The Stranglers - Song by Song by Hugh Cornwell and Jim Drury (Sanctuary Publishing) 

Well I approached this with trepidation. Like many at the time I was (and still am) a massive Stranglers fan. I had heard that Hugh was giving his side of the story so was curious how he would play it. All said there's nothing controversial but I'm not sure how well Hugh comes out of it. Like a lot of other people I was also a big Jean Jacques fan so some things in the book have rankled me. 

What was most suprising though was seeing the commercial side of it. The record company saying 'we need  another single its been three months' and the band banging them out and to a high quality. And on they went till 'Meninblack' their  first album after EMI took over United Artists. Out on drugs , out on a limb and out in cuckooland. If it wasn't for us loyal fanbase this album could well have sunk them. No other band in the world would do such a thing...commit such commercial suicide and that's  why we loved them... their contrariness. Knowing the next album would make or break them they deliberately wrote the more commercial 'La Folie' and had a hit with 'Golden Brown' and followed it up with the least commercial title track of the album sung in French !! From then on a gradual decay as the albums progressed and the rest is history ending with  Hugh leaving at Alexandra Palace. 

Yet Hugh comes across as  a bit sour. He complains the guitar wasn't mixed high enough on the first album and too much  Jean Jacques bass. Weird this one as the John Peel Session recorded before shows Hugh's guitar mixed higher up and sounding tinnier and insubstantial.

Hugh says JJ sang 'like Pavarotti' on the later songs ie 'Was It You' and after 'La Folie' contributed very little actual songs. I remember 'Feline' coming out and me and my mate pissing ourselves at Hugh on the first track  'Midsummer's Night Dream'  where Hugh seemed to be in love with the sound of his own voice and coming close to a Spanish waiter parody. Perhaps if the band had re-assured JJ his voice was ok things might have been better. Two tracks 'European Female' and 'Was It You' show he was more than Hugh's equal in the singing stakes. As to the contributions  there is a noticeable lack of quality from 'Feline' onwards music  and lyric wise for The Stranglers. Is this down to Hugh then ? By 'Dreamtime' and '10' Hugh was writing everything and it shows. 

Lastly Hugh frequently mentions that this or that song say 'Toiler On The Sea' comes from one of JJ's bass lines. Yet it was Hugh's songwriting skills that molded the song into what it was. Contentious point this. If as Hugh points out he wrote nearly all the later stuff then his songwriting skills seemed to have deserted him !!

Hugh does make some pertinent points. About Jets synthetic drums; yes something was lost by him using them from 'Feline' onwards. That 'Tramp' should have been released not 'La Folie' and we really can blame JJ for that piece of commercial suicide and the insights into the songs are fascinating and just prove how innovative and imaginative The Stranglers were. At the same time it shows how history has missed this. 

A band that had its career solely on a devoted fanbase is no bad thing. Other bands have managed longevity by at certain times certain tunes swinging back into sync with current fashions. The Stranglers managed it twice. Their pugnacious style co-incided with Punk  and by fluke they managed it again  with 'Golden Brown' but this time  the  wrong audience. They never managed it again and slowly drifted away from the  public's consciousness.

 For me they were one of the premier punk bands of the time and this book is a must for The Stranglers fan.

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