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Rating: Great, truly great band the Stranglers. An unconventional band just as unconventional was their music, very Punk in musical attitude yet at the same time distant from the canonical Punk first and New Wave later; and this certainly placed them under a very particular light.
Their saga began with "Rattus Norvegicus", the blessed year of 1977. A very particular year in every sense, and this album placed in that year I think was a small revolution for contemporaries. The album in question is "La Folie", a very mature album with many more nuances compared to the old Stranglers. The abrasiveness had already been smoothed out for some time, while keeping the Stranglers spirit intact... A delightful evolution. All the albums from "Rattus" to "Feline" of 1982 deserve tremendous attention they are great albums, but I believe that the essence of the Stranglers' medal is found precisely in "Rattus" and "Feline". A band that plays and played with a cold taste. I was saying an unconventional band in the early Punk scene, given that the members had a significant musical background, sending back to sender the beliefs of those who see in Punk also the stereotype of not knowing how to play.
When I approached this band what intrigued me was the comparison to the Doors, as it is one of my favorite bands; indeed, take the Doors off the sunny Californian beaches, place them ten years later in a dead end blocked by a red brick wall on a typically British gloomy day, and you have the Stranglers. The album opens with "No Stop", a very beautiful piece and indeed very Doors-like, in which the little organ becomes the true leitmotif of the song, also leading the vocals somewhat recited midway between Jim Morrison and Lou Reed by Hugh Cornwell. There is room for several other well-crafted songs, such as the obsessive and psychedelic "Ain't Nothin' To It" or the compelling "Tramp", in which Dave Greenfield's work on the keyboards becomes very, very interesting. The title track is a very dark and introspective ballad, almost like autumnal Paris; and then we come to one of their most famous pieces, "Golden Brown". A very captivating waltz, great harpsichord work and various effects, along with Cornwell's almost jazzy guitar work. Among the bonus tracks of the various editions released over the years, there is the splendid "Strange Little Girl", a piece that seems straight out of "Strange Days" by the Doors, moving!
Perhaps the last noteworthy album along with the subsequent "Feline" leaves this beautiful legacy of this great group that certainly should be rediscovered, which still lingers into our days, perhaps enlivening some gothic little festival in Eastern Europe and perhaps piercing the heart of some dark fan lost who knows where grappling with a revival they never experienced. One of Enrico Ruggeri's favorite bands, someone who has much in common with them.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Non Stop (02:26)
Dedicated emancipated
Claims she waited her life for her man
Loves to pray every day
Says she's not frustrated in any way
Dressed in a black cotton sack
Pledges herself and she never looks back
She's a non stop nun
She's a non stop nun
She's a non stop nun
And she's running/running/running/running/running
Enlisted sister knows her mister
Never two times with the rest of the clan
In her eyes you sympathise
The afterlife holds a better plan
She's a non stop nun
She's a non stop nun
She's a non stop nun
And she gives up her whole life
And she'll never be your wife
'Cos she;s got the best lover
Better than any other
Better than any other
She's a non stop nun
She's a non stop nun
She's a non stop nun
And she's running/running/running/running/running
Dedicated emancipated
Claims she waited her life for her man
Loves to pray every day
Says she's not frustrated in any way
She's a non stop nun
She's a non stop nun
She's a non stop nun
And she gives up her whole life
And she'll never be your wife
'Cos she's got the best lover
Better than any other
Better than any other
Better than any other
03 Tramp (03:03)
Takes the time to stay one place
Though his clothes aren't finest lace
Read the lines on a tramp's face
Taking his time just like you just like me
Wandering so fancy free
Searching for love in the call of the wild
Travelling lost like a child
Law has missed him every day
Doesn't need it anyway
Life is the next meal away
A lost woman long ago
Does she miss him does he know?
Does it matter in the snow?
