See the Waterboys Take Psychedelic Trip in Video for ‘Hopper’s on Top (Genius)’

By VMZ Staff on February 5, 2025

 The album's lead single, 'Hopper's On Top (Genius)' was released  this Friday (January 10)

 Stationed near the midway point of the epic, 25-track Life, Death and Dennis Hopper, the new song captures the film icon at a pivotal moment in his career, when the actor — after a string of bit parts in classics like Cool Hand Luke and True Grit — found himself behind the camera to direct the landmark 1969 counterculture hit Easy Rider.
Keeping with the spirit of that film classic, the video for “Hopper’s on Top (Genius)” is a psychedelic mind trip that finds frontman Mike Scott and band walking the streets of Nashville in a similar manner as Peter Fonda and company strolled around New Orleans in Easy Rider.

Life, Death and Dennis Hopper, due out April 4 via Sun Records, also features guests like Bruce Springsteen, Fiona Apple, Steve Earle, Dawes’ Taylor Goldsmith and more, each of whom pop up during the 25-song journey that charts the life of Hopper.

 

“[Hopper] was at the big bang of youth culture in Rebel Without A Cause with James Dean; and the beginnings of Pop Art with the young Andy Warhol. He was part of the counter-culture, hippie, civil rights, and psychedelic scenes of the ’60s. In the ’70s and ’80s he went on a wild 10-year rip, almost died, came back, got straight and became a five-movies-a-year character actor without losing the sparkle in his eye or the sense of danger or unpredictability that always gathered around him.”

The album is The Waterboys' first for Sun – "Hey", says Scott, "we're labelmates with Howlin' Woif and young Elvis!" – and alongside Scott’s masterful songwriting, the album features a stellar lineup of guests including Bruce Springsteen, Fiona Apple, Steve Earle, Nashville-based Alt Americana artist Anana Kaye, young English singer Barny Fletcher, Norwegian country-rockers Sugarfoot, Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes, Kathy Valentine of The Go-Go's, and punk arch-priestess Patti Palladin — incorporating a kaleidoscopic blend of genres that embodies the band’s trademark spirit of musical exploration.

The folk-rock group are set to release their 16th studio album on April 4 via Sun Records. According to a press release, ‘Life, Death And Dennis Hopper’ will tell the story of the late American actor and rebel – Dennis Hopper – through a song cycle that depicts both Hopper’s story and the past 75 years of Western pop culture.

The first taster of the album will come in the form of the lead single ‘Hopper’s On Top (Genius)’ which is set for release this Friday (December 10).

 

Speaking about the LP in a press release, The Waterboys frontman Mike Scott shared: “The arc of his life was the story of our times. He was at the big bang of youth culture in Rebel Without A Cause with James Dean; and the beginnings of Pop Art with the young Andy Warhol.

Along with Springsteen and Apple, other artists who are featured on the LP include Steve Earle, Nashville-based Alt Americana artist Anana Kaye, Barny Fletcher, Sugarfoot, Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes, Kathy Valentine of The Go-Go‘s and Patti Palladin.

The Waterboys’ ‘Life, Death And Dennis Hopper’ tracklist is: 

1. ‘Kansas’ (featuring Steve Earle)
2. ‘Hollywood’55’
3. ‘Live In The Moment, Baby’
4. ‘Brooke / 1712 North Crescent Heights’
5. ‘Andy (A Guy Like You)’
6. ‘The Tourist’ (featuring Barny Fletcher)
7. ‘Freaks On Wheels’
8. ‘Blues For Terry Southern’
9. ‘Memories Of Monterey’
10. ‘Riding Down To Mardi Gras’
11. ‘Hopper’s On Top (Genius)’
12. ‘Transcendental Peruvian Blues’
13. ‘Michelle (Always Stay)’
14. ‘Freakout At The Mud Palace’
15. ‘Daria’
16. ‘Ten Years Gone’ (featuring Bruce Springsteen)
17. ‘Letter From An Unknown Girlfriend’ (featuring Fiona Apple)
18. ‘Rock Bottom’
19. ‘I Don’t Know How I Made It’ (featuring Taylor Goldsmith)
20. ‘Frank’ (Let’s Fu*k)
21. ‘Katherine’ (featuring Anana Kaye)
22. ‘Everybody Loves Dennis Hopper’
23. ‘Golf, They Say’
24. ‘Venice, California (Victoria)/The Passing Of Hopper’
25. ‘Aftermath’

In other news, The Waterboys recently announced a UK headline tour set to kick off later this spring. Scott and co. are set to kick off the tour in Basingstoke on May 1 followed by stops in Bath, Nottingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Leicester and other locations throughout the month.

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The Waterboys’ 2025 tour will conclude with a performance at the Roundhouse in Camden Town, London on May 31. Visit here to purchase tickets and check out a full list of dates below.

The Waterboys’ 2025 UK tour dates are:

MAY
1 – Basingstoke, Anvil
2 – Bath, Forum
3 – Bexhill, Dlwp
5 – Brighton, Centre
7 – Nottingham, Rock City
8 – Liverpool, Philharmonic
9 – Sheffield, City Hall
10 – Gateshead, Glasshouse
12 – Blackpool, Opera House
13 – Manchester, Bridgewater Hall
15 – York, Barbican
16 – Birmingham, Symphony Hall
18 – Bournemouth, Pavilion
19 – Cardiff, New Theatre
20 – Cambridge, Corn Exchange
22 – Bristol, Beacon
23 – Oxford, New Theatre
24 – Stockton-on-Tees, The Globe
25 – Llandudno, Venue Cymru
27 – Guildford, Live
28 – Leicester, De Montford Hall
31 – London, Roundhouse

 

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