the Stranglers: Classicinblack or Dudinblack

The weather cools down, the days grow shorter and I return to my Stranglers LP's.

I have been rocking the first three Stranglers records of late and damn, they are beautiful things indeed. IV and No More Heroes especially.

THE BEST BASS SOUND EVER This is so so true.

Love La Folie as well.

I have been trying to rationalize Jet Black's lackluster drumming however, but can' really get there. Anyone else wish he played with more chutzpah?

Did X-Cert ever come out on CD?

God bless The Stranglers.

hey, alex, you can download hugh's new album for free if you want. if that's, you know, something you might enjoy. perhaps.

http://www.hughcornwell.com/

Interesting this - someone having reversed Yellowcake UF6, one of the B-sides from what I think is definitely their best period.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-ZI7t-kd4Q

Most bizarre.

their version of Walk on By is still on my playlist after all these years

... as well it should be.

Just listened to "Black And White" for the first time in eons. So good I had to listen twice, in fact! Damn, those crazy keyboards, JJ's bass, Hugh's odd lyrics... even the lesser tracks are fascinating and the classics are monumental. I will continue on to the rest of Hugh's albums.

"Down in the Sewer" reminds me of both The Fall and Nomeansno. This is a pretty high compliment.

Genius song. First time I listened to it, while not understanding a single word, still I could feel the sick breath of a sewer on my face (maybe it was just that horrible rat on the back cover, who knows).

A couple of months ago I went (again) through this obsessive Stranglers phase and devoured again their early album - lots and lots of great songs, also Hugh's Nosferatu remains one of the most peculiar album of the era.

It is also very fitting and Strangler-esque that a lot of those EMI budget compilations variously titled Good Times, Soft Rock or Early Sunday Morning Music invariably include a song like Golden Brown.

Classic, as far as I'm concerned. I can divide their career up into several phases...

Phase #1: The initial years (Rattus Norvegicus, No More Heroes)
Phase #2: The art-prog-pop years (The Raven, The Gospel According To The Meninblack, La Folie, Feline)

Note: third album 'Black And White' marks a transitional point between these two phases

Phase #3: The straightforward pop band years (Aural Sculpture, Dreamtime, 10)
Phase #4: The wilderness years (Stranglers In The Night, About Time, Written In Red, Coup De Grace)
and finally, Phase #5: The resurgence (Norfolk Coast, Suite XVI)

Of all these phases, I think Phase #2 is my favourite. I think when this band branched out from the sound of their first two albums, they started making some really interesting music. The Raven, The Gospel and La Folie are my three favourite albums of theirs - Feline, much much less so.

Of the rest - I don't think I could argue with Rattus Norvegicus, No More Heroes or Black & White, although none of these albums would be my first choices to listen to (I fear I've heard them all too many times), whenever I'm in the mood for them I enjoy pretty much every second. The last three Hugh albums also have some keepers on them also, but I couldn't call any of them my favourites.

Post-Hugh, I'd say the best album with Paul Roberts on vocals has to be "Norfolk Coast", undoubtedly, but I also have a soft spot for "About Time", which has some good stuff on it... I'm especially fond of 'Face'. The first (and to date, sole) album with Baz Warne on vocals, "Suite XVI" is also a thoroughly solid and listenable album.

However, "Stranglers In The Night", and ESPECIALLY "Written In Red" and "Coup De Grace" should be erased from history never to be spoken of again, IMHO!

I must've missed your post at the time, Turrican. The last time I listened to the phase 2 albums (as you listed them) they really knocked my socks off in a way they hadn't when I first encountered them. I think as we hear more music, it gives us context than can sometimes transform the way we here material that previously lacked it, and therefore enhances the experience. So listening to "The Raven" now that I've heard much more 60s and early 70s underground material means noting The Stranglers fascinating confluence of influences. Roxy, Eno, Cale, garage rock, etc.

I'm not sure I hear the difference in approach between "Feline" and "Aural Sculpture", I think they're both far from straightforward pop. Do you really think they shaved off the odd basslines and guitar bits moving between the two?

I'm not sure I hear the difference in approach between "Feline" and "Aural Sculpture", I think they're both far from straightforward pop. Do you really think they shaved off the odd basslines and guitar bits moving between the two?

