Discovering Julian Cope

I wish I'd got into Julian Cope some time ago. Back in the 80's I was way too much of a metal-head to have given the time of day to The Teardrop Explodes. In the 90's I was aware that Julian Cope was involved with the anti-Poll Tax movement. But I probably discounted him as part of the didgeridoo-and-cider tendency who just weren't rooted enough in the real world. But as Bob Dylan said, 'I'm younger than that now' and I've seen more than enough of the real world to appreciate  that a bit of un-worldliness is probably the best way to stay sane .

So I came round to Julian Cope - although not initially through his music but through his writing, specifically the Modern Antiquarian and the Megalithic European. Fantastic books that mix an erudite knowledge of pre-historic archaeology and societies with neo-pagan ramblings on the eternal Mother Goddess in a lovely way that is simultaneously  both bonkers and learned.

I'm an atheist not a pagan but still there is something rather wonderful about the oldest religion of all that cuts through the new-fangled bullshit of Judaeo-Christianity and honestly celebrates the life-force of the planet itself. I can identify with that - and it's at least partly the inspiration behind my on-going tattoo project. Damn those bastard Romans ...

So right now I found myself constantly re-playing his 1991 album Peggy Suicide. And I can see the back-catalogue beckoning ...