Track Listing

1. Pristeen
2. Double Vegetation
3. East Easy Rider
4. Promised Land
5. Hanging Out And Hung Up On The Line
6. Safesurfer - Julian Cope, Hugo Nicolson
7. If You Loved Me At All
8. Drive, She Said
9. Soldier Blue - Donald Ross Skinner, Hugo Nicolson, Julian Cope
10. You...
11. Not Raving But Drowning
12. Head
13. Leperskin
14. Beautiful Love
15. Western Front 1992 C.E. - Julian Cope, Hugo Nicolson
16. Hung Up And Hanging Out To Dry
17. The American Lite
18. Las Vegas Basement - Julian Cope, Hugo Nicolson

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #34543 in Music
• Released on: 2002-04-01
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .23 pounds
• Running time: 76 minutes

CD Description
PEGGY SUICIDE is either Julian Cope's fifth or seventh album, depending on how you count. After his fourth, MY NATION UNDERGROUND, he recorded two records, SKELLINGTON and DROOLIAN, that were intended mostly for release to his fan club--both are strange, drug-soaked sonic experiments that veer fromfolksy campfire songs to feedback freak-outs. PEGGY SUICIDEsees Cope reigning himself back in after those "excesses" and, though he delivers one of the most anti-commercial commercial records in the Island Records catalogue, it was also his most cohesive solo album up until that point.
Structured into four "phases", the album is a loosely connected concept album about the human-engineered and accelerated decay of the mythic Mother Earth figure. The tracks address this concept from, for the most part, a strictly personal, rather than global, perspective. Standouts include "Safesurfer", a freaky AIDS narrative with a not insignificant Krautrock influence; "Drive, She Said", a singalong about automobile pollution; "Youa", a short, charged rant against insincerity witha wicked, fuzzed-out bass line and snaky sax solo; and the staggering "Beautiful Love", a pristine reflection on just how "in love" one can be--if you hear only one Julian Cope song, it ought to be this one.

Customer Reviews

Missed Opportunity...
I have to agree with Mr. Top Cat; what a bodge job this is. No 'Uptight', no 'Port of Saints', no 'Bagged-Out Ken' and no Hiphoprisy versions of 'Soldier Blue', tchah! .... Island could have left off some of the remixes which have been available for years on the 'Dancing Heads' e.p.. Even the booklet in my copy is cocked up with two pages being printed twice... A five star album given a three star reissue.

Another Cope deluxe edition - another balls up!
After the massive disappointment of the 2006 Jehovah Kill remastering (a sonic disaster)you might have thought that island might have ensured they got this one right? Right? WRONG! UNBELIEVABLY SO VERY WRONG!
On first listening to disc one at least, the remastering seems to have avoided the distortion problems of the Jehovah Kill remastering which made the latter probably the worst remaster i had ever heard. Sonically, the Peggy Suicide reissue is ok:certainly brighter and crisper than the original, a tad more detail retrieval, but losing some natural warmth and depth compared to the original; a common trait in remastered discs. I guess this is just a matter of personal taste.

So my main problem with the new deluxe edition? The track inclusions, or rather the lack of...Where is 'uptight', the track which was on the original vinyl release of the album, but missing on the original cd due to time limitations of the cd format. All pre-release track listings for Peggy Suicide deluxe edition have included 'uptight' as track 15 on disc one. Never having owned the vinyl copy of this album i was so happy to be finally getting my hands on this long lost Cope track. So imagine my frustration and sense of betrayal when i arrived home from work today to find my amazon delivery waiting for me...only to look at the track listing and find...you guessed it, no 'uptight'!!! AAAARRGHHH!!!! What is the problem with these idiots at island records? Are they so incompetent that they are prepared to misinform all musical retailers/publicists of an incorrect track listing? There are even discrepencies on the track listing for disc two: my cd has eleven tracks on it, amazon listed 13, hmv 15!!! What is going on?!!! Its an utter joke, and truelly unprofessional and shoddy in the extreme. On further inspection, checking out the amazon downloads, there is indeed no 'uptight' available to download and only eleven tracks as per my 2nd disc to download. But why the discepencies? I feel like a victim of false advertising! But more importantly, why has island wasted the obvious oppurtunity to finally put out on cd the complete Peggy Suicide album, ie, inclusive of 'Uptight'? If a deluxe edition is incapable of putting such a historical anomaly to rights, then really, what the hell is the point in the whole process anyway?

To say i am cheesed off with this is an understatement. My review still has to concede 3 stars simply on the strength of the music, as this is one of my favourite albums of all time, but really, what a total anticlimax! Shame on you, yet again, island records.

