Julian Cope presents Head Heritage

Really good, fast-paced and evocative writing, and the first article mirrors quite closely the narrative of my own belated discovery of Cope and the Teardrops leading quickly to obsession.

A question though for those who were on board earlier. The received wisdom- repeated in the blog entry for Cope solo- is that the Teardrop Explodes were resolutely a teeny-pop act in the Duran Duran / Whsm mould and that this was still Cope's audience when Fried was released, but the turtle cover was so shocking and scandalous to this market that it completely ruined his pop career.

Really? Was that how it was? I know the Teardrops were in Smash Hits, but they seem to me like they were always mainly a credible post-punk act who happened to have a couple of hits- closer to the Bunnymen or the Smiths than Duran, and with an older discerning fanbase.

This being the case, and given it was his 2nd solo album after the already far murkier and more psychedelic Wilder and World Shut Your Mouth already, how shocking was the Fried cover on release? Was it really seen as career suicide? It always seems to me a classic memorable LP sleeve- quirky and original and suiting the fragile music within, but not shocking or abject or this guy's completely lost it. But is that really how it was seen at the time?

Sorry, off topic a bit but it got me wondering.

At their flirtation with fame they were more aligned with groups like The Associates but the songs - When I Dream, Reward, Treason - we're great pop songs and Julian was very easy on the eye but as a 15 year old boy you could say you were a Teardrops fan and not get beaten up for it.
To my recollection, the teeny-bop audience had pretty much stopped noticing Julian after Passionate Friend and definitely by the time Colours Fly Away was released. Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet & Adam and the Ants were far more obviously rapacious in chasing that market. And wore far more makeup. By 1984 Julian was largely forgotten. I wasn't at all shocked by the cover of Fried, I thought it was simply quite playful. I was more shocked by the eschewing of synths and new technology in general, especially on WSYM, I hadn't been exposed to such a change in direction by an artist before.

As I remember it the Bunnymen were the serious all-male-all-the-time cheek-suckingly serious rock band trying for album oriented NME / Sounds credibility a la Joy Division. Teardrops meanwhile were in a slightly different tradition whose prime directive was to have extravagant, quality pop hits. That, in a way, made TTE a more modern band than the Bunnymen at that time. Modern in that they could easily be accommodated beside Altered Images, ABC, Linx etc and would be viewed postively by those with the kind of willful obtuseness of taste that made Dollar credible for a short while. The Associates were not that kind of band when they were on Polydor and during the Fourth Drawer Down period but certainly were during Sulk and Perhaps.

I think the people (including critics) who had got on board with Treason and Reward were already alienated well before Fried as Passionate Friend was the last gasp of TTE doing that kind of pure pop.

Fried didn't surprise me really as he was already established as something of a shop soiled pop star in the Syd / Roky tradition. It was also a convenient escape route from a string of stiffed singles. Also I don't think TTE were ever a good enough band in terms of the noise they made to make an album that would stand the test. High intentions and all that but it seemed like they had a really limited skill set. The writing was demanding something more complex than was within their collectively gift to actually deliver.

Yes, it'a true he still had occasional pockets of support (like Dave Rimmer interviewing him just after "Sunshine Playroom" and claiming that the TX records were "bloody good" right up to the end), but they were in the minority. Apart from the Janice Long show don't remember "Sunshine playroom" getting much airplay at the time, but then I never listened to Capital Radio.