Woke up with Julian Cope's "The Greatness And Perfection Of Love" stuck in my head:
And have been thinking, not for the first time by any means, what a great record World Shut Your Mouth is. Poppy almost in spite of itself, quirky and strange (not least of all in the chosen instrumentation which features a lot of Casio, back in 1984 before it was 'cool' ; ) , his first solo record has some quite wonderful songs on it.
The beautiful "An Elegant Chaos":
The excellent up-tempo "Quizmaster":
The demented rock of "Kolly Kibber's Birthday":
And then there's "Metranil Vavin". Quite an odd piece of pop to begin with, once you consider the song's subject matter it becomes bizarre. Originally a Teardrop Explodes song, recorded during their final sessions and later appearing on Everybody Wants To Shag...The Teardrop Explodes (still one of the best album titles ever), Cope re-recorded it for his debut solo outing. In the first part of his autobiography, 'Head On' (this and the follow-up, 'Repossessed', collected in the one volume, are highly entertaining. I've recommended them to friends who had no idea who Julian Cope was and they loved them), Cope speaks of a Russian dwarf poet named Metranil Vavin. Ever since reading of this character in 1995, I enquired in every poetry shop I came across, only to be met with puzzled expressions or blank stares. Finally in 2006, master sleuth scythrop tracked down some information for me, for which I was and am very grateful. An explanation here.
"Metranil Vavin":
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