The Stranglers – The Raven

Back in the day I had a cassette version of this, but it cut off at the end. There may be elements of the last song I didn't ever hear. One of the interesting things with The Stranglers, especially compared with Elvis Costello And The Attractions: they both stood out as these bands from the sort of new wave/punk era who had incredible keyboardists, Steve Nieve and Dave Greenfield. For a lot of punk bands keyboards were probably considered a bit of a sellout or something, or too much to lug around.

The Stranglers were there just around the time I first got into playing in bands. Everybody in the village was really into The Stranglers. I could have chosen Black And White, but The Raven was the band really going off on one, really going off in a crazy direction. There are times when everybody is playing and it's almost like Captain Beefheart And The Magic Band. I know Hugh Cornwell was a big fan of that, and he's doing weird little patterns that are going around in different cycles; the drums are playing around in four and he's going around in three. This album was another mind expander, really. The production's great. 'Don't Bring Harry,' with the piano, and 'The Raven' itself, the title track. It's Dave Greenfield's siren sounds for me, which somehow conjure up the northeast coast of the UK heading up towards Scandinavia.