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The Stranglers: Song by Song, 1974-1990
The Stranglers is a unique perspective on one of the most extraordinary and inflammatory English rock bands.
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
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95 people want to read
About the author
Hugh Cornwell
15 books8 followersHugh Alan Cornwell is an English musician, singer-songwriter and writer, best known for being the lead vocalist and lead guitarist for the punk rock and new wave band the Stranglers from 1974 to 1990.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
June 24, 2011
No band was more willfully, confrontationally stupid than The Stranglers in their 1976-1979 heyday. No band worked harder to alienate its audience than The Stranglers did between 1981 and 1984, moving at blinding speed from dirty dirge-y Doors-y testosterone rock to science fiction scribbles to meditations on love to dinky synthpop. As a fan back in the day, I can tell you that it was a constant challenge not to be disappointed by the new material as it arrived. Yet through it all there was a strain of sensitive musicianship and a real open attempt to get beyond the straightjacket conventions of pop and psych, all with one eye on their chart performance.
This book represents The Stranglers perfectly. It gets at all the contradictions, has great intentions, offers baffling explanations for baffling behavior and artistic choices, and ultimately disappoints. Cornwell is a great raconteur and goes to great pains not to say anything *too* controversial about his former bandmates, with whom he still has famously rancorous relations.
The book's strength is also its weakness: having to page through every song. Sometimes the forced format brings up interesting tales from Cornwell's back pages, but there are also too many Stranglers songs ("Bring On The Nubiles" stands out) that are just too irredeemably stupid to face any kind of scrutiny. The book is also occasionally sullied by the interviewer's fanboy knowledge of every nook & cranny of The Stranglers' career but little about the basics of rock history. ("Who's Steve Cropper?" he asks at one point. Dude, look it up.)
For me the real fascination here is Cornwell's vivid memories of what it was like to be a mid-tier band in the 80s that was hyperaware of its fan base and 'career trajectory' while trying to map against record companies and their own artistic strivings, which often fail them, frankly. (Cornwell, for example, has no patience for drummer Jet Black's refusal to play the drums in the early 80s - and he is correct, it pretty much ruined their sound.) By the late 80s albums, which I skipped at the time too, I was jumping pages ahead.
Recommended for fans who know The Stranglers' catalogue well or have an interest in odd chapters of punk and 1980s UK pop, skippable for anyone else.
This book represents The Stranglers perfectly. It gets at all the contradictions, has great intentions, offers baffling explanations for baffling behavior and artistic choices, and ultimately disappoints. Cornwell is a great raconteur and goes to great pains not to say anything *too* controversial about his former bandmates, with whom he still has famously rancorous relations.
The book's strength is also its weakness: having to page through every song. Sometimes the forced format brings up interesting tales from Cornwell's back pages, but there are also too many Stranglers songs ("Bring On The Nubiles" stands out) that are just too irredeemably stupid to face any kind of scrutiny. The book is also occasionally sullied by the interviewer's fanboy knowledge of every nook & cranny of The Stranglers' career but little about the basics of rock history. ("Who's Steve Cropper?" he asks at one point. Dude, look it up.)
For me the real fascination here is Cornwell's vivid memories of what it was like to be a mid-tier band in the 80s that was hyperaware of its fan base and 'career trajectory' while trying to map against record companies and their own artistic strivings, which often fail them, frankly. (Cornwell, for example, has no patience for drummer Jet Black's refusal to play the drums in the early 80s - and he is correct, it pretty much ruined their sound.) By the late 80s albums, which I skipped at the time too, I was jumping pages ahead.
Recommended for fans who know The Stranglers' catalogue well or have an interest in odd chapters of punk and 1980s UK pop, skippable for anyone else.
August 15, 2008
I was going to read "Golden Brown", the Hugh Cornwell autobiography, but this is better: Cornwell talking about every Stranglers song ever recorded. If you like the Stranglers you'll love this book.
The only minus bout the book is when Hugh starts back-pedalling about the band's annoying sexism, like Prez Clinton lying about all his affairs. Otherwise, rock out with your cock out!
The only minus bout the book is when Hugh starts back-pedalling about the band's annoying sexism, like Prez Clinton lying about all his affairs. Otherwise, rock out with your cock out!