Welcome reissue of excellent double album.
'Peggy Suicide' is a great double-album and one of Cope's finest efforts- as good & different as 'Wilder', 'World Shut Your Mouth', 'Fried' & 'Jehovahkill'...The autobiog 'Repossessed' sketches out the period leading to this- away from London & towards concentric circles in Wiltshire. The Millennium effectively occurred in 1989/1990- the world was changing for the better and then the worse: the fall of the Berlin Wall, the imposition of the Poll Tax, the end of the Cold War, the start of both Balkans & Gulf War. But for a second there- we could have had utopia- Ronald McDonald at the Berlin Wall predicted it all. This album is as vital as it was in 1991.

Phase One begins with 'Pristeeen'- a definite precursor of Spiritualized's blues-spacerock (Spacemen 3 had done zilch like this)- this builds up. Memories of the overproduced 'My Nation Underground' are erased. 'Double Vegetation' is a midpaced guitar overload- Michael Mooney is great here (pity he would have to work on Mac's excerable 2nd solo LP next!). The lyrics concerning fear of Islam might be more relevant today than ever. 'East Easy Rider' is a dumb semi-baggy rocker, dedicated to Sex God Andy Eastwood & the contradiction of the freedom of driving a petrol guzzling mobile & the encroaching pollution. 'Promised Land' is kind of an early 90's 'Desolation Row' or (apologies) the lyrical-reportage that Springsteen did on 'The Ghost of Tom Joad'- taking a long cold look at the country around him.The phase concludes on 'Hanging Out & Hung Up On The Line'- a Stooges thrash as good as 'Spacehopper'- note Copey was doing the Stooges influenced thing 10 years before The Hives!..Phase Two is short & guitar based- opening with 'Safesurfer' (an excerpt was on 'Droolian')- a Dave Gilmour guitar exploration- leading to a lyric decrying those ignorant of AIDS/HIV- which is on the rise in heterosexual males. It is also one of Copey's finest songs. 'If You Loved Me At All' has that Funkadelic/Parliament/Sly inspired funk thang going on (see the 'Peel Session' on 'Floored Genius 2' to see it in full effect!)- it is a wonderful building song:"you don't love me at all!", Copey intones. 'Drive,She Said' tackles a similar theme to 'East Easy Rider'- with a knowing allusion to Pere Ubu's 'Final Solution'...Phase Three opens with the funky 'Soldier Blue'- close to Barry Adamson's soundtrack work & taking issue with those who used the Poll Tax Riots as an excuse to knock off a stereo- ironic as that materialist item was/is the kind of thing Thatcher et al sold the people with their 'free market': "there is no such thing as society". 'You...' is a very old pre-Crucial Three song- this version has an overproduced sound- kind of ironic 'Rope& Colt'-Scott Walker. 'Not Raving,But Drowning' reapplies Stevie Smith's most famous poem to a drowning raver- and has a nice slow sinister funk. 'Head (On)' is where The Charlatans got their sound for a few years- apparently it's not about sex!. 'Leperskin' is a funk/rock out- taking issue with Thatcheration- but not in a sell-out Ben Elton way. The final phase opens with the top pop single 'Beautiful Love'- as divine as 'An Elegant Chaos', 'Sunspots' or 'Quizmaster'. It's a campfire love song- with Happy Mondays-keyboards & great trumpet. 'Western Front 1992 CE' captures female singers to the sounds of protest- the early 90's were the biggest time of social protest since the late 60's. As Naomi Klein suggests in 'No Logo'- the focus on PC and new conceptions of life took the collective eye off the ball & allowed for the rule of big business. 'Hung Up & Hanging Out to Dry' is a funk-inspired instrumental- with some Beefheart bluesy-guitar & waves of washing keyboard. This gives way to 'The American Lite'- a divine ode to Dorian- which sounds like it has been picked up from the same session as 'I Have Always Been Here Before' (from 'Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye'). So it sounds more like the Elevators than The Boss!. The album ends on the moribund 'Las Vegas Basement'- which gives the template for Radiohead's 'The Bends' album. This is as great as anything off the first two ultra-classic solo albums- the memory of Copey's blatant commercial period are erased (though 'I'm Not Losing Sleep', 'Disaster' & 'Charlatan' are great!). This album is as good as any released around the same time- 'Screamadelica', 'Out of Time', 'Nevermind'- it's eclectic and it's individual. And as 'The Modern Antiquarian' proves, the Stone-thing was not a front. And the crowning achievment?- a reference in 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' to 'Beautiful Love'!. Finally, at this price this is screaming good value and an excuse to discover the joys of an artist unfairly maligned by the tedious music press.