Julian Cope couldn't live by the rules and went ticking in the side and spinning 'cross the sky with mouth open wonder and laughing psychedelic sunspots on this terrapin torpedo. With the critical and commercial failure of his solo debut 'World Shut Your Mouth', his stomach slashing stage incident the previous year, and the copious amounts of hallucinogens he was taking, Cope was in danger of being written off as an acid casualty. He continued to record new material with Steve Lovell. 'Fried' was produced by Lovell and features Julian Cope on vocals, bass guitar, guitar, piano, and organ; Steve Lovell on lead guitar; Donald Ross Skinner on rhythm & slide guitars; Chris Whitten on drums; Steve "Brother Johnno" Johnson on electric guitar on "Sunspots"; and Kate St. John on oboe.
Cope considers: "[I started taking LSD] purely because people abhorred it so much, then it became a compulsive thing...I think I took too much acid actually. It got annoying being so paranoid. I'd be sitting at the window, waiting for people to come round so I could freak out...I really resented being seen as off my tree. I was a little bit sken-iff, but never off my head...For a long time, I was worried about being seen as this Syd Barrett kind of character. I know that acid has affected me in certain ways, it's obviously affected my writing, the way I see the world around me, but I don't want to be taken for a crank. I don't want to be an object of ridicule - basically the people who haven't travelled that far in their own lives...I know what I do is brilliant. I get excited by the music I make so that must mean it's good...I called it 'Fried' because Dorian (his wife) was always saying to me, 'God Julian, you're fried!'...I think the sleeve sums up what I'm doing almost as much as the music in a way. It seems very fragile, very lonely, you know this weird kind of place...I had such a backlog of songs, I think it was really important for people to know that I could still do something...I still don't know why people thing I'm so loopy that I don't know what I'm doing. Like there was no bass on certain songs on 'Fried' or the drums would all be in one speaker...it's not because I forgot, you know. I actually wanted it to sound that way. Everything I do, I do for a reason."
'Fried' only made it eighty-seven on the UK album chart. The album cover had Cope naked under a turtle shell atop the Alvecote Mound slag heap, which only served to reinforce the perceptions that he was too far gone. Cope looks back: "For my first 11 years in music, I served an apprenticeship to understand what it would be like when I was on the trip. I've been on this trip now for five years, but because I suffered at the hands of the press all the time with things like when I put Fried out--imagine putting Fried out in 1984 when everybody was in high couture and I was naked under a turtle shell? I'm so used to being utterly slagged just for being who I am. It makes you so strong that you no longer even react to it, you merely act. You can throw it off."
https://www.headheritage.co.uk/
"Sunspots" charted at number seventy-six in the UK.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQpOtdZdnPQ
"Laughing Boy"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNqtqi9MCX8
"Reynard the Fox"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAZYCSwBkxI
Hey in the pouring rain
When the smell of terror brings a thousand eyes
The red men come again
They kill my children and they kill my wife
And then they leave me bleeding
Family dead, just freaking out bleeding
Stoned in the gutter
Empty of my colour
I'm fried, fried, ticking in the side
Body twitched from side to side
I'm fried, fried, ticking in the side
Body twitched from side to side
Run, run, Reynard, run, run, run
You've got to run for an hour and you're still not done
You've got to run, run, Reynard, run, run, run
Away, away, away, away, away
Hey in the ice and snow
When the call up sounds to the real in deed
But do you really wanna know
How we rode into freedom on whimsy and greed?
And they said your time is over
I don't see any gallant calls
I don't see an inch of reflex
'cept to leave me bleeding
Bleeding, bleeding, bleeding
I'm fried, fried, ticking in the side
Body twitched from side to side
I'm fried, fried, ticking in the side
Body twitched from side to side
Run, run, Reynard, run, run, run
You've got to run for an hour and you're still not done
Run, run, Reynard, run, run, run
Away, away, away
Run, run, Reynard, run, run, run
You've got to run for an hour and you're still not done
Run, run, Reynard, run, run, run
Away, away, away, away, away
Run, run, Reynard, run, run, run
You've got to run for an hour and you're still not done
Run, run, Reynard, run, run, run
Away, away, away
Run, run, Reynard, run, run, run
You've got to run for an hour and you're still not done
Run, run, Reynard, run, run, run
Away, away, away, away, away
Reynard left and went to Warwickshire, to a mound near a railway line,
With canals and a freezing swamp. He climbs high up above the countryside
And breathes freely. To the south he could see Polesworth, and to the
North he could just make out the ruins of the priory where Joss and I
Played cricket as children. We were only three miles away, probably drinking
Tea and talking,
(Have you heard about the orphan, sitting by the coffin)
At the same time as he was taking the stanley knife out of
The bag. He pushed the point into his stomach,
(His Father's not a sinner no more)
until the light shone right
Through. And then he reached down, and he took the bag.
It's a plastic bag
With plastic handles
And plastic sides
And
And
And
And
AND
HE SPILLED HIS GUTS ALL OVER THE STAGE
HE SPILLED HIS GUTS ALL OVER THE STAGE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMFTesj7YiM
"Search Party"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPyUntlK200
'Fried'
full album:
https://myspace.com/julianhcope/music/album/fried-18943974
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clyFfTGYKZI&index=10&list=PLBACF3D29ABB8AC4C
All songs written and composed by Julian Cope.
1. "Reynard the Fox" 6:14
2. "Bill Drummond Said" 2:28
3. "Laughing Boy" 5:47
4. "Me Singing" 3:33
5. "Sunspots" 5:14
6. "The Bloody Assizes" 3:17
7. "Search Party" 3:56
8. "O King of Chaos" 2:36
9. "Holy Love" 3:21
10. "Torpedo" 4:01
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