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Monday, December 17, 2012 5:05 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I don't think that JJ/Hugh/Dave toned down any of their individuality or quirk on their instruments in between Feline and Aural Sculpture, although I do see those albums as very different beasts - in terms of production, songwriting, general feel. Feline strikes me as being a very cold, moody, experimental work with a stark production job, whereas Aural Sculpture strikes me as being more upbeat, more produced, and far more accessible. Sculpture seems to be rooted far more in 'classic songwriting' (for want of a better term) to me than Feline, and I think they continued in that vein on Dreamtime and 10 (probably because by that stage, JJ and Hugh were mostly writing the songs by themselves instead of collaborating like they mostly did on the United Artists-era LPs). In fact, when I think about it, I'd say that Aural Sculpture marked the last BIG change in the Stranglers sound with the addition of the horn section (which they continued to use until Hugh left the band).

to think i wasted all that time listening to The Jam when i was a kid when i could have been listening to The Stranglers. Doh!

what with all the chat re the stranglers on the 'walk on by' thread, and 'no more heroes' popping up in my playlist tonight and sounding ace, could it be time to pick up their classic albums ...

surely emi have released a £50 man boxset of the albums (i.e. phase 1 + phase 2 ?

Actually, "The New Testament" boxset is being reissued with a bonus disc. It has every last EMI track.

good timing ..

They're playing this evening in NYC for the first time in 17 years (albeit with Hugh or, for that matter, Jet.. who doesn't fly anymore). Anyone going?

withOUT Hugh...

I'll be there. I'll be the one wearing all black ... oh wait.

I would love to see them but, alas, nope. I was glad to read that Giants might soon be getting a U.S. release though.

let us know how the show was, they're coming to toronto soon and i'm thinking of going but .... no hugh? no jet?.....

My review, for what it's worth:

Okay, gotta say ... in advance of this gig, I was having my doubts. But in the end, I'm quite glad I went.

For a start, the venue: Highline Ballroom is a relative newcomer to NYC, and it feels a bit slick and antiseptic. This is the first time there's ever been a band I've given a fuck about playing at this venue. Most of the time it seems to play host to corporate events, acid jazz parties and cover bands. Also, the floor is ringed by exclusive cushioned booths. Tear those fucking things out and let people move around, I say. Still, I suppose, if you're normally hosting bullshit karaoke events, I suppose that doesn't matter. I will say this: the bars are easy to access.

Opening act: Ersatz honky-tonkster with cloying lap pedal-steel player name Luba Dvorzak. Honestly, I cannot remember the last time I witnessed an opening act who was so poorly matched with the headliner. I'm sure he's a nice guy, but his strenuously earnest Dwight Yoakam-meets-Bruce-Springsteen posturing really grated after a while. Kept hoping someone was going to throw something at him. Astonishingly, no one did.

The crowd: A odd mix, honestly. Lots of portly, "dodgy prostate punks" with silver in their hair (like, er, me), lots of folks who clearly only came to hear "Grip," "No More Heroes" and/or "Always the Sun" (and who stood staring blankly when the band ripped into "Nuclear Device" or "Straighten Out" etc.). Not many young'uns, which is fine with me.

For a while, i was stood behind a woman who insisted on taking pictures with her phone literally every other minute. Conversely, I took three (3) photos of the performance...and even felt that was excessive. Whatever happened to simply enjoying the moment instead of feverishly trying to document the moment?

The show: For all the talk of the band phoning it in in recent years, I can't honestly say. They were certainly in very high spirits on the comparatively cramped stage. Some fresh-faced young man who looked from my vantage point like Conan O'Brien sat in for the understandably absent but still sorely missed Jet "Fucking" Black. Baz on vocals/guitar is actually a funny, charming, chatty motherfucker (taking an audience member jokingly to task for yelling "you suck" and trying out his best "Noo Yawk" accent). JJ doesn't seem to attack the crowd as he once did, but still does the crouched duck walk. Looking less like the leather-clad thug of yore and more like a resigned elder statesman, he did indeed seem to be enjoying himself.

Dave on keyboards looking a bit older, but still a fucking wiz on the organ (and doing silly things like drinking a pint of beer with one hand while playing the solo on "Walk on By" with the other).

