You don't have to be afraid, love...

...cause I'm a safesurfer, darling

I bought the Julian Cope album Peggy Suicide in 1991 based on a review in a British music magazine. I listened to the album over and over trying to appreciate the supposed genius. I listened to it and I listened to it and I listened to it. But I didn't get it. I put the disc back on the shelf, and a couple of years later I sold the CD in a store.

Some time ago I heard a song from the album again and this time I really liked it. Maybe, just maybe, I was even "getting it." So, I got the album again and have started to like it a lot more this time around. Today one of the better songs came up on the iPod when I was driving on the highway and I was really digging it. Safesurfer starts with a long instrumental crescendo: drums, electric guitar, and keyboards; slowly, slowly working up toward a frenzy, and almost three minutes in, Julian begins with about 30 seconds of spoken word droning over the musical madness before he launches into the repetitive, mantra-like, 2-line chorus for the remainder of the 8+ minute song. Impossible to describe, really, but genius usually defies caption.

Normally, I'm somewhat allergic to long instrumental sections, and if you enter into jam-band territory I break into hives, but this is a different animal. Very few artists or bands pull it off. The few examples that come to mind are: The Cure who linger for 2.20 before It's opening time, down on Fascination Street; Death Cab for Cutie who wait 4 minutes and 34 seconds before the opening stanza takes us to the brilliant You gotta spend some time--love, you gotta spend some time with me / And I know that you'll find--love, I will possess your heart; and Radiohead's hypnotizing National Anthem which starts with a mere 90-second intro but ends with 2+ minutes of reckless (and Thom-less) cacaphony.

If you were lucky enough to catch Radiohead doing National Anthem and Idioteque on SNL in 2000 you know what I'm talking about - two of the greatest performances I've ever seen. If that's not catharsis, I don't know what is.