Ignored           Obscured            Restored

In 1986, Julian Cope released his biggest hit – “World Shut Your Mouth.”  It made it to #84 in the US and did even better in the UK where it broke the Top 20 (#19).  What’s confusing is that the song was on Cope’s third solo album, Saint Julian, not on his first solo album World Shut Your Mouth (1984).  My post from May 9, 2015, touched on the subject of songs that did not appear on the album of the same name.  The SotW that day was “Waiting for the Sun” that appeared on The Doors’ Morrison Hotel (1970), not Waiting for the Sun (1968).

The song is a prime example of ‘80s Modern Rock and has interesting lyrics that are subject to myriad interpretations:

She’s flying in the face of fashion now
She seems to have a will of her own
She’s flying in the face of fashion now
She seems to have it all chromed
The time was going so frequently
She said if I try harder again
She’s flying in the face of fashion now
She sells the world annually to a friend

She sings, “World, shut your mouth, shut your mouth
Put your head back in the clouds and shut your mouth
World, shut your mouth, shut your mouth
Put your head back in the clouds and shut your mouth”

She always used to live so secretly
She’d be seen in and out of the sound
She’s taking on the role of the four winds now
She’s having tea there out in the crowd
She’s flying in the face of fashion now
She seems to have a will of her own
In lieu of what you’re saying so frequently
She seems to have, it all adds up

My interpretation of the lyrics is that it is a song about a woman who became famous but is now rebelling against losing her privacy to that fame.  She’s rejecting her public image in order to reclaim her private life; telling the world to stop talking about her and to leave her alone.

Cope is an interesting character.  His first brush with fame in the music industry came when he was a member of the late ‘70s/early ‘80s band The Teardrop Explodes.  They had hits with “Reward,” “Treason,” and “Sleeping Gas” but I remember them best for “When I Dream” that wasn’t even included on Cope’s greatest hits album Floored Genius: The Best of Julian Cope and The Teardrop Explodes 1979-91.

But Cope is a complicated man.  You might even say he is an eccentric revolutionary, whose interests and talents go far beyond the music industry.  He is an outspoken activist and author on many subjects including the occult, archeology (Neolithic culture), and musicology (Krautrock and Japrock).

Shut your mouth!

Enjoy… until next week.