The Stranglers - Tramp

[vespasianlegx11]

what a great song one of there best

[smmeegal]

Great song!!

[snuju1]

He he. 1.28: 'Love is up to verdo vo'. So true.

[marcuslaughton]

@snuju1 yes, very profound!!!

[DJMatneyTIB]

re-massive spot on hugh's left cheek, stay away from heroin folks it mashes up your face evidently.

[rjinblack1970]

La Folie is an extremely underrated album.

[HOMEgrownALIENS]

the stranglers are god one of the all time grates they never let me down

john marshall hemet calif

[pmwaulsort]

I am a belgian tramp. I've lost everything and everyone. With my coins, i only wanted to hear this song again. Live means less than a song. I'm nothing like you are and it will always be terrible to live with this idea. Sorry for the grammatical faults. I do my best bur i'm not James Bond or maybe an old one.

[CombatRocks]

The Stranglers - sexist??? Whatever gave you that idea!! "The Stranglers love women and will continue to love women for as long as they can"

[MatraMark]

This should have been the follow up single to Golden Brown, no doubt about it.

[rjinblack1970]

@MatraMark Hugh wanted it to be the follow-up but JJ went for La Folie. then broke the others down in his favour. La Folie came out and flopped.

[RattusNorvegicus77]

@MatraMark Couldn't agree more!

[Noodles37UK]

@MatraMark Agreed. Get your point. Good poppy tunes there. Would have appealed to the TOTP audiences.

[polycera]

@MatraMark The story goes that it was supposed to be but Burnel convinced everyone, except Hugh, that La Folie would be the ideal follow up to Golden Brown.

[MatraMark]

@polycera Yep, not the first time these personality clashes between Hugh and JJ prompted commercial suicide.

[TheBleech]

The only thing live here is the vocal, the bass is fine, but thx for your input..

[ferrarottiano]

GOOD SONG, BUT you SHOULD AVOID THIS BASS

[robaralis]

fucking brilliant video! thank you for posting. Hugh is definitely feelin good here haha! awesome song, love it.

[johnanthonyp]

I met Hugh too. andyspet, when he played a small spot in Birmingham and he was on fire. He was an absolute gentleman as well. I think he's up there with Kate Bush in being a very unique talent. You wont find him even being on the peripheral middle class wish list.. Can we all keep a secret?

[TheBleech]

I loved that fact they always had some black item on...rubbed off on me

Black is the new noir :)

[MoveOverCasanova]

only the stranglers were so credible that they could always dress in black without being ridiculous

(except johnny cash, with whom they really should have done some songs together in his lifetime --- can you imagine that...?) ) !!

[TheBleech]

AT 1:28 Hugh loses the lyrics, what he really means is "doesn't matter in the snow"...

[TheBleech]

Hugh doesnt look very well here at all...mmm, wonder what that could have been?

[TheBleech]

Nice comment from Casanova...la folie was a very polished album, but as you say the RAVEN will take a stroke of genius to beat :)

[MoveOverCasanova]

the raven was always my favourite stranglers album, but more and more i find "la Folie" an absolute masterpiece, some of the strangest, best music i ever knew

[robaralis]

i feel the same way. Raven stands out as my fav but i feel la folie and also aural sculpture are both underrated masterpieces.

[andyspet]

i met hugh, he wont remember me, but we love him in anyway most underrated fella ever.

[kirkwallboy]

I was a Stranglers fan in 1977. My fave album is the Raven. Even when things started to unravel from then on, there was the odd nugget of gold among the debris.

[wehavejoy]

Hugh looks spaced out. Prior to this performance I think he must of had a meeting with 'H'arry.

[ForgetTheCow2]

Read the lines of coke on your face.

[Moneo]

Seriously, listening to this version makes me want to cry... Hugh looks really like he really wasnt doing fine then. I hope you know why... :(

[ramejkisp]

You can see the effects of smack on Hugh's appearance

[ramejkisp]

Love the bass

[Hofnerrazor]

This was from a show called "Friday Night, Saturday Morning" which was on BBC 2. I think this was broadcast in mid Feb 1982.

[ALTRENT900]

I remember Hugh using the Hofner on tour. Do you have one?

AL

USA

[Hofnerrazor]

I wish I did!! Hugh only ever had two made one was black and one was brown. He still has the the black one but gave the brown one to a roadie in the 1980's. Apparently they had a very large battery at the back and could reach very high notes that a normal electric guitar couldn't reach. Hugh christened it a "razorhead" it didn't actually have a name. He used it on the "La Folie" album but didn't use it on any album thereafter. He said using the guitar was just a "phase".

[ALTRENT900]

Cool. The last time I talked to Hugh was at his solo gig in Cincinnati in '99. He used the Tele and a Fender Twin that night.

