Screaming Secrets

Recorded 17th August 1981* for the Richard Skinner show, Radio 1. Broadcast August 1981. Later released on "Zoology" (2007) and "Wilder" deluxe edition (2013)

Julian Cope - vocals

Troy Tate - guitar

Jeff Hammer - keyboards

Alfie Agius - bass

Gary Dwyer - drums

Written by Julian Cope

The one that got away.

When the Teardrops started their US tour in 1981 they had a healthy selection of new songs to perform. Julian Cope had clearly been inspired - either by drugs or the freedom of his new role as group leader or the new members of his band - and "Screaming secrets" was an exciting addition to the set already packed with uptempo songs.

"Screaming secrets" doesn't appear to have developed much over time, recordings from early in the US tour show - it's clearly well arranged and rehearsed and almost all of the lyrics are in place too. It starts with Troy Tate clanging on an octave guitar part dropping down a tone momentarily, then Gary Dwyer kicks in a rousing snare roll, then the whole band pile in - thrusting bass, a simple organ riff which is somewhere between The Seeds and "96 tears". The verses are staccato bursts of organ and guitar licks while Cope proclaims "Screaming 'Jesus help me', I've got to get out of this atmosphere..." And the rollercoaster speeds along, everyone riffing on the edge, before a modulation to the chorus - one of Cope's most simple and melodic - "Don't ever ever change your mind..." After another iteration of the verse and chorus, there's a brief middle eight which lifts the song again, more stop and starts before an instrumental break which ascends while everyone goes slightly berserk - Tate clanging away, Hammer hammering the organ, Cope usually improvising around that day's thought before one more chorus, a bridge and a sudden ending. A breathless rush of pure adrenaline.

This is exactly how "Screaming secrets" was played on both Spring US tours of 1981, usually between "Went crazy" and "When I dream". This is exactly how the same band played it on the UK summer tour of that year. This is exactly how the Club Zoo lineup played the song from December 1981 up to the Queen support gigs in the summer of 1982. This is exactly how that lineup played it on the "Old Grey Whistle Test" special in April 1982. 

So I have no idea why the band decided to rearrange it for the August 1981 Richard Skinner ** session. 

The tempo is dragged down from speedy keen to mid tempo trudge. Tate's guitar intro is dropped, the song fades in on a bass and snare drum while Tate blasts a minor discord as if trying to chase away an annoying insect, before Jeff Hammer lumbers in with the riff played stiffly on an electric piano, while Tate continues to play his one discord. Then Cope sings the song like it's a lullaby, all gentle and sweet. The song drags its way through to the chorus where Tate finally stops chasing a bee, but Hammer's piano overpowers the whole song. It just drags and drags on, through the second verse and chorus, into a sensitive bridge where Tate has no idea what he's playing then the instrumental freak out goes nowhere. Hammer bashes away, Tate tries to get something going but is weighed down in sludge. And Alfie Agius throws in a few slap bass hits just to make matters worse. The song fades out and it's like a mercy killing.

In the sleeve notes to "Zoology" Cope claims they tried many times to record "Screaming secrets" yet no official studio version has been released. The BBC session recording broadcast in August is the only released recording of the Teardrop Explodes performing one of their finest songs, and it stinks. Where are all the other attempts? Was it tried by the Zoo Club lineup at any point - if they were playing it into the middle of 1982 did they record it? There is another recording of "Screaming secrets" which has appeared on the "Cope's Notes" CD and was included in the "Culture Bunker" boxed set but this isn't a Teardrop Explodes recording - it's mainly piano and guitar, the guitar doesn't sound like Troy Tate, the piano ... God knows who is playing the piano ... Cope himself? And Cope's vocal doesn't have the fresh clear timbre of his Teardrop days, it's an older voice which can't hit the high notes any longer. So that's another puzzle to solve at some point. Cope continues to be the unreliable narrator within his own story, which will be clear to those who've read the autobiographies of Paul Simpson, Will Sergeant and Penny Kiley. 

"Screaming secrets" is a mystery wrapped in an enigma et cetera. It's a fantastic song, melodic and commercial. It has been played to thousands of fans in its numerous live iterations. It's been performed on TV on the OGWT - a thrilling performance, Cope like a whirlwind, the band blasting hard - and yet it's never been recorded or released to anyone's satisfaction. When I started collecting Teardrop Explodes bootlegs in the mid 80s, I would look out for "Screaming secrets" on the track listing of each tape. I knew I was going to find another great performance of a fantastic song. It felt like a secret, hidden in plain sight, known only to a few. For instance, a few weeks ago an indie pop account on social media shared an NME interview with Primal Scream from June 1986. The headline for the interview? "Screaming Secrets" ***.

It also became the name of a famous bootleg album made up of BBC sessions and studio outtakes issued in 1990 - ironically containing a better recording of the title track (from a BBC Transcription live show from May 1981****) than almost any other version. I even considered recording my own version at one point***** . However it made total sense for Cope to reclaim the song for his "Two Car Garage Band" and it fitted perfectly well between the simpleton grunge of "Pulsar" and the cinematic glory of "A crack in the clouds" on 1987's "Saint Julian" album. 

So why the hell was "Screaming Secrets" never recorded or released by the Teardrop Explodes? It's a mystery to me why they let such a great song vanish. If it had been recorded with the energy and gloss of "Passionate Friend" it would have made a perfect single in the late summer of 1981. Someone somewhere must have decided it wasn't worth putting it on tape. David Bates? Bill Drummond? A clue can be found in a radio interview with Cope when "Wilder" was released. Asked why "The Great Dominions" album Cope had been promising all year was replaced by "Wilder" Cope explains that he dropped two older songs from "The Great Dominions" and added three new songs and it felt like a different album. I suspect that "Screaming Secrets" was one of the two dropped songs (with "Suffocate"?) Yet the band continued to play it into 1982, and still didn't record it when they had the chance (during whatever session produced "You disappear from view") Maybe the Phonogram vaults are full of half finished recordings of the song? Yet the "definitive" boxed set contains that peculiar non Teardrop recording. I can't believe a song as good as "Screaming secrets" could fall through the cracks.

Watch the OGWT performance of a band on fire cranking out a wonderful song and wonder at what could have been.

* Checking the credits on the "Peel Sessions Plus" CD of 2007 dates this session as 13th August but does give producer and engineer details which prove it's a BBC session.

** See previous entries on the source of this session. In the sleeve notes for "Zoology" Cope says it was recorded at Bear Shank Lodge and that this recording exudes energy. Wrong wrong wrong. 

*** It turns out the NME writer David Swift was the type of person who would have owned a few TX bootlegs - well versed in the indie scene, drummer for Razorcuts etc. Thanks Mark for the info!

**** This great show, recorded at the height of the band's UK fame, was almost released on BBC Records in the 1990s but was blocked for release as it was about to hit the shops.

***** Like I could have done it justice in 1986? Don't make me laugh.