Grande, grandissima band gli Stranglers. Una band atipica come atipica era la loro musica, molto Punk come attitudine musicale ma distante allo stesso tempo dal Punk canonico prima e della New Wave poi; e questo la mettevano sicuramente sotto una luce molto particolare.
La loro epopea iniziò con "Rattus Norvegicus", anno di grazia 1977. Un anno molto particolare in tutti i sensi, e quest'album collocato in quell'anno penso sia stato una piccola rivoluzione per i contemporanei. Il disco in questione è invece "La Folie", album molto maturo con molte più sfumature rispetto vecchi Stranglers. Le spigolosità erano già state smussate da tempo, pur mantenendo lo spirito Stranglers intatto... Una evoluzione deliziosa. Tutti gli album da "Rattus" fino a "Feline" del 1982 meritano grandissima attenzione sono grandi album, ma credo che la sintesi della medaglia Stranglers si trovi propio in "Rattus" e in "Feline". Una band che suona e suonava con un gelido gusto. Dicevo una band atipica nel panorama Punk della prima ora, dato che i membri avevano un background musicale non indifferente, rispedendo al mittente le convinzioni di chi vede nel Punk anche il luogo comune del non saper suonare.
Quando mi avvicinai a questa band mi mi aveva incuriosito l'accostamento ai Doors, trattandosi di una delle mie band preferite; e infatti togliete dalle assolate spiagge californiane i Doors, metteteli dieci anni dopo in un vicolo cieco chiuso da un muro di mattoni rossi in una giornata uggiosa tipicamente britannica e avrete gli Stranglers. Il disco si apre con "No Stop", un pezzo molto bello e molto alla Doors infatti, in cui l'organetto divento il vero leit motive della canzone, fungendo da traino anche al cantato a tratti recitato a metà tra Jim Morrison e Lou Reed di Hugh Cornwell. C'è spazio per altre svariate canzoni di pregevole fatture, come la ossessiva e psichedelica "Ain't Nothin' To It" o la trascinante "Tramp", in cui il lavoro alle tastiere da parte di Dave Greenfield si fa molto ma molto interessante. La title track è una ballata molto oscura e introspettiva, quasi da Parigi autunnale; e poi si arriva ad uno dei loro pezzi più famosi, "Golden Brown". Un Walzer molto accattivante, grande lavoro di clavicembalo e di effetti vari, oltre al pregevole lavoro quasi jazzato di Cornwell alla chitarra. Tra le bonus track delle varie edizioni uscite negli anni c'è la splendida "Strange Little Girl", un pezzo che sembra uscito paro paro da "Strange Days" dei Doors, commovente!
Forse l'ultimo album degno di nota assieme al successivo "Feline" lascia questa bella eredità di questa grande gruppo che andrebbe riscoperto sicuramente, il quale continua a vivacchiare ancora nei nostri giorni, magari allietando qualche festivaluccio gotico dell'est europa e magari facendo breccia nel cuore di qualche darkettino disperso chissà dove alle prese con un revival che non ha mai vissuto. Una delle band preferite di Enrico Ruggeri, uno che ha molto in comune con loro.
Elenco tracce testi e video
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
Carico i commenti... con calma
