My Nation Underground

Background

My Nation Underground was the follow-up to Cope’s relatively successful Saint Julian album of 1987, which had seen him move from raw psychedelic rock to a more streamlined and solid hard-rock approach built around the tight five-piece "Two-Car Garage" band. The band disintegrated after the Saint Julian promotional tour, leaving only Cope and his musical right-hand man, guitarist/multi-instrumentalist Donald Ross Skinner. As Island Records were expecting a new album, Cope enlisted his A&R man Ron Fair as producer and began recording.

With the band dispersed, Skinner began to play drums, keyboards and harmonica in addition to guitar, while Cope continued to play guitar and keyboards. The other members of the core team were Fair on keyboards plus eccentric percussionist Rooster Cosby (who’d remain a close Cope associate). Other contributors included the Two-Car Garage Band bass guitarist James Eller (returning briefly - and sheepishly - as a session player), ABC/The The drummer David Palmer, revered double bass player Danny Thompson and various session singers.

While the main influence on Saint Julian had been Detroit hard rock, by the time Cope came to record My Nation Underground he was favouring Funkadelic as an influence. This had a demonstrable effect on the album’s title track as well as others such as "The Great White Hoax". The album also reflected Cope’s longtime fascination with West Coast psychedelic bands like The 13th Floor Elevators and The Seeds, although the album also featured the Walker Brothers-styled ballad "China Doll". For the first time, Cope recorded cover versions: "5 O'Clock World" (originally a 1965 Vogues song for which Cope reworked the lyrics and added the bridge of the Petula Clark song "I Know a Place") and a hard rocking version of the Shadows of Knight song "Someone Like Me". Cope also co-wrote two songs with Skinner, "Easter Everywhere" and "I’m Not Losing Sleep". Lyrical subject matter included false gurus (the single "Charlotte Anne", punning on "charlatan"), domestic violence, and an apocalyptic re-imagining of the worldview of the serial killer Dennis Nilsen.

My Nation Underground produced only one Top 40 single, "Charlotte Anne", which also met with modest American success by reaching the top of the Modern Rock Tracks. Subsequent singles "5 O'Clock World" and the orchestral pop ballad "China Doll" both charted considerably lower, disappointing Island Records and further discouraging Cope, who had not enjoyed making the record and did not believe that it represented him properly as an artist. Cope has repeatedly referred to it as his least-favourite among his albums, commenting that it was "just me figuring I ought to do another album and not feeling sure of what I wanted to do. That was a bad time. A bad album… "Charlotte Anne" is a good song, but one good song is not enough. Perhaps it was a coherent album, but it was nothing like what I had inside me. I couldn't put it out, I just could not get it out. If (anyone) think(s) it's even halfway decent then I'm pleased 'cause I was trying, blasting my mind apart."

Track listing

All tracks written by Julian Cope, except where noted.

Personnel

Arrangements by Julian Cope/Donald Ross Skinner/Ron Fair