The Stranglers
 

An original band with a unique sound.
I'd put them alongside The Clash and Talking Heads for their individualism.

Top Tunes are;

Nice And Sleazy
Hanging Around
I Feel Like A Wog
5 Minutes
Princess
Dead Los Angeles
Golden Brown
Always The Sun
Nuclear Device...

ooohhhhh i like them i rented a live video of them

Thanks for the post D.O.C... Just as I was beginning to think I was on everyones ignore list!

Hugh Cornwell - vocals/guitar
JJ Burnell - bass (incredible bass player)
Jet Black - drums
Dave Greenfield - keyboards (the keyboards set them apart from the rest of the punk bands at the time)

I did, until I found this thread ;) But, you totally forgot some of their best songs - Strange Little Girl, 96 Tears, Skin Deep, Duchess, among others.

It was intentional. My opening post was meant to be a teaser, in the hope someone would add tracks and discuss etc. :)

Some tease...it's nearly a year old!
Thanks for bumping...

'Strange Little Girl' is a superb tune, but was never keen on 'Duchess'.

They kick ass. I'm not sure if I'm the only one but does anyone else notice the influence on current indie music.

I edited to make sense. I mixed up tenses.

I like The Stranglers, they are all very good musicians also. Nothing really touched their first album, however, which was nothing short of brilliant.

the stranglers
 

does anyone out there agree that the stranglers are hardly ever spoken about and yet remain one of the most influential punk bands of all time? i know they have paul roberts singing now and he's no hugh cornwell but then again who is? rattus norvegicus is an absolute classic album, ugly has the best lyric i have ever heard ' i guess i shouldn't have strangled her to death, but i had to go to work and she had laced my coffee with acid, besides, she had acne. vintage cornwell. any suggestions for best ever lyric?

I haven't played Rattus in quite some time, but " ...sitting on the beaches, watching all the peaches" is still rattling around my head. Very tuneful for a bunch of ratty punks.

everybody loves you when you're dead

they were so much older than everyone else in the punk scene. it was so strange.

They are the type of music i like dancing to, also the bass player has delicious tone.

Wow resurrected thread after 3 years of silence. I think the Strangler's are pretty good, they aren't my favorite punk band but I won't deny that what they were doing was unique and they are hugely influential. Lets be honest here, there may not have been any Screamers had The Stranglers not done their thing first. I've only listened to their debut though, and I give it the rare spin.

I always thought that they were one of the best punk/new wave groups around as well. I think what really set them apart, is as you say Dave Greenfield on Keyboards especially his churning organ on their first album, all very reminiscent of Ray Manzarek. I love the first three albums as the rawness and attitude are all there. Black and White gets the vote as my all time favourite Stranglers album, I think its the pinnacle of their career. I think when the synths came in on the Raven and the group steered into a more pop sound they really lost something and were never the same again. Despite that I love Golden Brown.

Black and White is my favourite album of theirs. JJ Burnell is an awesome bass player and some of his bass runs on the album are huge. They never really were a Punk band but they rode the coat tails well. Their first four albums still sound great even today. Their live song 'Tits' available on the Black and White C.D is funny as hell.

Not as funny as 'I Feel Like a Wog'.

Not forgetting 'Crabs' by JJ on his Euroman Cometh album either.

It appears that The Stranglers aren't that well known on these boards. A lot of people have heard of them, but there aren't many that seem to have actually heard them.
Shame cos they're on of my favourite bands.

Classic Stranglers tunes youtube vid #1



Feel free to add to the list...

I think its because Hugh Cornwell always looked about 40 odd and most of the people that I know that love the Stranglers are old as well.

I shall do indeed :D

Love the bass work on this and not one of their more well known tunes:

Classic Stranglers #3

Any New wave/rock group that came out at that time and had a punky look about them were labelled punk.

By the way, Day of the Dead is one of my fav Romero films.

The quality on this isn't too great, but this is probably my favorite Stranglers song. It leans more towards punk than a lot of them. If anyone is interested, this is off their debut Rattus NorvegicusI can hook you up if you want. Just have to let me know.

That's not really true. A lot of bands from that time that are now considered punk were then actually considered new wave. I downloaded a comp some label released in 1977 that had The Ramones and The Dead Boys on it that was called New Wave. I hardly considered either of those bands new wave, and certainly not more so than the Stranglers. I think at the time anyone that was a bit more on the experimental, shying away from the three chord song structure was labelled a new wave band.

Very true. ^
The Stranglers had been around for ages before the punk scene.
Without it they would very probably have never emerged at all.

Never judge a book by the cover...or so they say. (whoever they are)

They certainly used the emergence of punk to ride the crest of the wave.

You Know, I`ve never heard any of the post Cornwall stuff but I`m now intrigued.

The Ramones New Wave!!! I always thought they were considered the first real punk band!!! The 3 minute song, the leather jackets, singing about sniffing glue and beating up people with baseball bats etc. Admittedly all in a cartoony and humourous way as opposed to the anarchy driven aggression of their UK counterparts.

I've seen the original line up and the more recent band minus Cornwall. Still good, but not the same somehow.
Also seen Hugh Cornwall solo a couple of times. Always worth seeing. The man's off his rocker.

Continuing with #?

Given that the majority of people on this forum seem to be from the USA and also the majority seem to be young rather than old, along with fact that after consulting my rock compendium and seeing that the Stranglers never once had an album or single in the US Billboard top 100 chart!!! Its probably no surprise that most don`t really know them, apart from the real music enthusiasts.

Its like asking somebody in the UK, if they`ve ever heard of Grand Funk Railroad and unless they have hair like this:afro: they probably wouldn`t know them.

They are a good band

My no.2 punk band JJ.Barnell's basslines are the whole reason I started playing the bass.

the stranglers, nice 'n' sleazy, love this one,from the men in black....

Dont know much by this band unfortunately.

Although peaches is a brilliant track.

the stranglers, get a grip on yourself, forgot about this un, yes cracking tune...

The keyboards on that are amazing. I had the live album 'X-Cert' on vinyl and this track was the highlight.

Controversial?
Probably more so now, than then.

I feel like a Wog!

Don't forget this little beauty either! That guitar solo is a belter! "A quick roll on the skins" classic.

if you like them check out 999

Their psych-punk albums of the late seventies are very good. They often overlook the rest of their discography, but 'La Folie' was a nice catchy new wave album and 'Feline' saw them comfortable in pop realms.

getting more and more into them. Going to go on a Stranglers binge.

got inspired by this, talk with Doug Donut some on facebook, and he does a tribute to them.

^ Is this a joke?