Set list was pretty impressive. It really is remarkable how many great, great songs they have in their oeuvre. They opened with "Toiler on the Sea," which I like -- but never thought of it as a momentum-builder. "Goodbye Toulose" followed. Some pleasant surprises (for me) included airings of "Nuclear Device," "Bring on the Nubiles" (I was leaping about for this one, prompting many an agitated glance from people around me), "Who Wants the World?," "Straighten Out" (honestly, can you name a better song?) and fucking "Tank." Indeed, they dusted off the obligatory renditions of "Golden Brown," "Skin Deep," "Duchess," "Always the Sun," and only a few ones from GIANTS (the new one) and maybe one track from SUITE XVI. The only song from the Paul Roberts era was a rousing bash through "Norfolk Coast." Leery renditions of "Five Minutes," "Hanging Around," "Peaches" and "Nice 'N' Sleazy" brought the house down.

Notable omissions from the hits-heavy set: "Something Better Change," "The Raven," Mean to Me," "Go Buddy Go," "Strange Little Girl," "London Lady." They played nothing off of MENINBLACK (I was hoping against hope for "Just Like Nothing on Earth") and only "Skin Deep" off of AURAL SCULPTURE. Still, it was a beefy set that I can't complain about.

Though he's been gone for over twenty years, the specter of Hugh Cornwell still looms over this band, largely due to the fact that a good 80% of the songs they played were either originally written or sang by the man. In what could only be a bit of calculated irony. the room itself was peppered with flyers advertising an upcoming (well, December) gig by Hugh Cornwell. Wonder if the band could see those flyers from the stage. That must have been a bit weird.

That said, I have newfound respect for Baz Warne. He's a more-than-capable performer and is a charismatic frontman, and his enthusiasm was infectious.

There you have it. There are a couple of pics on my Istagram page, if fucks be given: http://instagram.com/alexinnewyorkcity

Hugh Cornwell is doing a solo show at the Highline Ballroom later on in the year too, so I've heard!

In December, yes. The flyers were all over the venue (as I mentioned).

Sorry, just seen that you've mentioned that in your post, Alex in NYC :) It's strange that they didn't wheel out 'The Raven' or at least 'Thrown Away', because I know for a fact that they've done both of those tracks live in recent years!

let us know how the show was, they're coming to toronto soon and i'm thinking of going but .... no hugh? no jet?.....

― m0stlyClean, Monday, June 3, 2013 10:35 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Well, Jet's more than getting on a bit in the age department now... and quite frankly, I'm VERY surprised that he's lasted as long as he has. His health problems are nothing new to long-time fans (I think Robert Williams filled in for Jet due to illness on the Dreamtime tour and I'm sure there was a couple of other occasions during the '90s where they had to get someone else to fill in for live dates), and I remember seeing the band on the Suite XVI and was marvelling at how he was managing to keep up with some of the faster paced numbers. Some sheer determination on that guy. It's gotten a little bit more serious in recent years, though... he was taken to hospital not long into the UK tour for the recent album (Giants), and when he returned they set up with two drum-kits and played half the set with a fill in drummer, and then Jet came on half-way through and finished the set off.

*Suite XVI tour.

alex, thanks for the review... sorry to hear about jet's health issues, i wasn't aware....
"dodgy prostate punks", i think i might know a few....

Just got (Gospel According to) MenInBlack recently and the only other thing I know is "Golden Brown", so I'm having a hard time fitting together the talk of them being blokey thugs with this sometimes incredibly weird music.

Very intrigued by the reputation of Cornwell/Williams - Nosferatu.

I cant find what Hugh went to Jail for.

the first few albums are both blokey/thuggish and sometimes incredibly weird

Drugs, Robert.

I still think that Black & White is some batshit dalek punk classic, also JJ Burnell's 'Euroman Cometh', made at the same time, is great in places and really bloody odd.

