Most of the time, the versions of songs released as singles are edited down from the album versions, usually to make them more radio-friendly, either in terms of production and/or running time. Not in this instance……
mp3: The Teardrop Explodes – Serious Danger
At 4:23 in length, it’s fully 50 seconds longer than the album version.
Now, if Serious Danger is a song you’re not familiar with, then don’t worry….you probably won’t be alone.
It was written and recorded in September 1982 for what was intended to be the band’s third album. This was a few months after the version of The Teardrop Explodes which had recorded and toured Wilder had imploded, and were now down to a trio comprising Julian Cope, Gary Dwyer and David Balfe.
Tensions in the studio were high, driven the fact that Cope and Balfe were at loggerheads about how the record should sound, the former wanting to write ballads and quirky pop song while the latter was determined to record synth-based music.
Julian Cope, who many folk regarded as being The Teardrop Explodes, quit the sessions. Mercury Records tried to salvage things by issuing an EP, You Disappear From View, in February 1983, and to all intent and purposes, that was that.
However, after Julian had some success as a solo artist, the record label, in April 1990, decided to issue Everybody Wants To Shag….The Teardrop Explodes. It was marketed as a Teardrop Explodes album, and while technically that night be the case, it is very much the work of David Balfe with the occasional vocal contribution from Julian Cope and some drum work from Gary Dwyer. Serious Danger was chosen as a lead-off single….and it really is quite unlike any previous 45 by the band.
The two extra songs on the CD came from the first two Teardrop Explodes albums.
mp3: The Teardrop Explodes – Sleeping Gas (from Kilimanjaro)
mp3: The Teardrop Explodes – Seven Views Of Jerusalem (from Wilder)
It really was a strange release. An early 80s synth-album coming out at a time when baggy was at its height. It’s no surprise the single and album sunk without trace, albeit I reckon Serious Danger has some merit……but that’s me listening to it at some distance and placing it in the early 80s – I really hated it back in 1990!
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
This passed me by at the time and I think the description is spot on.
‘very much the work of David Balfe with the occasional vocal contribution from Julian Cope and some drum work from Gary Dwyer’
To be honest i don’t think I will ever listen to it again
From 1988-1991 I was in the black hole of Wall St. and missed pretty much everything that was happening in music, including this. Never even heard of this release before today. It’s nice to hear the arch druid again but the song was rightfully dismissed.
In truth the lead off single from the lp was “You Disappear From View”, released (1983) six months or so after the Teardrop split back in 1982. The five tracks which made up the 12″ and 2×7″ pack and were originally recorded for “Everybody Wants To Shag The Teardrop Explodes” back in 1982 are on the album. No ‘occasional’ vocals from Julian. He’s all over the album and it includes some of the best vocals and lyrics he ever did.
Ooops! Of course neither of the two versions of “Suffocate” from the You Disappear From View EP (1983) made it onto the “Everybody wants To Shag… The Teardrop Explodes” lp in 1990. In fact neither the original version of “Suffocate” nor the newly recorded “Baroque Strings” version made it onto CD in the UK until the first year of the new Millennium.
The 7 x lp (or 6 x CD) “Culture Bunker” boxset from 2023 shows the 1982 period to be a particularly fertile period for the esteemed Mr Cope. Songs like ‘Log Cabin’ and ‘Soft Enough For You’ had already been given live airings at the Club Zoo residency at the tail end of 1981. The live “Club Zoo” disc of the 2023 Culture Bunker boxset shows a band and lead singer in some real fighting form in late 81. In addition, the demos for songs like “Serious Danger” recorded in May 1982 show a firing-on-all-cylinders Julian. However the much reduced three piece touring version of The Teardrop Explodes fell apart after dates in May and June 1982 (while supporting Queen!) amidst a ringing chaos of dinky synths and backing tape failures. By Autumn of 1982 some great stuff was in the can, some finished and some not. Balfe’s insistence on completing the album and doing another tour went down like a cup of cold sick with Julian who knew it was over. Julian retreated to Tamworth and that was that. The final disc in the 2023 Culture Bunker boxset isn’t called “Death Rattle” for nothing.
The eventual release of the “Everybody wants To Shag… The Teardrop Explodes” lp in 1990 was a brave attempt to pull some of those last songs together and finish things properly for the band and the fans. While not as immediately astonishing an lp as “Kilimanjaro” or as reflective as “Wilder”, the 1990 “Everybody wants To Shag” album has some real career highlights (“Not My Only Friend”, “Ouch Monkeys” and “Soft Enough For You” being just three). The choice of singles was unfortunate. The 1982 fall-outs and live catastrophes do not detract from the best of what was actually polished and finished.
Many thanks Stewart, for such a detailed update/timeline of events. Queen played at the Ingliston Showgrounds in Edinburgh, supported by The Teardrop Explodes in the summer of 82….myself and a friend travelled through from Glasgow, watched the support act from down near the front (with Julian in great form as he baited a very hostile audience), and then retreated to the very back of the arena when Fred & co took to the stage. A very strange evening all told.