I loved the Black and White album so much I commissioned a 4 foot x 4 foot painting of the album cover painted by an excellent local artist here in the UK. It still adorns my living room at home to this day. Great album, great song and a wonderful band. I still go to their gigs every year. I'll be 70 years young next year and I'm just twenty years older than this wonderful rock band. Love the Stranglers.
@@normandavidtidiman9918 I was 4... didn't get into B and W until after hearing "All Day and All of the Night" (my first 7") and deep diving from there.
Hugh Cornwell on "Curfew": "I can see a clear connection between this and "Goodbye Toulouse". I had all the chords and wrote the chorus lyric while John wrote the verses". "There's a reference to journalists writing subjectively. It would be nice to think that life could be treated as black and white, but most situations are actually a shade of grey." "John's verses are an imagined scenario about the breaking down of law and order in the country." "The verse chords have got strange intervals, the same as in "Threatened". These intervals have always been associated with satanic music and darkness." "Curfew" is in two time signatures. The chorus and the beginning are in 4/4 and then the verse is in 7/4, and in the middle it goes into another time signature. Then after that third time signature we added another beat to throw people off. This was inspired by my fascination with Devo. They had a song called "Blockhead", which had the most remarkable time signature. It's very hypnotic, but if you try to dance to it you get thrown because it's got a beat missing, like "Golden Brown". By the way Justin! "Do You Wanna" should be listened to with “Death and Night and Blood (Yukio)” because they're linked.
@@80sandretrogubbins25 Exactly! It's weird that Hugh should quote this track from Devo's second album, which was recorded between late 1978 and early 1979, whereas Black and White was recorded in early 78. Maybe he quoted it as an example but had heard an earlier Devo track that might have inspired him to do this sort of thing....
Superb band and album… have to say have really enjoyed watching your stranglers journey… The good news is there are still some absolutely amazing songs and albums to come. Black and white is flagged as one of the very first post punk albums and captures the angst and despair that was felt in the UK in 1978. It’s a masterpiece. You will be amazed at the musical direction of the next Studio album The Raven . Released just one year later in 1979… incredible output!!
I don't get this "post punk" thing people mention in relation to the time period. For me,1978 was still a big year for punk. Sure,the Pistols had imploded, and the Clash were making a pretty heavy rock album,but their were plenty of punk bands still going,Sham 69,Buzzcocks, Siouxsie & the Banshees. Plus,the Pistols were still releasing stuff. "Post punk" for me was Joy Division and PiL with Metal Box in 1979.
Post-punk (originally called new musick)[2] is a broad genre of music that emerged in 1977 in the wake of punk rock. Post-punk musicians departed from punk's fundamental elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a broader, more experimental approach that encompassed a variety of avant-garde sensibilities and non-rock influences. Inspired by punk's energy and do it yourself ethic but determined to break from rock cliches, artists experimented with styles like funk, electronic music, jazz, and dance music; the production techniques of dub and disco; and ideas from art and politics, including critical theory, modernist art, cinema and literature.[3][4] These communities produced independent record labels, visual art, multimedia performances and fanzines.
@DavidSnaith-v9k Listen,you can regurgitate Wikipedia to your hearts degree,but you clearly wasn't around in 1978,let alone 1977. NOBODY was talking about "post punk" in the year of the Queens Silver Jubilee when the Pistols were releasing the bulk of their catalogue: or The Clash their seminal self titled 1st album.
Maybe not 77 but first stranglers gig was Battersea park 78… so I think I’m qualified to comment. Of course nobody was talking obout post punk in 77 as that was the year of punk!!! One year or maybe a bit earlier into 76… after that it was over..
This is probably my favorite track on the disk. I love that first theme, the one they come in with, and the way it goes back and forth between that and the driving desperation. It just seems like a dystopian science fiction to me lyrically, I don't think the geopolitics mean anything else - except Germany being the perennial enemy for Brittan. This whole album rocks - they're breaking through to land more squarely in their prog leanings, while keeping the edges hard and harsh. It's a transitional album though, and overall I liked where they went from here, into proggy pop, even better. The first two are pure classics, and this one shows both a stylistic evolution and an uptick in musicianship and innovative composition.
"Temz". :-) It would be the Soviet Landings, I suppose (but I think it's just that general kind of situation they're talking about - being invaded, and some swine in a tank drives over the roses you took thirty years to bring near enough, and not too close, to perfection - and maybe by way of exaggeration, to less traumatic things than having men move into the neighbourhood who skin your cat just to hear her scream, because they're bored, now.). And then there's some kind of shrewd guess about the response of the politicians to the invasion. Run away to somewhere hilly. Take the entire army with to defend you. Leave everyone else to just fend for themselves. Again, though, it's probably just to have lyrics about a stressful situation to go with tune-fragments made to be all sharp and pointy.
