Stranglers cover - Baroque Bordello

[Bubba]

Hi lads and lasses;

this isn't a typical Stranglers song, you might not even recognise it as such. Anyway, I played and sang all the parts and programmed the drums, which are by Steven Slate. It's an album track from the Raven, possibly my favourite album of theirs and I think it represents the peak of their ability in later years to weave four completely different and original musical parts into a satisfying whole.

Any comments and/or questions welcome.

[Armistice]

Bubba = the Liberace of TRR.

Sounds good. Glad you managed to do something with the vocals at the end... I wasn't looking forward to trying that.

I like your version better than the original, which I find a little "harsh" to listen to. I didn't like the song so much, as done by The Stranglers, but your version is great and I can listen to it.

[Lt. Bob]

dude ..... that sounds good to me ....... I'm not familiar with the Stranglers so no comparison ........ but this is cool!

[rayc]

I dragged out the LP for a listen. Still a top piece of plastic.
I get what David means about the "harshness" of the original.
That is the benchmark and this measures well against it.
Def. fab result on the keys but the sparkling guitar is a winner for me.
The Slate work is good - sounds playable so you've matched the template of the original really well.
Good to hear your voice and playing again.

[Bubba]

Bubba = the Liberace of TRR.

Sounds good. Glad you managed to do something with the vocals at the end... I wasn't looking forward to trying that.

I like your version better than the original, which I find a little "harsh" to listen to. I didn't like the song so much, as done by The Stranglers, but your version is great and I can listen to it.

Thanks Armi. Weird, but I never thought of the Stranglers' version as being harsh-sounding. I suppose that everything does seem to have a harder edge compared to mine, particularly the vocal. I did my best with the eq on that but I couldn't reproduce that gritty texture even with a hard-mid push and some drive on the Soundtoys Sie-Q EQ plugin.

[Bubba]

dude ..... that sounds good to me ....... I'm not familiar with the Stranglers so no comparison ........ but this is cool!

Many thanks Lt. They were my obsession band back in the 70s and 80s.

[Bubba]

I dragged out the LP for a listen. Still a top piece of plastic.
I get what David means about the "harshness" of the original.
That is the benchmark and this measures well against it.
Def. fab result on the keys but the sparkling guitar is a winner for me.
The Slate work is good - sounds playable so you've matched the template of the original really well.
Good to hear your voice and playing again.

Thanks, Ray. The Raven''s production is somewhat brittle, listening objectively. I think much of that lies in the drum sound. I've gone with Slate's standard EQ on the kit which is noticably warmer, particularly on the kick drum. I found it sat so well with the bass that I decided not to interfere with the eq at all. Also, the vocal sound- which I alluded to earlier- is rather harsh and with my best efforts, I couldn't reproduce it. Probably Cornwell's voice has naturally a lot more grit than mine, too.

I suspect that, although Jet will have written the drum parts and rehearsed them with the band, he may actually have programmed them in the studio. Finding out that he sometimes preferred to program for the recording process on later albums was both a shock and a disappointment to me. I'm positive that the first three albums were played, though. Listening to live versions of songs such as Genetix and Duchess, it's clear that a superior drum program (Linn?) was used and that he programmed exactly what he played.


Many thanks again, for listening and commenting.

[JD01]

but the sparkling guitar is a winner for me.

This made me laugh... I txt Bubba earlier and said that the chimey right guitar was a bit piercing and that he could do with taming the highs... followed by a comment that his elderly ears might not be able to hear that bit!

EDIT: Listening to this again now from the SC link above, but on nice headphones in the office and I don't hear the same piercing high on the right hand side, probably just something to do with the shite stereo in my car. What I am hearing now though is that the kick appears way too loud. Don't think I'll get a chance to listen to it on monitors until Friday.

[rayc]

but the sparkling guitar is a winner for me.

This made me laugh... I txt Bubba earlier and said that the chimey right guitar was a bit piercing and that he could do with taming the highs... followed by a comment that his elderly ears might not be able to hear that bit!

My ears are even older... but it was in my right ear which is the better of the two.

