Songfacts®:

• "Treason (It's Just a Story)" is a song by the English post-punk band The Teardrop Explodes. It was released twice as a single, first in February 1980 and then in 1981 with a remix by producer Hugh Jones. The remix version reached #18 on the UK Singles Chart.
• The Teardrop Explodes included the song on their debut album, Kilimanjaro, under the title of "Treason."
• A French language version of the track, titled "Traison (C'est juste une histoire)," was released as a bonus track on the 12" release of the re-mixed single in 1981.
• "Treason (Its Just a Story)" was written by frontman Julian Cope, drummer Gary Dwyer, and guitarist Mick Finkler, and produced by the longtime Madness production team of Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley.
• The song is a catchy and upbeat tune with lyrics that express Cope's disillusionment with love and politics. It was inspired by Yorkshire folk-pop songwriter and poet Jake Thackray and fellow Liverpool post-punk group Echo & the Bunnymen.
  
  "I was goofing on Jake Thackray," Cope told Uncut magazine. "I thought 'What if you did everything on minors?' The Bunnymen had a song called 'Stars Are Stars' and it was all minors. I thought that was so cheeky, so I started writing 'Treason' on B minor, E minor, F sharp minor, then it goes to G. I immediately started singing this 'la la la' thing, like Jake Thackray, and it sounded melodic and beautiful. I always wanted rebellion to be barbarian, but smart. It has a lugubrious charm and a big Gallic gob."
• Upon its release, Kilimanjaro garnered critical acclaim for its fusion of post-punk, new wave, and neo-psychedelia, cementing its status as a landmark album of its era. Q magazine placed Kilimanjaro at #95 in its list of the 100 greatest British albums of the 20th century.
• When The Teardrop Explodes first released Kilimanjaro, it sported a shadowy photograph of the band on the sleeve. Record Collector described the artwork as "one of the worst record sleeves ever." For the reissued album in 1981, the album artwork was re-sleeved with a photo of zebras against the backdrop of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.