June 17, 2017
Debated calling this a five-star; I loved the overall experience of reading this book, which was essentially 350+ pages of interview with Hugh Cornwell about the years he spent with the Stranglers. I bought this book as an enormous fan of their first five records but having not yet made my way through the rest, so I took my time with this one, reading the first five sections, stopping to listen to the next album in sequence and then reading the section pertaining to that album. A drawn-out way to go about it but breaking this up over time to listen to each record for context was a really lovely experience, no matter how bad the albums became (I'm looking at you, Aural Sculpture and Dreamtime).
Was a great learning experience as well -- to find out how drugs and relationships and travel and producers played into their chemistry as a group, as well as Hugh's perception of what was and wasn't well done. The strange obsession with life on other planets, the unexpected lack of humor they seemed to have for a group with such a good sense of humor. All fascinating. Not sure I could stand to keep listening to the Stranglers' records beyond 1990, but easily could have kept going with these stories and am so glad I savored the book a little at a time.
Was a great learning experience as well -- to find out how drugs and relationships and travel and producers played into their chemistry as a group, as well as Hugh's perception of what was and wasn't well done. The strange obsession with life on other planets, the unexpected lack of humor they seemed to have for a group with such a good sense of humor. All fascinating. Not sure I could stand to keep listening to the Stranglers' records beyond 1990, but easily could have kept going with these stories and am so glad I savored the book a little at a time.
March 29, 2012
I enjoyed this from a music-buff point of view, it's always nice to fill in the gaps in my knowledge of pop music. I was a young Stranglers fan and loved their first three albums. However I don't think their music has stood the test of time and found some of the self-important remarks by Cornwall and Drury a bit hard to take. Still, well worth reading if you were a fan.
September 2, 2024
Useful, but this is the sort of book you'd want to dip into rather than read cover-to-cover.
The format is that of a series of long interviews with Hugh Cornwell, with Jim Drury grilling him about every single Stranglers song (up to Cornwell's leaving the band) in turn. Sometimes there isn't much more to be said about a song than "this was based on a bass riff John brought in, and I lifted the title from such and such a movie"- but that's still pretty interesting. Certainly it's more interesting (I think) than a standard Rock Memoir, where you get maybe a page or two about the writing of each of the artist's mega-hits, and you're always left wishing there had been more about the music.
Inevitably, the ups and downs of the band's career are covered in this process, and there are plenty of biographical anecdotes as well, so it's kind of an all-purpose book about the band (from Cornwell's perspective, anyway) as well as a book about their songs. Cornwell is frank (but not particularly lurid) about the band's drug use, odd fixations, and idiosyncrasies. Maybe more interesting than that, though, is how frank he is about the commercial aspect of the band's career- for whatever reason it's uncommon for an artist to own up to how commercial considerations, label pressure, and producer involvement affected their output, unless they're doing so specifically to disown a piece of work they dislike.
Kind of essential if you're interested in this most erratic, uneven, and unpredictable of acts.
The format is that of a series of long interviews with Hugh Cornwell, with Jim Drury grilling him about every single Stranglers song (up to Cornwell's leaving the band) in turn. Sometimes there isn't much more to be said about a song than "this was based on a bass riff John brought in, and I lifted the title from such and such a movie"- but that's still pretty interesting. Certainly it's more interesting (I think) than a standard Rock Memoir, where you get maybe a page or two about the writing of each of the artist's mega-hits, and you're always left wishing there had been more about the music.
Inevitably, the ups and downs of the band's career are covered in this process, and there are plenty of biographical anecdotes as well, so it's kind of an all-purpose book about the band (from Cornwell's perspective, anyway) as well as a book about their songs. Cornwell is frank (but not particularly lurid) about the band's drug use, odd fixations, and idiosyncrasies. Maybe more interesting than that, though, is how frank he is about the commercial aspect of the band's career- for whatever reason it's uncommon for an artist to own up to how commercial considerations, label pressure, and producer involvement affected their output, unless they're doing so specifically to disown a piece of work they dislike.
Kind of essential if you're interested in this most erratic, uneven, and unpredictable of acts.
May 22, 2021
Fascinating book about all the tracks on the 10 Stranglers albums and singles that High Cornwell was involved in the writing and performing of until he left the band to peruse a solo career. I have heard all of the songs here at least once, but many are forgotten, so this book has brilliantly rekindled my urge to listen again to the ones I have not heard for so long.
