Oh how I love this single, from the opening keyboard run to that rat-a-tat-tat drum figure… and Julian Cope’s exuberant vocal. Then the breakdown with the burbling bassline and skittering hi-hats when he sings “It’s true.”

Unlike Chris Sievey, who made a single about his experience, I *could*​ get Bouncing Babies by The Teardrop Explodes.

There’s something so euphoric about their second single, with its coming-of-age lyric: “I was a bouncing baby / Now I’m a bouncing bomb / So won’t you come and defuse me / Before I kill someone.”

By now, late in 1979, the band had already changed line-up, organist Paul Simpson leaving soon after their debut single to form Wild Swans. He was replaced by the band’s manager and producer, Dave Balfe, though I’m not sure he played on the single version here.

I’m pretty sure it’s Cope himself on the keyboards, as well as the bass, with Gary Dwyer playing drums and Michael Finkler on guitar.

I much prefer this version to the one that would appear on their debut album Kilimanjaro, not least for the superior production.