“World Shut Your Mouth” – Julian Cope
(Words/music: Julian Cope, available on Saint Julian, Island Records 1987)

I started regularly accumulating albums on vinyl about four years ago, but the habit’s origins go all the way back to high school.  Merle’s Record Rack, the record store in my hometown that’s since closed, had a small used vinyl section all the way in the back of the store (right near the posters).  Usually, my trips to Merle’s began at the new release rack and ended with a long trek through the used CD section.  However, on occasion (usually when we had time to kill), we’d explore some of the other oddities – the wall of used cassette tapes (some of which sit in my car), a rack of t-shirts that smelled like incense, and the used LPs.  We didn’t have a working turntable, so it was mostly out of curiosity unless we found an unavoidable deal.  For example, my brother bought most of Pink Floyd’s catalog for $2 each because he couldn’t pass it up.  I followed suit, nabbing a couple “dollar classics” – Born to Run, Led Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy, and plenty of other classic rock-leaning albums.  Thus began my obsession with dollar records.

When I finally started building a LP collection, I had a few loose rules – I only wanted to pay more than $10 if it was a record I loved (I think the Replacements Pleased to Meet Me was the first I broke double-digits for), and I would buy essentially anything I had remote interest in for a dollar or less.  This is how I ended up with Saint Julian on LP – I found it for a dollar and bought it, confusing all parties involved.  I tried my best to explain “World Shut Your Mouth” to my friend with me, describing its driving beat and snake-like lead guitar riff.   I tried to explain that Cope’s lyrical plea to ignore criticism and keep dreaming was less about the specific words and more about how he said it, with his repetition mimicking the relentless snare drum hits.  Finally, after playing it in the car on the way home (and deciding that the band OK Go probably loved that song), I figured out how to summarize it – it’s a fine bit of power pop that’s catchy, enjoyable every so often, and not worth much more scrutiny.  A dollar for the LP seemed like a fair price.

To this day, I haven’t played Saint Julian.  I still have it (somewhere), and if I ever find myself DJ-ing somewhere, I might dig it out strictly to play “World Shut Your Mouth.”  I still don’t regret spending a dollar on the album.

More on Julian Cope: Allmusic | Amazon MP3 | Emusic | Last.fm