The Stranglers made some weird music from the outset (check out the 9/4 acid-fried 'Peasant In The Big Shitty' from No More Heroes, for example), but the weirdness in their music had definitely come to the fore by the time they made The Raven, The Gospel, La Folie and Feline. They'd pretty much got the blokey/thuggish element out of their systems after the first three albums, I'd say, and even then they were mostly taking the piss. I mean, it's impossible to listen to 'Bring On The Nubiles' with a straight face.

http://strangledthebook.blogspot.co.uk/

"Bring on the Nubiles" is so deliberately offensive, yes. If you take it seriously, you have taken the bait.

Doesn't it make it any less stupid

^^^ It is really dumb. Possibly offended any grandparents who somehow heard it, so job well done.

Me and a school friend used to impersonate a radio station, ring random people and offer prizes if they could 'name that tune' - then played Bring on the Nubiles. Most slammed the phone down at this point, but one sweet old lady asked "is it The Osmonds?"

Actually, "The New Testament" boxset is being reissued with a bonus disc. It has every last EMI track.

I must correct myself. After spending years plumbing the depths of classic Stranglers, I was listening to the excellent "The UA Singles 77-82" 3CD set and lo and behold there were two b-sides I'd never heard!! "Wired" and "Crabs (live)", the latter appearing in studio form on a JJ solo album. While neither are stormers, I'm amazed that I somehow overlooked them and that they've never been compiled anywhere else before.

Wired is from Hugh Cornwell's solo album 'Nosferatu' which is definitely worth listening to if you don't know it. It's on spotify and most of the tracks are on youtube as well.

Ah yes, I actually have that! Thanks for the clarification.

These were on the 'Don't Bring Harry' EP, released in November '79, the same month that Nosferatu was released and that Hugh was arrested and charged with drug possession. It was released in time for the Christmas record buyers, with this sleeve:

http://www.vinylonthe.net/blah/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/2010-01-11_stranglers45.jpg

From Hugh's drug bust up until the release of 'Golden Brown' was a bit of a turbulent time for the band, really. Not creatively, but definitely personally and career-wise.

So JJ says "Don't bring Harry" and Hugh says "Never a frown with golden brown", pretty different attitudes towards heroin.

I've been listening to all their singles thanks to "The UA Singles 77-82" 3CD set and "Skin Deep: The Collection" 2CD (a terrible name for a great comp of all their 7" A's and B's from their Epic years). Was it just the elimination of drugs that resulted in the dramatic change in their sound or was it a conscious choice to go for a more mainstream approach? I mean, I love both their punk and pop phases but JJ's bass and Jet's drums are just so key to their early sound that when listening the way I've done, it's a dramatic difference between the era's.

I love seeing my old threads revived.

Was it just the elimination of drugs that resulted in the dramatic change in their sound or was it a conscious choice to go for a more mainstream approach? I mean, I love both their punk and pop phases but JJ's bass and Jet's drums are just so key to their early sound that when listening the way I've done, it's a dramatic difference between the era's.

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Friday, March 14, 2014 4:24 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'd say it was a combination of things, really. Feline was the last of the "drug" albums, there's stories of JJ and Hugh sitting around smacked out of their skulls trying to write 'It's A Small World' and 'Ships That Pass In The Night' and taking forever because they kept nodding out... (The Meninblack, La Folie and Feline being the "heroin" albums, the albums before being influenced by a combination of other drugs). JJ came off heroin just after the time of Feline, Hugh stopped taking all drugs by the time of recording Aural Sculpture (the other two weren't into it, apparently, they were more into other drugs... Jet apparently being known as "the hoover" in the band at one point).

Drugs aside, the band started working with producers again around the time of Aural Sculpture: everything from The Raven up until Feline was self-produced with an engineer (Alan Winstanley, Steve Churchyard etc.) taking care of the technical obstacles. They used Laurie Latham on Aural Sculpture which was the first time they'd used a producer since Martin Rushent, who did the first three albums.

Also, after Feline, JJ & Hugh weren't meeting up to write together as often. A lot of the tracks on the last three Hugh-era albums were solely written by either Hugh or JJ alone and brought into the band, whereas before a lot of their songs would start off with an idea from one member or the other and be developed on between the two members (although there were exceptions, most notably 'Golden Brown', the music of which was written by Dave Greenfield and was moulded into a song by Hugh).

