The Stranglers- Goodbye Toulouse (REACTION//DISCUSSION) 

One of the best debut albums ever!

The whole album is sooo good.

Down in the Sewer Is their most progressive song off the same album its the final track youd love it, one of my favourite songs by them.

Such a great album. Thanks for reminding me JP. I never was a fan of punk generally, but I loved the Stranglers. They had punk's ferocity and dirtiness, but there were lots of interesting musical ideas there too.

'I will return someday, so I can say farewell'. Yeah, I think this is about him feeling bitter and disappointed, but also wanting to get over that so he can eventually wish the city well; perhaps feel positively about it they way he once did.

You really should check out the "stranglers live at the hope and anchor" album.... Dave Greenfield on a massive swelling organ!

How great when EVERYONE in your band is a secret weapon!! Love 'em! 👍😘🎶🎹🔥🎸💞💥

I always loved this song. Here's what singer/guitarist Hugh Cornwell says about "Goodbye Toulouse" in the book The Stranglers Song by Song 1974-1990: "We were getting into Nostradamus at the time, and one of his predictions was that Toulouse in France would suffer a cataclysmic event and be destroyed. It just so happens that there's a nuclear power station in Toulouse so John (Jean-Jacques Burnel) and I thought this cataclysmic event could be an atomic mishap. So it was a song of goodbye to the town, and the explosion at the end is supposed to represent an atomic meltdown at Toulouse. I came to John with all the music written and he asked if I'd written any lyrics. I said, "no, I can't think of any." John then wrote the words and the title, but his bass line was so frenetic that he said "I can't possibly sing this and play the bass at the same time", so I agree to sing. This was very odd because usually we sang our own lyrics but in this case practical considerations meant we couldn't. The song reflects the feeling of sadness that the town is about to be destroyed. John, having French parents, had a knowledge of Toulouse, which is a place where there are a lot of rich people sitting around with very empty lives." "You'll notice that Dave doesn't really do much on "Goodbye Toulouse". He's just filling in. It's because the song was all there. Once John had worked out the heavy bass line to go on the music, there was very little room for the keyboards, so Dave just followed what was going on already on the guitars. I really enjoyed playing on this. There's a lot of double-tracked guitars following each other and strong harmonies. At the time I was listening to Steve Hillage, the guitarist from Gong who recorded a solo album in 1974 called Fish Rising, which was all multi-tracks and psychedelic guitars. It was totally of the wall, something you take lots of drugs to. This song was a perfect opportunity to bring in the delay lines and do lots of multi-tracking...it was very unpunk !" It should be noted that in September 2001 there was an explosion of the AZF chemical plant in Toulouse, devastating the plant and the surrounding area, and causing significant human damage (31 dead, several thousand injured ) and materials.

This song's a good'un and surprising choice for a reaction (that thing you do). I always really dug it and I bought this album when it first came out. The sophisticated chord changes put the lie to their careless label by many as a Punk band. Their musicality did not fit that mold. If you're liking this style and period I hope you'll react to the band Magazine's album 'Real Life' which displays the Stranglers' similar combination of Punk rawness and Art Rock. Thanks for this unexpected treat of a reaction.

Do More of them This albums amazing great debut album, Peaches, Hanging around, Get A Grip, London Lady and the masterpiece Down In The Sewer. The First 6 stranglers albums are brilliant.

The album Black and white is a masterpeice it should be your full album by them range of different genres

When the song was written there was a proposal to build a nuclear power plant near the city. Nostradamus had predicted the destruction of the city and the band connected the Nostradamus prediction with the new nuclear power plant as the beginning of the end for the city.the nuclear plant was built in the late 70s,

One of my favorites from the late 70's.

I thought you would like the bass on that one! And why did Nostradamus not face the Church Inquisitors? I mean, he had nothing Toulouse.

The Raven has a nice eclectic mix of tracks, it's a great album, but then I like them all !!. They can be cheeky, controversial and humorous, but they also have a social conscience. Love this band.

It's like a coffee of black coffee in bed to start off my day.

Hi JP. Dave from a chilly London. Wish it was Hotter Than July, but it's not. Decent album track from the band and I agree that Dave's organ adds an extra dimension to their punk sound. I saw them live at London's Roundhouse on their No More Heroes tour. Great show but my friends and I were glad to be in the balcony, as the main arena was filled with punks pogo-ing and gobbing (spitting).

Awesome, kind of apocalyptic track about Nostradamus and the nuclear threat. Cornwell loves to play with words: he sings "Toulouse" as "to lose". And there is that vocal harmony trick The Stranglers will use on several albums: "good-bye Tou-lous", " se-cond co-ming", "tan-go inPa-ris" and ofcourse "ne-ver a-frown". Check it out.

The lyrics were inspired by Nostradamus' prediction that Toulouse would be destroyed by a huge catastrophe. The Stranglers imagined that it would be a nuclear accident of some sort, hence the explosion at the very end of the song.

Probably my favourite track on the album. Love the bit where the time signature shifts. That definitely aint punk!

I never heard that song before. Although I live near Toulouse :-D

Goodbye my city,my jewel so cruel. A chance remark, made on a lark, left the heart of my home so dark. Goodbye fair city,my home, my heart, never Toulouse. Peace.

Awesome album and track, JJ Burnels excellent dirty sounding bass lines with Hugh Cornwalls epic fender telecaster jangle 👌

Justin i had a feeling today that you were gonna make another Stranglers video and i thought you would probably carry on doing their first album, and yeah youve delivered it!! :) The Stranglers werent just a punk band they actually made music which was intresting, proggy, Poppy, alot of different styles, One of the greatest bands ever, RIP Dave Greenfield

I did enjoy it, nice to hear it again.

yes - yes - yes

Magic!