Hugh speaks with candour and honesty about his time in the band, about all the drugs they took and also about his growing disillusion with the band towards the end of the 80's and his subsequent decision to leave. His insights on the writing and recording of these songs are fascinating and opened my eyes to many hitherto unknown nuances and processes and it really is a great book that's well put together and has both humour, sadness and anger in his recollections.
I thoroughly recommend this to any fans of the band from the early days and enjoyed reconnecting to the music of my youth by one of my favourite bands of all time.
Bravo!
Hugh speaks with candour and honesty about his time in the band, about all the drugs they took and also about his growing disillusion with the band towards the end of the 80's and his subsequent decision to leave. His insights on the writing and recording of these songs are fascinating and opened my eyes to many hitherto unknown nuances and processes and it really is a great book that's well put together and has both humour, sadness and anger in his recollections.
I thoroughly recommend this to any fans of the band from the early days and enjoyed reconnecting to the music of my youth by one of my favourite bands of all time.
Bravo!
December 22, 2022
This is good fun, discussing all of the songs on the ten studio albums recorded by the original Stranglers line up.
Lots of (auto)biographical details and, most notably, only the mildest of criticisms once in a while by Hugh of his bandmates or others associated with their career such as producers; these aside he is scrupulously fair and very generous about giving credit to the others.
I agree very strongly that something was lost when Jet Black stopped using drum drums and used drum machines and synths instead. The last two or three albums in particular are rather anaemic at times and I think that’s the main reason why.
Until I read this I naively had no idea what Don’t Bring Harry was about. Duh.
If you like the band you’ll definitely like this book. If not I can’t imagine why you’d read it because dissections of songs you’ve never heard would be dry as hell I’d think.
Lots of (auto)biographical details and, most notably, only the mildest of criticisms once in a while by Hugh of his bandmates or others associated with their career such as producers; these aside he is scrupulously fair and very generous about giving credit to the others.
I agree very strongly that something was lost when Jet Black stopped using drum drums and used drum machines and synths instead. The last two or three albums in particular are rather anaemic at times and I think that’s the main reason why.
Until I read this I naively had no idea what Don’t Bring Harry was about. Duh.
If you like the band you’ll definitely like this book. If not I can’t imagine why you’d read it because dissections of songs you’ve never heard would be dry as hell I’d think.
April 24, 2021
I am a casual fan (can I say that? :) of Stranglers. But I really love some of their hits (Nice 'N' Sleazy, Midnight Summer Dream, 96 Tears...) and always got intrigued by their appearance. So not knowing much about them I thought it would be nice to go through this book and also listen to the albums - just immerse myself in. And I was not wrong.
It didn't turn me into a real fan, but it was nice to track the progress of the band and Hugh as an individua. One of those stories where the music was the most important and there is a lot of sex drugs and not so much money (in the end). For the most part it feels honest and with a lot of interesting details. Fast read, good accompanying music (if you listen to the albums while you read) = that's entertainment.
It didn't turn me into a real fan, but it was nice to track the progress of the band and Hugh as an individua. One of those stories where the music was the most important and there is a lot of sex drugs and not so much money (in the end). For the most part it feels honest and with a lot of interesting details. Fast read, good accompanying music (if you listen to the albums while you read) = that's entertainment.
October 3, 2017
As the title SONG BY SONG says. Hugh Cornwell explains everything about his former band, The Stranglers, going through every song they recorded between 1974 and 1990. Though his split with the other band members in 1990. was acrimonious, you won't find Cornwell badmouthing them in this excellent book, - essentialy one long interview with him. Don't miss this book and David Buckley's band biography NO MERCY.
January 16, 2021
Very interesting insight into the songs meanings and helps you see them in a new light. Hugh comes across as quite an amiable fellow and not the sometimes angry pumped up performer on stage.
January 1, 2017
I wish more musicians wrote books like this. A lot of history of the band and commentary of what I believe is just about every song The Stranglers recorded up until Cornwell left. I had a lot of fun reading along while I was revisiting some old favorites and being introduced to some Stranglers albums I hadn't listened to before.
July 27, 2007
The title pretty much says it all: Hugh Cornwell, lead singer of punk band The Stranglers, discusses the band's entire career (at least, the part of it he was involved in) one song at a time. Really just a book-length interview, and a fascinating one if you happen to dig this band.
June 15, 2013
Stranglers fans will love it!
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews