gonged songs

[Undertoad]

Only Brits will have heard of this gent, and I don't know how many of them. Julian Cope is one of those guys who should have been huge worldwide; except that he was a little scary. Tripping/possessed scary. Everybody said he was the next Syd Barrett, because he was known for being a complete acid-head... but he was really the British Iggy Pop, looking a lot like the Ig-ster and spending half the show with his shirt off.

In the middle of his career Cope quit dropping acid and figured he might as well be professional about it; and put together a righteous band. The rhythm section was particularly strong. Drummer Chris Whitten went on to be Paul McCartney's drummer. Bassist James Eller went on to do nice work for The The. They are seen here and are totally awesome.

Cope onstage persona was lightly insane, lightly punk but still quite intense. He built a mic stand that he could climb onto and sort of drape/hang himself on as he performed, so everybody could see him mugging, and you knew when he climbed it he was going for broke. Watch him almost fall off at 3:15. At 6:52 you can see him making love to the mic, although he was always a very confirmed heterosexual and the songs were full of cock-sure sexual energy. Stupidly at 7:10 the vid cuts off and they cut in a video made a few years later. I am only submitting the beginning through 7:10 for your judgment. There is not much Cope on YouTube.

Cope's signature song at the time "Reynard the Fox" was about a fox who kills himself, by disemboweling himself with a Stanley knife. He ritually recreated this onstage as the final number. I saw this tour from the third row. It was one of the greatest shows ever.

These songs smack you flat out with a raunchy guitar riff, pound you to the floor with a sexy pounding beat... and then they give you a bowl of ice cream.