Side Black is masterful with JJ handling most of the vocals. This is as dark as they ever got with 'Threatened' and 'Death And Night And Blood (Yukio) being two of their finest moments. I love Side White, but this is different gravy ! 🖤
Musically I find "Threatened" less threatening than "Curfew", which is much more uncomfortable, especially in its instrumental bridge with Dave's organ and Hugh's guitar creating friction and tension, but I like both tracks.
@a.k.1740 It's the overall eerie atmosphere of 'Threatened' that gets to me. And the 'Piece of my Mummy lyric used to confuse and unsettle me as an innocent pre-teen. As a 58 year old, it still shakes me up !
@@Owlstretchingtime78 Yes I see what you mean about "Bring me a piece of my mummy, She was quite close to me" (it leaves a lasting impression)😉 And then it's true that there is still a kind of tension between the guitar and the keyboards here. What always struck me on this song is the delay they put on Jet's bass drum pedal which gives a weird bouncing effect at the start (I really like it!).
Just got back into the Stranglers and discovered some great later tracks. Would love to see you take on Summat Outtanowt, Time to Die, Water, Relentless, and Breathe if you haven't. I'll go back and check your Playlist. Cheers!
True, "Curfew" is somewhat uncomfortable and menacing with that underlying tension, however Justin has yet to hear "Do You Wanna?" and "In the Shadows" ! (not to mention "Meninblack" on The Raven, as well as quite a few tracks from The Gospel According to the Meninblack!).😉
Didn't know this... I like it. Interestingly they sometimes switch to 7/4 -ish time signature and back to 4/4. A bit similar to what they did in Golden brown. Is it typical for The Stranglers?
It wasn't systematic, but The Stranglers were sometimes used to incorporating time signature changes into their music, dropping a bar at a certain moment or using convoluted rhythmic figures on guitar or bass... Listen, for example, to "Peasant in the Big Shitty" (on No More Heroes), "Enough Time" (on Black and White), "Genetix" (on The Raven) or "Four Horsemen" (on The Gospel According to the Meninblack).
This is very much The Stranglers approach to prog from a completely different direction - the different time signatures, the strong narrative in the lyrics, the unpoppy nature of the verses married to the more conventional chorus. The only link to punk is in the barely musical delivery of the vocals. I just came from listening to your Penguin Cafe Orchestra video and the contrast between the two pieces of music is particularly striking but both are fascinating listens.
Yes, I like the tension that emanates from this track, particularly in the bridge that accentuates it (Hugh's guitar and Dave's organ create an eerie atmosphere in this section).
You may find that this side of music will be a bit of a challenge for you. I could be wrong, I hope you like it enough to continue your stranglers journey. Please don't forget to do shut up, it's the b side of nice and sleazy and it's super short but still cool.thank you.
@@drakebullet4509 I doubt he will go back to them, he has a lot of requests he would have to do 15 or more reviews every day just to keep people happy.
An off topic, semi-rant about "indie rock". (Ignore at your peril. :-) - quoth he harmlessly). The impression I get is that a lot of people think of this as a lesser art form - something derivative, and a poor copy of the original to boot. Put something in the indie box, and it's as good as in the bin, then. Well OK ... ... as long as you find another name for *GBV* , then. As "indie rock", they're more like a natural extension of pop and rock that lost popularity too soon, before it was yet done with. (Because I say so. That's not the worst reason one could offer.) They're "The Who" again, but of a kind that can just half ironically call a video of theirs, "The Who Went Home and Cried". They're Beatles, too - like so many bands are - with some of their Beatlings being reasonably worthy successors (no need to climb all the way to the top of that mountain to get High). And they're their own thing, too. For instance, they had that lo-fi period, forced on them by trying to record music while living on a Grade 4 teacher's salary (and, e.g. maybe a new journeyman's pay - although one of them became a law shark - but had to leave the band to do this - drank away his sorry at the opportunity to "get ahead in life" he had to take up on his last concert). They made their stuff lo-fi, because they were broke, and pure determination only gets you so far. (I'm going to stick fast here at this lo-fi issue, so fear not, the word salad has almost reached the point where the lovely engine oil dressing is globbed onto it.) They had to do the "lo-fi", but they made a art of it. Robert Pollard once said that he's really good a forking things up, and that's because some of the sound is poor mans' equipment, but the rest is a kind of art that leans into that to give your mind a fuller mental painting of how poor the equipment is. (Maybe reaching its ultimate in the porch rehearsal scenes of "The Who Went Home and Cried".) I'm meant to be trying to build up a case in favour of the plaintiff, *Watch Me Jumpstart* - being a Song deliberately wounded several times during its recording (and also accidentally so wounded by the circumstance of having been recorded on inferior equipment). Now I look up at the lines above me, I realize that what's likeliest to have happened is that the Judges in this Matter Went Home, Saying Jeez, Just Get To the Dammed Point Won't You. Oh well, if you're still here, you might as well listen to the song. It's quite quick, but I assert it's not inferior. It's a perfectly good enough Beatling or Stoning, with ample measures of new Guided by Voices, too. Exhibit A, Your Worship: ruclips.net/video/AOmwRqMHbGk/видео.html
Great review...glad you are digging all The Stranglers stuff you have done. Hope you give "Just Like Nothing on Earth" a listen pretty sure you would love it.
