Kudos to Cope

Thought we'd mention that Julian Cope, over at his Head Heritage website, has picked an oldie but a goodie as his "Album Of The Month" for September. How much of an oldie? A record that was originally released in 1953! And it's a fave of ours too, Tom Lehrer's "Songs Of Tom Lehrer". (Cope also writes about Lehrer's second album, "An Evening Wasted With Tom Lehrer", discussing them together in his review.)

Definitely the only Julian Cope approved artist that my dad also likes!

Cope's essay (which manages to work a reference to Iggy & The Stooges into one of its footnotes) certainly made us realize just how subversive the lyrics to Lehrer's comic ditties really must have been, back then. In fact, his humor was so disturbing that it actually quite upset a young Julian Cope when he figured out (with the aid of a dictionary) what Lehrer meant when he introduced one number by saying "The next song is about a young necrophiliac who achieves his childhood ambition by becoming coroner."

These Lehrer records are available together on a Rhino cd entitled "Songs & More Songs By Tom Lehrer" which - horrors - isn't listed on our website! Whoops, we do actually often stock in in the store, but never thought to review it. Anyway, we recommend it too.