The Teardrop Explodes were like a wake up call for me at the start if the eighties. I was 14. Muddling through thankless adolescence at a school I felt bewildered by. Though I sensed it was getting better. But them Reward arrived. It sounded different from anything I'd ever heard coming out of breakfast time radio.
What were the horns. Who was Howard Hughes. Why did these lyrics sound so inspired. What was that flying jacket Julian Cope was wearing. What was that coat. It all sounded so fast..... Breakneck. Like something careering around corners. Why were they all standing round a bonfire. When could I find a scene like that,
What did Love's Forever Changes sound like. Who was Scott Walker. Why did the band call themselves The Teardrop Explodes.. Why did silence have it and arrogance have it. Nobody wrote like this. I wanted to. I'd never been interested in comics and I never became interested in psychedelic drugs because I feared the consequence too much, and rightly so. But I was interested in them.
Julian Cope has been Ariadne's Thread ever since throughout my lifetime. Taking me to places. Taking me to sounds. And things. I could write a chapter about him or a book. I certainly have elsewhere on It Starts With a Birthstone I'll warrant. But the Fitness Centre calls. .But Reward was the first thing. And in many ways its enough in itself. Take it, learn from it and write your own novel
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