I loved the Black and White album so much I commissioned a 4 foot x 4 foot painting of the album cover painted by an excellent local artist here in the UK. It still adorns my living room at home to this day. Great album, great song and a wonderful band. I still go to their gigs every year. I'll be 70 years young next year and I'm just twenty years older than this wonderful rock band. Love the Stranglers.
I think I'd have to stick a Stranglers album in my all time top ten, and if I did it would be this one.
That's amazing. I was a mere 16 when this was released and the first I obtained with my own money from (just starting) work.
@@normandavidtidiman9918 I was 4... didn't get into B and W until after hearing "All Day and All of the Night" (my first 7") and deep diving from there.
@@JohnLovesSpain Respect
Hugh Cornwell on "Curfew":
"I can see a clear connection between this and "Goodbye Toulouse". I had all the chords and wrote the chorus lyric while John wrote the verses".
"There's a reference to journalists writing subjectively. It would be nice to think that life could be treated as black and white, but most situations are actually a shade of grey."
"John's verses are an imagined scenario about the breaking down of law and order in the country."
"The verse chords have got strange intervals, the same as in "Threatened". These intervals have always been associated with satanic music and darkness."
"Curfew" is in two time signatures. The chorus and the beginning are in 4/4 and then the verse is in 7/4, and in the middle it goes into another time signature. Then after that third time signature we added another beat to throw people off. This was inspired by my fascination with Devo. They had a song called "Blockhead", which had the most remarkable time signature. It's very hypnotic, but if you try to dance to it you get thrown because it's got a beat missing, like "Golden Brown".
By the way Justin! "Do You Wanna" should be listened to with “Death and Night and Blood (Yukio)” because they're linked.
Blockhead was from 1979 I thought. Maybe they heard a rough early version.
@@80sandretrogubbins25 Exactly! It's weird that Hugh should quote this track from Devo's second album, which was recorded between late 1978 and early 1979, whereas Black and White was recorded in early 78. Maybe he quoted it as an example but had heard an earlier Devo track that might have inspired him to do this sort of thing....
“Their weirdest song” well get ready for the next 5 songs Justin. You’re in for a treat.
I'm ready😄
Been a fan since the 70s. Still my favorite band.
Same here. Been a fan since I was 11. This is my favourite and still most played album by them
Superb band and album… have to say have really enjoyed watching your stranglers journey…
The good news is there are still some absolutely amazing songs and albums to come.
Black and white is flagged as one of the very first post punk albums and captures the angst and despair that was felt in the UK in 1978. It’s a masterpiece.
You will be amazed at the musical direction of the next Studio album The Raven . Released just one year later in 1979… incredible output!!
I don't get this "post punk" thing people mention in relation to the time period. For me,1978 was still a big year for punk. Sure,the Pistols had imploded, and the Clash were making a pretty heavy rock album,but their were plenty of punk bands still going,Sham 69,Buzzcocks, Siouxsie & the Banshees. Plus,the Pistols were still releasing stuff. "Post punk" for me was Joy Division and PiL with Metal Box in 1979.
Post-punk (originally called new musick)[2] is a broad genre of music that emerged in 1977 in the wake of punk rock. Post-punk musicians departed from punk's fundamental elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a broader, more experimental approach that encompassed a variety of avant-garde sensibilities and non-rock influences. Inspired by punk's energy and do it yourself ethic but determined to break from rock cliches, artists experimented with styles like funk, electronic music, jazz, and dance music; the production techniques of dub and disco; and ideas from art and politics, including critical theory, modernist art, cinema and literature.[3][4] These communities produced independent record labels, visual art, multimedia performances and fanzines.
