Julian Cope

During his long, strange career, Julian Cope has gone from being an LSD-addled pop star to a politicized, teatotaling army of one. He started Liverpool's neo-psychedelic movement with the Teardrop Explodes before embarking on his own erratic and often rewarding solo career. From the start, there have been two Julian Copes. Both are inspired by 1960s pop and Garage Rock, and both adore the freakily disjointed pastoral Folk-Pop of Syd Barret. But one Cope puts bright, personal spins into accessible albums and radio hits like My Nation Underground and "World Shut Your Mouth," while the other Cope releases ragged protest albums about the evil of cars called Autogeddon and mail order only instrumental Prog records. Whether he is a charming English eccentric or a complete nutter, he is still amassing a catalogue of choice songs and great albums. Cope's also an excellent writer and his memoirs are among the funniest -- and truest -- rock'n'roll books ever written