbox), Friday, 14 January 2011 23:00 (fifteen years ago)

Think that should be "...cartoon by A.A.P."

http://members.fortunecity.com/teamfx2000/oldsite/mgm/aap_a.jpg

Pretty good choice either way, but I'm going with "Reynard the Fox"

― If it cannot be notated, then there is no nute. (Myonga Vön Bontee), Friday, 14 January 2011 23:16 (fifteen years ago)

yeah, the joke was supposed to be that I have no idea what he is saying in the song, but that is how I always hear it.

― Blazes Boyband (Pillbox), Saturday, 15 January 2011 01:32 (fifteen years ago)

Lyrically, "Julian H Cope" is an awesome blend of inadvertent philosophy and bullshit. You decide which is what and what isn't.

For musical bliss, I'm stuck between "Upwards at 45 degs" or "Safesurfer". The last two minutes of the former are magnificent but the twin guitar intro on the latter is a more sustained hit.

― doug watson, Saturday, 15 January 2011 02:24 (fifteen years ago)

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