@DavidSnaith-v9k Listen,you can regurgitate Wikipedia to your hearts degree,but you clearly wasn't around in 1978,let alone 1977. NOBODY was talking about "post punk" in the year of the Queens Silver Jubilee when the Pistols were releasing the bulk of their catalogue: or The Clash their seminal self titled 1st album.
Maybe not 77 but first stranglers gig was Battersea park 78… so I think I’m qualified to comment. Of course nobody was talking obout post punk in 77 as that was the year of punk!!! One year or maybe a bit earlier into 76… after that it was over..
@DavidSnaith-v9k This post is so full of contradictions regarding years. 76,77. I was at Battersea Park 1978, too.
This is probably my favorite track on the disk. I love that first theme, the one they come in with, and the way it goes back and forth between that and the driving desperation. It just seems like a dystopian science fiction to me lyrically, I don't think the geopolitics mean anything else - except Germany being the perennial enemy for Brittan. This whole album rocks - they're breaking through to land more squarely in their prog leanings, while keeping the edges hard and harsh. It's a transitional album though, and overall I liked where they went from here, into proggy pop, even better. The first two are pure classics, and this one shows both a stylistic evolution and an uptick in musicianship and innovative composition.
Great song. Great band.
To help understand Curfew, read pages 69 - 70 of Strangled by Phil Knight.
"Temz". :-)
It would be the Soviet Landings, I suppose (but I think it's just that general kind of situation they're talking about - being invaded, and some swine in a tank drives over the roses you took thirty years to bring near enough, and not too close, to perfection - and maybe by way of exaggeration, to less traumatic things than having men move into the neighbourhood who skin your cat just to hear her scream, because they're bored, now.).
And then there's some kind of shrewd guess about the response of the politicians to the invasion. Run away to somewhere hilly. Take the entire army with to defend you. Leave everyone else to just fend for themselves. Again, though, it's probably just to have lyrics about a stressful situation to go with tune-fragments made to be all sharp and pointy.
Interesting you mention SOS. Wait for the Morse code on Enough Time.
This album is so prophetic.
It’s Life During Wartime. Incidentally, a mutual cover would have been cool.
Side Black is masterful with JJ handling most of the vocals. This is as dark as they ever got with 'Threatened' and 'Death And Night And Blood (Yukio) being two of their finest moments. I love Side White, but this is different gravy ! 🖤
Musically I find "Threatened" less threatening than "Curfew", which is much more uncomfortable, especially in its instrumental bridge with Dave's organ and Hugh's guitar creating friction and tension, but I like both tracks.
@a.k.1740 It's the overall eerie atmosphere of 'Threatened' that gets to me. And the 'Piece of my Mummy lyric used to confuse and unsettle me as an innocent pre-teen. As a 58 year old, it still shakes me up !
@a.k.1740 Who sang lead on 'Curfew'? All these years i've believed it to be JJ!
@@Owlstretchingtime78 Yes I see what you mean about "Bring me a piece of my mummy, She was quite close to me" (it leaves a lasting impression)😉 And then it's true that there is still a kind of tension between the guitar and the keyboards here. What always struck me on this song is the delay they put on Jet's bass drum pedal which gives a weird bouncing effect at the start (I really like it!).
@@Owlstretchingtime78 Of course, It's J.J. on "Curfew". On "Threatened" the vocals are shared between Hugh and J.J.
much better than the first minute suggested it would be I'd buy the LP if i saw it in store. .
Just got back into the Stranglers and discovered some great later tracks. Would love to see you take on Summat Outtanowt, Time to Die, Water, Relentless, and Breathe if you haven't. I'll go back and check your Playlist. Cheers!
"Curfew" the weirdest song up to now? Maybe, but you have no idea what is coming around the corner next!
True, "Curfew" is somewhat uncomfortable and menacing with that underlying tension, however Justin has yet to hear "Do You Wanna?" and "In the Shadows" ! (not to mention "Meninblack" on The Raven, as well as quite a few tracks from The Gospel According to the Meninblack!).😉
Didn't know this... I like it. Interestingly they sometimes switch to 7/4 -ish time signature and back to 4/4. A bit similar to what they did in Golden brown. Is it typical for The Stranglers?
It wasn't systematic, but The Stranglers were sometimes used to incorporating time signature changes into their music, dropping a bar at a certain moment or using convoluted rhythmic figures on guitar or bass...
Listen, for example, to "Peasant in the Big Shitty" (on No More Heroes), "Enough Time" (on Black and White), "Genetix" (on The Raven) or "Four Horsemen" (on The Gospel According to the Meninblack).