Taking his time just like you just like me
Wandering so fancy free
Searching for love in the call of the wild
Travelling lost like a child
Taking his time just like you just like me
Wandering so fancy free
Searching for love in the call of the wild
Travelling lost like a child
05 Ain't Nothin' to It (04:00)
Back up boy forty five feet
Always looking for a freebie
Why don't you let up sometime
Hawks out here with his axe n' me with this lead sheet on
Trying to scuffle up those two's n' fews
For uncle so's I can bail out my full orchestration
Looks like he got me but this cat wouldn't feed
Grass to a horse in a concrete pasture
He's so tight he wouldn't buy a pair of shorts for a flea
Just look at him n' dig that vine
All off tome his strollers look like he's ready to
Jump he's playing ketchup n' I got to tighten his wig
Hold it down n' I'll come up with line two like I said
Ain't nothin' to it, just here
Ain't nothin' to it, just here
Ain't nothin' ain't nothin' to it just here
I saw that dinner up the street guzzlin' foam in
The drinkden and the sharks are droppin' the shucks
Like the yellow kid trying to tighten her and
Weaving the four f's all around her
I nixed her out long ago, man, she's too sometimey
She will and she won't
She do and she don't always on the fence and
Sleeps with her glasses on
Man
Man
Ain't nothin' ain't nothin' to it just here
She's faust to me, so skip it and forget it
She's faust to me, so skip it and forget it
07 Pin Up (02:49)
She's a centrespread special size of the month
She's the one on the wall
Watched by him she's scared to move
She's very well known only in the one stance
She's the girl that survived over a hundred million glances
She's the pin up
She's always on his mind a technicolor dream
The secret weapon
She lives on his locker door
She's the girl he dreams of when he's at sea
Although she's in 2-D he'd like her at home waiting
She's the pin up
She's the pin up
All over submarines
They think she's so serene
As a mermaid she don't look much
But such a sin could be this year's last year's thing
She's a charity gives something for nothing
A wallchart for his heart a victim of all his desires
Sometimes he dreams of a scratch me scratch me section
A rope ladder of hair a Babylon for him to climb
She's the pin up
She's the pin up
All over submarines
They think she's so serene
As a mermaid she don't look much
But such a sin could be this year's last year's thing
She's a centrespread special size of the month
She's the one on his wall
Watched by him she's scared to move
She's very well known always in the one stance
She's the girl who'll survive over a hundred million glances
She's the pin up
She's the pin up
Repeat
09 Golden Brown (03:29)
Golden brown texture like sun
Lays me down with my mind she runs
Throughout the night
No need to fight
Never a frown with golden brown
Every time just like the last
On her ship tied to the mast
To distant lands
Takes both my hands
Never a frown with golden brown
Golden brown finer temptress
Through the ages she's heading west
From far away
Stays for a day
Never a frown with golden brown
(distant la la la la la la la la leeeah)
Never a frown
(voice echoes)
With golden brown
(voice echoes)
Never a frown
(voice echoes)
With golden brown
(voice echoes)
11 La Folie (06:06)
Bonsoir
Ton vehicule n'a pas l`air d`avoir de passager
Peux-tu: Veux tu me recevoir
Sans trop te deranger?
Mes bottes ne feront pas trop d`echos dans ton couloir
Pas de bruit avec mes adieux
Pas pour nous les moments perdus
En attendant un uncertain au-revoir
Parce que-j'ai la folie, oui c'est la folie
Il etait une fois un etudiant
Qui voulait fort, comme en literature
Sa copine, elle etait si douce
Qu'il pouvait presque, en la management
Rejeter tous les vices
Repousser tou les mals
Detruire toutes beautes
Qui par ailleurs, n'avait jamais ete ses complices
Parces qu'il avait la folie, oui, c'est la folie
Et si parfois l'on fait des confessions
A qui les raconter - meme le bon dieu nous a laisse tomber
Un autre endroit, une autre vie
Eh oui, c'est une autre histoire
Mais a qui tou raconter?
Chez les ombres de la nuit?
Au petit matin, au petit gris
Combien de crimes ont ete commis
Contre les mensonges et soi disant les lois du coeur
Combien sont la a cause de la folie
Parce qu'il ont la folie
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