I think by the time of Dreamtime, Hugh was starting to form more of a "solo" identity in his songwriting, and I think he was starting to get bored of being in The Stranglers. I guess the attitudes between the members changed too: Hugh became more ambitious and wanted to be more successful, especially in America, whereas JJ wasn't too bothered about cracking America at all. By the time of 10, I think Hugh began to feel that the bands reputation and collective decisions were beginning to affect their chances of becoming successful to the degree that he wanted to be, and after a proposed American tour for 10 fell through, he decided to leave the band. The attitude being "well, I have no control over how people perceive the band, it's no longer the identity I want for myself anymore, so I'm leaving so I'll judged on my own terms".

Of course, it hasn't quite worked out that way. While Hugh is ploughing onwards, continuing to make (in my opinion) very good records, it would seem that some of the more hardcore Stranglers fans still resent him for leaving the band, and resent him for daring to not keep being Strangler Hugh circa 1978 over and over again, and as a result have sided with the rest of the band. There's still a group of Stranglers fans out there that would love the Stranglers to continue at all costs, even though Jet is seriously in a bad way at the moment (he had to leave a Stranglers tour recently because he ended up in hospital with breathing problems, and even though The Stranglers are on tour now, they play with a stand-in drummer most of the time and Jet only comes on for 3 or 4 songs in the middle of the set, after which he's on oxygen afterwards). JJ is talking about knocking The Stranglers on the head when Jet decides he absolutely can't do anything with The Stranglers anymore, but you'd be very surprised to learn that there's a group of fans there that would be happy for the band to continue in spite of this(!) ... I think the band have been such a huge part of these people's lives for so long that they can't handle the thought of being without the band, even though they've been very fucking fortunate to last this long and retain a fanbase, especially after Hugh left the band. Personally, I think their 40th anniversary (in September) would be the best time to leave it, else it would just become a joke. It's way, way too late for the original line-up to ever reform now. Way too late.

Nice posts! Are you secretly Hugh himself? (^_-)

I don't think I've heard a full Hugh solo album since "Hi-Fi". Your thoughts on them?

Of the albums he's released since Hi Fi, I really enjoy Beyond Elysian Fields (produced by Tony Visconti), which is a real singer-songwriter type of album, mostly based around acoustic guitars. It has a couple of misfires (the corny Bob Dylan tribute '24/7' and the story song 'The Story Of Harry Power'), but on the other hand: 'Land of a Thousand Kisses' (which has a Feline-like vibe to it), 'Cadiz', 'Beauty On The Beach' and 'Henry Moore' are up there with some of his best solo tracks for me.

I also really enjoy his most recent one, Totem and Taboo, recorded with Steve Albini, which is a stripped down (as you'd expect) effort completely focused on electric guitar, bass, drums and voice. It's not as polished as Guilty or Hi Fi and thankfully far from the '80s cheese of Wolf (even though I feel there's some decent songs on there, the production for the most part really ruins them), and there's some great tracks on there: the title track, 'A Street Called Carroll', 'Bad Vibrations' to name three off the top of my head. 'Stuck In Daily Mail Land' even sounds like The Jam melodically, if you can imagine The Jam with Billy Bragg on vocals.

Of the rest: Hooverdam is rawer than Totem and Taboo and was recorded by Liam Watson, who did Elephant by The White Stripes, but I find the production on it anaemic and some of the songs not quite up to snuff. I love 'Please Don't Put Me On A Slowboat To Trowbridge', 'Delightful Nightmare' and 'Philip K. Ridiculous', but it also has a couple of dirges such as 'Pleasure Of Your Company' and 'Within You Or Without You' that I could do without. 'Wrong Side Of The Tracks' is eerily close to Hendrix's 'Crosstown Traffic' for comfort, too.

There's also the odds and sodds collection Footprints In The Desert which were demos of songs which were rejected from Guilty: it has the (in my mind) great single 'Everybody', but also has plenty of cheese on it such as 'Sex Bomb' and 'So Sexual'. If you can imagine some of the cheesier moments from Wired but even more cheesier, then that's the album in a nutshell. It's my least favourite Hugh release by miles, and I don't consider it a proper album in anyway.

There's also his Nosferatu-like side project, Sons Of Shiva, which is worth at least one listen. I think Hugh takes more of a behind the scenes role on the album, though.