This is very much The Stranglers approach to prog from a completely different direction - the different time signatures, the strong narrative in the lyrics, the unpoppy nature of the verses married to the more conventional chorus. The only link to punk is in the barely musical delivery of the vocals. I just came from listening to your Penguin Cafe Orchestra video and the contrast between the two pieces of music is particularly striking but both are fascinating listens.
Punk prog is like an oxymoron, but it does apply to Stranglers
The whole album is wonderful but Curfew is a bit special .. good call JP 👌
👍🏴
Great Song from a Great Album , nice review 😊
One of my favorites in the album.
Yes, I like the tension that emanates from this track, particularly in the bridge that accentuates it (Hugh's guitar and Dave's organ create an eerie atmosphere in this section).
My favourite is up next.
@@Owlstretchingtime78 Threatened?
Keep practicing " Tems."
🤔
@@Owlstretchingtime78 He couldn't pronounce the river Thames correctly.
Yeah, Thames is “Tems” basically
@@Mark-lv6mu I was trying to work out how to pronounce it in writing and tems is the best I could manage too
I think its pronounced t-ay-ch-ey-sp-me-james😅
Threatened the next song is probably the best song on the album !
Absolutely spot on ! 👌
'Temms'
Hey JP, if you think this track is weird you need to listen to the album The Gospel According to The Men In Black 😂
You may find that this side of music will be a bit of a challenge for you. I could be wrong, I hope you like it enough to continue your stranglers journey. Please don't forget to do shut up, it's the b side of nice and sleazy and it's super short but still cool.thank you.
👍Yes, with J.J.'s confrontational lyrics and aggressive bass in the foreground ('to piss people off' as he says!).😉
Good point re singles, he's missing Straighten Out, Choosey Susie, Go Buddy Go et al.
@@drakebullet4509 would like them also but he has so many requests he would have to do 15 reviews every day to keep everyone happy.
@@drakebullet4509 I doubt he will go back to them, he has a lot of requests he would have to do 15 or more reviews every day just to keep people happy.
Thames is pronounced TEMS
An off topic, semi-rant about "indie rock". (Ignore at your peril. :-) - quoth he harmlessly).
The impression I get is that a lot of people think of this as a lesser art form - something derivative, and a poor copy of the original to boot. Put something in the indie box, and it's as good as in the bin, then.
Well OK ...
... as long as you find another name for *GBV* , then. As "indie rock", they're more like a natural extension of pop and rock that lost popularity too soon, before it was yet done with. (Because I say so. That's not the worst reason one could offer.)
They're "The Who" again, but of a kind that can just half ironically call a video of theirs, "The Who Went Home and Cried". They're Beatles, too - like so many bands are - with some of their Beatlings being reasonably worthy successors (no need to climb all the way to the top of that mountain to get High). And they're their own thing, too.
For instance, they had that lo-fi period, forced on them by trying to record music while living on a Grade 4 teacher's salary (and, e.g. maybe a new journeyman's pay - although one of them became a law shark - but had to leave the band to do this - drank away his sorry at the opportunity to "get ahead in life" he had to take up on his last concert). They made their stuff lo-fi, because they were broke, and pure determination only gets you so far.
(I'm going to stick fast here at this lo-fi issue, so fear not, the word salad has almost reached the point where the lovely engine oil dressing is globbed onto it.)
They had to do the "lo-fi", but they made a art of it. Robert Pollard once said that he's really good a forking things up, and that's because some of the sound is poor mans' equipment, but the rest is a kind of art that leans into that to give your mind a fuller mental painting of how poor the equipment is. (Maybe reaching its ultimate in the porch rehearsal scenes of "The Who Went Home and Cried".)
I'm meant to be trying to build up a case in favour of the plaintiff, *Watch Me Jumpstart* - being a Song deliberately wounded several times during its recording (and also accidentally so wounded by the circumstance of having been recorded on inferior equipment). Now I look up at the lines above me, I realize that what's likeliest to have happened is that the Judges in this Matter Went Home, Saying Jeez, Just Get To the Dammed Point Won't You.
Oh well, if you're still here, you might as well listen to the song. It's quite quick, but I assert it's not inferior. It's a perfectly good enough Beatling or Stoning, with ample measures of new Guided by Voices, too. Exhibit A, Your Worship: ruclips.net/video/AOmwRqMHbGk/видео.html
There's a sandwich missing somewhere ! 😉
@@Owlstretchingtime78 To make a picnic? :D
Or is there a sandwich in the documentary by the same name? ruclips.net/video/u9f16ySHIeU/видео.html
Great review...glad you are digging all The Stranglers stuff you have done. Hope you give "Just Like Nothing on Earth" a listen pretty sure you would love it.