I'm not at all comfortable with liking much of their music. What were they about? Clever, certainly, but what else?
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The Stranglers. Opinions?
- Thread starter Stanley Edwards
- Start date
I'm not at all comfortable with liking much of their music. What were they about? Clever, certainly, but what else?
It has been a while since we had a Stranglers thread.
Posh boys?
Posh boys?
Oh yeah 
I'll try again!
I'll try again!
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Edited with success 
*corks wine, douses spliff*
*corks wine, douses spliff*
Good enough for Keith Floyd, it's good enough for me.
Nice intro.
jakethesnake
In bed for Britain
Nuff said?
Had no idea this was them.
They hitched onto the punk thing because it was just happening when they were getting started, but they always were a bad fit and had nothing to do with that ethos at all. The picture of them wearing makeup on the cover of Rattus Norvegicus illustrates this very well. But they gave it their best shot and although they were far too blokey and had very old wave notions of what rock n roll was about, they made some certainly listenable songs. As punk ran out of steam they were able to follow their more conventional path allowing very un-punk notions of musicianship and conceptual tendencies to take hold and these would only become more characteristic.
Had no idea this was them.
A finer moment.
Hugh Cornwall was/is genius. I still have problems with their/his background, but great tunes with meaning nonetheless.
His background I can cope with; his appearing on the Jamie Theakston cricket show is more problematic.
Shame on him.
They actually have a very impressive back catalogue. Long term players. But, too middle class.
They actually have a very impressive back catalogue. Long term players. But, too middle class.
Nobody has mentioned Golden Brown yet.
What were The Stranglers about? Just slightly to late?
What were The Stranglers about? Just slightly to late?
I dunno, lot's of good stuff came out of Punk that wasn't really Punk, don't think late's a problem. 
A musician friend of mine wrote his own version of this song. He called it Gordon Brown and as you might expect it was very unflattering of Gordon Brown. By the time he wrote and performed it Gordon Brown was Chancellor.
Was the original song really about heroin? We will probably never know.
badseed
Mighty but thin.
The Stranglers were fucking great, I saw them live a few years ago and they were still fucking great.
JJ's bass and Dave's keyboards.
Although, I saw the last couple of tours they did with Hugh Cornwell and they were very average.
Nic'n'Sleazy and Who Wants The World are my favourites.
Please allow me to re-arrange your face sometime
I'd really like to get to know you better
JJ's bass and Dave's keyboards.
Although, I saw the last couple of tours they did with Hugh Cornwell and they were very average.
Nic'n'Sleazy and Who Wants The World are my favourites.
Please allow me to re-arrange your face sometime
I'd really like to get to know you better
True, I think Black and White was a good effort too. They were excellent live in the early days.
seeformiles
Lost in the wood
Saw them a few times in the 80s (and once in the 90s). Good band with a dark sense of humour. As well as "Hanging Around" my other faves include:
and
and
seeformiles
Lost in the wood
Hugh Cornwall (in his autobiography) says it was about both Heroin and a lass from the Mediteranean he was seeing at the time - so there y'go!
Nanker Phelge
Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.
Puddy_Tat
naturally fluffy
I'll add this one
(since people often wonder wtf this is when it's used in adverts and such)
my starting point was the 'feline' album, I was a bit too young for the whole punk thing
I'll nominate this (although the edit released as a single was a pale shadow of it)
overall - not shit, although sometimes wonder if they didn't try a bit too hard to be clever...
(since people often wonder wtf this is when it's used in adverts and such)
my starting point was the 'feline' album, I was a bit too young for the whole punk thing
I'll nominate this (although the edit released as a single was a pale shadow of it)
overall - not shit, although sometimes wonder if they didn't try a bit too hard to be clever...
Silva
This went well.
I like their records, but whenever I think of see them live (they came over here twice in the past years, I think) , I think of this brilliant bit in Greece on their heyday.
scalyboy
They’re taking the piss now
scalyboy
They’re taking the piss now
I'd agree with this, as a teenie punk I was somehow aware there was something not quite right about them as punks (*cough cough* drummer's too old *cough*) but didn't really understand till later. I absolutely caned their 1st & 2nd Lps, loved them, the dodgy misogyny didn't put me off (in fact they were very popular at my school probably for this reason
). It was only later that I realised that this misogyny was not really what punk was - or could be - about (Poly Styrene, Siouxsie, the Slits etc). Great tunes though, and an appealing truculent, snarly, aggressive image. In terms of hitching onto the punk thing, yes, totally - but they weren't alone in that! The Vibrators spring to mind - far too musically competent
UK Subs' Charlie Harper was an old blues rocker wasn't he? And you could make a case for Joe Strummer doing the same thing when he jumped ship from the 101ers...a case of seeing which way the wind was blowing.
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