R.i.p Jet Black - The Stranglers

There wouldn't have been The Stranglers if it wasn't for Jet Black and his determination to make the band succeed .... a unique and amazing drummer, the backbone of a hugely inventive band. RIP.

 

Echo all you say. One less hero.

Never thought he’d outlast Dave. RIP

Back in the day, at the back, driving it on…

 

Fewer.

What strikes me most about this is that he was 84. Christ that makes me feel old.

 

The start of No More Heroes is the best song opening ever. But their version of Walk on by is probably the worst cover of all time

 

No, it’s fab. It’s both a reworking of Walk on By and an obvious homage to the extended version of ‘Light My Fire’.

Ok, Hugh can’t channel despair like Dionne Warwick, he can only do rage, but the playing is just great.

Have a fresh listen to the extended version.

I have it on white vinyl (that for @Maninblack)

 

Nope, it’s singular.

 

Agree with the first point.
Couldn’t disagree more with the second point. Probably the best ever cover. Turning a soppy love song into a powerful song full of energy and passion. The long 7-8 minute version is fabulous. If ever you’re going to cover a song, reinvent it, which they did magnificently here. RIP Jet.

 

You’d have got good odds on him making it to 84 20 or 30 years ago.
Probably my second favourite band, behind The Cure, of the end of the 70s and 80s.

 

YES !!!! I posted my reply before I saw yours.

 

Amazed they got this played on BBC because they were too stupid to twig. Even got to perform “Don’t bring Harry” on TOTP despite it not even getting in the top 30. “Ah, you’ve met Harry, I can see by your eyes…” Wonder what that was all about

 

Well, I still think its cr ap

 

Give it another go Lloydy. Will you do that for me hun?

 

Oh, alright then.. if you insist

 

I know, I was toying with you. Like a cat with a Moose.

 

I think you may have gone a bit awry there, Lloyd; it's marvellous IMO....and I love Dionne Warwick's version also.

 

It isn't really a soppy love song, though. It's about hoping false pride can hide the pain of unrequited love. Why else go for a walk in the trees?

 

Thank you Tony Hatch

 

Have you reached your Crossroads?

 

And sold your soul to the Devil?

 

Caught short when you need a pee ?
Agree that “soppy love song” wasn’t fair, it’s a good song, but my point was that the stranglers version gives it a completely different feel and energy like it’s a new song. If it wasn’t a cover it would have received a lot more attention. However that, and the fact that it was given away free with an album or another single or was a B-side (@Maninblack will know) before being officially released due to its popularity, meant it was only a minor hit, mid 20s I think.

 

It's certainly right up there as one of them, but imo the intros to 'New Rose' by the Damned or 'Pretty Vacant' by the Sex Pistols are marginally better.

As for your second point, just... just **** off, right! One of THE best covers ever, even the writer, Burt Bacharach, said it was the best version he'd heard! The long instrumental break (preceded by Hugh Cornwell's added poignant lyric 'Just going for a stroll in the trees') perfectly encapsulates the whirlpool of lonely despair felt by someone still in love with the person they've been dumped by. Pre-fame in the mid 70s they played it live as one of several covers to re-engage pub audiences when their own material wasn't going down well. It remains a staple of their set today, albeit loved (by me and most other fans) or loathed (by ultra-obsessives - moreso than me - fed up with hearing it every gig instead of some obscure album track). So there

 

I think the start of Grip is better. The worst cover of all time is undoubtedly Guns n Roses Knocking On Heavens Door.

 

Definitely a brilliant cover.

 

You are correct, excellent Stranglers knowledge!

75,000 copies were given away as a white vinyl 7" single with their 'Black and White' LP, regarded by many as the first post-punk album. (NB. Look out for the rare off-white / grey variant that is worth up to £100 nowadays!). On one side of the freebie is Walk On By and on the other, 'Mean To Me' and the not-very-PC 'T.i.t.s', a live track in which Jet Black is introduced as someone who is "...very good on a quick roll of the skins - no drug references of course meant in that". But the subsequent single release was one of a number of odd choices by the band, releasing a single that had already been given away free. (Another example was releasing a weird five-minute long track spoken in French called 'La Folie' straight after Golden Brown had got to no.2. It bombed). Anyway, on this release, Walk on By is backed with the excellent album opener 'Tank' with Jet's drums to the fore and 'Old Codger', a bluesy, risque-lyric, tongue-in-cheek dig at critics of the band who said they were too old to be punk, with lyrics sung by jazz legend George Melly.



I always loved that Jet Black is at the front of the iconic picture cover of both the album. I remember attending a Stranglers gig in London in the early 90s. Jet Black didn't play due to having been poisoned by fumes at the previous night's gig (a venue problem rather than personal drug choice!). However he came onstage in the encore just to sing 'Old Codger'. After a health scare in 2012, he spent a few years playing live for only a few songs each gig before retiring altogether from live music. As well as his role in the Stranglers he was by all accounts an accomplished chef and expert wood-carver. Up until his death on Thursday he was still engaged in the band and was compiling a gig history, collecting ticket-stubs and flyers that fans were sending him. He always wrote a personal thank you card to them, the last being only three weeks ago.

Here endeth today's lesson! Written whilst listening to the Black and White album, of course. RIP Jet Black.