The Waterboys Take Psychedelic Trip With ‘Hopper’s on Top (Genius)’

As promised, the Waterboys have shared the first single from their upcoming concept album about the life of actor Dennis Hopper, “Hopper’s on Top (Genius).”

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.

“It begins in his childhood, ends the morning after his death, and I get to say a whole lot along the way, not just about Dennis, but about the whole strange adventure of being a human soul on planet Earth,” Scott said of the unique concept album.

“[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.”