AL

[Hofnerrazor]

'Tramp' was supposed to be the follow up single to 'Golden Brown' until JJ persuaded Jet & Dave that 'La Folie' was a better choice!! I believe 'Tramp' is autobiographical as Hugh thought he was like a tramp in his early years with The Stranglers.

[BlMBO]

Did you get that info from hughs book song by song? I cant find that book here in Aus dammit! :(

[ksmit]

Great book. I read it while I listened to each song.....that was a great experience........got mine on ebay.

[BlMBO]

Thats what i'd do too :)

I've been looking on ebay for ages, nothing here in Aus.

I didn't think the stranglers were that popular over in the U.S. ... ?

[ksmit]

I found it on ebay, just saved the search and got notifications when book was listed. I finally got lucky. Yes, the Stranglers weren't popular in the USA. Back then record co promotion and radio airplay were the only way to find out about new bands. I was lucky enough to find radio nigel on the internet which plays all kinds of great Brit stuff and got hooked on Golden Brown and Always the sun. From there it was true friggin' luv........

[Monton101]

Very interesting. What books did you read?

[Monton101]

So what's tramp about?

[resmeister]

The La Folie album is a concept album, the theme is love. Non Stop - love for God, Golden Brown - drugs, Pin Up - Porn, LMIYTTF - brotherhood in crime etc etc... Tramp is about a vagrant who has turned his back on society after losing the love of a woman. I only know this shit coz I read too many books :)

[Monton101]

Oooh I see. Thanks for telling me

[Monton101]

London Lady, Princess of the streets, and now this? Don't you see the pattern? lol

Don't forget Ugly too. =P

[resmeister]

London Lady is about Caroline Coon, who JJ had relations with. POTS was about a girl who dumped him (lmao) and Ugly - well, maybe the steroids were kicking in :) In the words of Hugh "I'm not sexist. I put women on a pedestal. It's easier to see up their skirts" :)

[Monton101]

Sexist song, but it's true about women

[SteveResin]

It's not sexist. The "Tramp" of the title is a vagrant. But hey, we all take different things from songs.

[TheBleech]

@Monton101 this is in no way a sexist song about women. It appears to be a known story about some guy lost in a world of emotion over love, and doesn't know how to deal with it. That's my opinion because i've been that guy.

Aside from from that, i'm an avid Stranglers fan and love this track. However nothing can touch the Raven... :D

[rjinblack1970]

@TheBleech According to Hugh, in Song By Song, it is autbiographical.

[ksmit]

@Monton101..... yes it is sexist, as a man i'm offended ; ). It's about a male. Listen to the lyrics.

[marcuslaughton]

@Monton101 you have not listened to the lyrics, it is literally about a tramp.

[TheBleech]

@marcuslaughton you are too shallow, it's got fuck all to do with being a vagabond.

[nojszeger]

@Monton101 no like that that sexist. is talented talentless. the polkorrekt thinking destroys the essence of the art

[bingoace]

This is a great song, havn't played the La Folie album for ages, must dig it out again!

[ajps28]

GREAT song...

[modsheff1]

should ave been a single!

[ksmit]

this is a cool performance to see, especially most of their live tv studio stuff is tracked. And imo one of the Stranglers BEST songs.

[Monton85]

Yeah, around that period HUgh did drugs..I think?

[Germanarchie]

The whole band did, I guess...but it was their best musical period.

[gerdenshed]

I love the Stranglers and saw them twice back in the 1970's, on the Raven tour and the Black and White tour. I don't know this song though, is it an album track? 5*

[SteveResin]

It's from the La Folie album.

[gerdenshed]

Of course, not my favourite Stranglers album but it did contain two of their finest, Strange Little Girl and Gorden Brown :)

[LUKEJAKE17]

ohhh nooo, first gerdenshed wrecks songs and calls them "tributes" then he says he doesnt like la folie? this guy never fails to disssapoint but then he brakes his record by saying golden brown is one of the stranglers finest....no wonder you didnt like la folie because thats the worst song on there.

[gerdenshed]

Are you bored or just a twat?

[LUKEJAKE17]

hahahahaha! me? bored? no...im just commenting

on something i wanted to express my opinion on. im actually enjoying telling people what they deserve to hear so im definitely not bored. but when your a man who films yourself looking like an out of business elton john tribute, singing great songs badly, you say IM bored? you must be bored to be so desperate for attention! and as for your last comment all i can say about that is jj burnel once said people who over react are insecure.

[almklit]

I agree when I first bought LaFolie after the disappointment of MIB I was knocked out by all the songs on side 1, then played the second side (it was vinyl back then) I actually skipped Golden Brown to True love and happiness which is a fav song and had no idea it was going to be huge.

[modsheff1]

yeah fuckin fine album ain nothin to it...sends shivers down the old spine!

[sofaguard]

the heroin for sure

[secondcurtain]

I love Hughs new lyrics when he forgets the words lol. Great Band