I had forgotten how good this song is

true masterpiece

Setting this song speed at 0.75, From 1:10 to 1::20, is almost equal than Genesis "In the Beginning" from 0:20 to 0:35, that´s what came to my mind in the first listen.

Singer/guitarist is Hugh Cornwell (not Cornell)

I know what you mean about the 80's style voice. There were a quite a few 'foghorn' singers that appeared around then (think Spandau, Heaven 17, Joy Division, Human League to name just four).

Do not stop before you cover Stranglers Down in the Sewer from Rattus album. I think you are very well suited to appreciate this classic

For more Stranglers, check out "Waiting For the Men in Black", or my favorite Stranglers song of all time, "Golden Brown" for something very different.

Didn't know this one, very cool song :-)

excellent JP.....RIP the late great Dave Greenslade

"...And John Jacques Burnel on The Bloody Bass!"

Just a thought... Go back an d read the lyrics as though they were from the point of view of Nostrodamus becoming a fugitive from Toulouse... I think they make sense then.. Keep on rocking.

Not bad. As Monty Python said, “No Time Toulouse.”

I saw the Stranglers at the Camden Roundhouse in London in 1977. Great show but my wife couldn't make out why everybody was gobbing(spitting)😄 I never saw them as a nailed down punk band.

And now you hear JJ

It doesn’t get any better than this…the stranglers are amazing

Ugly is the second best song on the album after Sometimes ...well maybe Hanging Around ...or Down In the Sewer ..or or.

There were so many great debut albums in 1977. The Stranglers put out 2 great albums in 1977

Inspired by a Nostradamus prophecy of the destruction of Toulouse.

Dave Greenfield was a genius☹

A lot of their sound was not just the excellent musicianship. Martin Rushent's production served them well.

Next stop Magazine - Permafrost maybe. For max points also consider another band - the Fall.

A decent track, very rocky. Great bass driving it along, good keys, as ever, and ok guitar. Not their best but still pretty good. That bass though, funny, i always feel like i need to take a shower after listening to The Stranglers... Apropos JJB, met him once when he was touring his own solo album. Seemed a nice chap. PS. Nostradamus basically said Toulouse was going to be beset by a cataclysmic event, destroyed.

Yes Cadan Richards's right! Listen "Down in the sewer" man, no words to explain what a masterpiece of art is ...

Peaches next! : )

Try 'Tomorrow Was The Hereafter'

Gonna take this opportunity to make some more requests again, just cause I love bothering you, hah hah 😃 U.K.: anything from their album 'Danger Money' Jon and Vangelis: anything from their album 'Short Stories' Vangelis: anything from his album 'Albedo 0.39' or 'Spiral' or 'China' or... Dixie Dregs: anything by them, but I like 'Kat Food', but if you'd like to hear a short classical piece, try 'Go for Baroque' 'Tumeni Notes' by Steve Morse, who was the guitar player for Dixie Dregs Now I'm using my Jedi Mind Powers on you, Justin, so you don't have a choice. I didn't wanna do it, but you gave me no other option 🧙‍♂️🙂

- "A punk band that actually made music which was interesting" - "When I think of punk, I think of 3 chords and not a lot of talent" Comments like these only increase my desire for JP to review more punk bands like Dead Kennedys, Fugazi, Husker Du & Bad Brains. Insert "Not every song needs XX chords or XX amount of talent to be good" rant here

Try something totally different from the Stranglers, like Don't Bring Harry or The Men In Black.

Plz could u react to more stranglers The raven is a song u should check out by the stranglers

Come away from Toulouse disappointed! JP, you are insulting a proud city with its own anthem: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-M7q3XtmF-tQ.html Thank you for this discovery, I never knew there was a song in English about my hometown (and we’re still standing).

Thing about this album is, despite every effort by the Stranglers to make it sound as ugly as possible - from the instrumentation to the lyrics - it still ends up a thing of beauty.

One of the few JJ songs sung by Hugh. Bassline too fast for JJ to play and sing at the same time.

The track is about nostadamus the stranglers were never punk to technical

the band missed a trick by not releasing this as a single

When I hear "punk" I think 3 chords and not alot of talent. These guys were seriously mislabeled much like Television in the US. Both bands were incredible and the musicians were proficient. Good choice on this pick my friend.

Good song, though not spectacular. A bit of 60's, some proggy changes... By the time the Stranglers released this first album embracing Punk, they had already developed their musicianship, which gave them an edge over most of their peers.

Again I would never class Goodbye Toulouse as a punk song, far too much complexity and structure really and the lyrics really nothing to do with any sense of youth alienation and dissatisfaction which was kind of at the heart of UK punk.

Love Stranglers and their great vareity of topsongs, but this is a bland smudge says nothing.. sry for that.

Such dirty bass....

You're reviewing early Stranglers, please don't move onto the later stuff (without Hugh Cornwell, even the last albums). They are bad … It's why Hugh left. Don't even think about watching the later stuff (or listening to it). They are just a tribute band now and to be honest, very depressing to watch if you'd seen them in their heyday.

So far this band doesn’t pop my noodle. Here’s where I get many songs thrown at me, I hear them and feel the same. So please don’t. There are so many other bands in this time period that are being ignored, and we keep plugging away at this. Whatever, it’s your channel, I don’t get it.