[vomitHatSteve]

That bright, right guitar is sticking out a little to me. I think mostly it's fine in the mix, but I could picture it getting unpleasant depending on listener's system.

This is a busy arrangement! But it's holding together well. I also don't know the original (I'll give it a spin after I post), but if it's more or less the same arrangement, replicating that is a pretty impressive feat!

The biggest thing I'd recommend looking into in this mix is some of those low vocals. The "bordello"s at the end of phrases are especially getting buried.

I like the kick and bass tone with each other.

The choral bits are nice. Is that just one vocal and a reverb? Or am I hearing a pitched chorus or something too?

edit: after listening to the original

I see what folks are saying about a harshness to it. There's a real crispness to the EQ. Bubba's has better low-end I think. I think the original has better panning tho. The organ and lead guitar are a lot less far apart.

[Bubba]

That bright, right guitar is sticking out a little to me. I think mostly it's fine in the mix, but I could picture it getting unpleasant depending on listener's system.

I'll look into that.

This is a busy arrangement! But it's holding together well. I also don't know the original (I'll give it a spin after I post), but if it's more or less the same arrangement, replicating that is a pretty impressive feat!

The biggest thing I'd recommend looking into in this mix is some of those low vocals. The "bordello"s at the end of phrases are especially getting buried.

You're absolutely right, Steve. My voice is a bit rusty and it's lost some of its resonance and range in the low end. I'm going to practise a lot and re-record.

I like the kick and bass tone with each other.

Yes, so do I!

The choral bits are nice. Is that just one vocal and a reverb? Or am I hearing a pitched chorus or something too?

The choral parts are three voices together. Instead of trying not to use a vibrato in my voice, I tried to accentuate it and the result is that there's a much greater thickening effect.

edit: after listening to the original

I see what folks are saying about a harshness to it. There's a real crispness to the EQ. Bubba's has better low-end I think. I think the original has better panning tho. The organ and lead guitar are a lot less far apart.

Yes, you're probably right about the panning. It would probably lessen the pokey-outness of the guitar to bring them in a bit.

Thanks for the critical listen and suggestions, Steve - much appreciated.

[Lt. Bob]

dude ..... that sounds good to me ....... I'm not familiar with the Stranglers so no comparison ........ but this is cool!

Many thanks Lt. They were my obsession band back in the 70s and 80s.

then I'll check 'em out ..... anyone's obsession band is always worth a listen

[Alison]

That was really cool! I'm not familiar with the Stranglers and will definitely look up the original just to have something to compare this to. Sounds like a pretty complicated song! I think you did an awesome job!

[TripleM]

Hey Bubba.

I'm not familiar with that band, so I don't have anything to compare to.

But I liked the way you faded in the low end at the beginning. That was cool.

The vocal might be a little low in the mix.

The kick and bass might be a bit loud. And maybe a little low end heavy. The guitar on the right has a little too much bite to it in the high-mids.

But those are small things. Mostly everything sounds real good.

[Armistice]

I always assumed that The Stranglers were bigger - huge in the UK and of course everyone here at least knows Golden Brown and probably a few others.

Not so big in the US, obviously.

I was telling Bubba when he was putting this together that The Jongleurs, in the early days did about 6 covers, to get the set numbers up. Nothing anyone had ever heard of, except Golden Brown - on acoustic guitars. I was the harpsichord.

[Bubba]

I always assumed that The Stranglers were bigger - huge in the UK and of course everyone here at least knows Golden Brown and probably a few others.

Not so big in the US, obviously.

I was telling Bubba when he was putting this together that The Jongleurs, in the early days did about 6 covers, to get the set numbers up. Nothing anyone had ever heard of, except Golden Brown - on acoustic guitars. I was the harpsichord.

Funny, I once worked out a fingerstyle version of Golden Brown, to be played on the acoustic. I don't think it was in the same key as original, probably because the original was speeded up, slightly. It was a thing, back then. I never practised it enough to get good at it, though.

[rayc]

All my friends had the 1st two albums back in the day but then again they also had the Radio Birdman, Saints & Television debut albums too. Elvis Costello was the fault line amongst us.

[musicturtle]

Nicely done @Bubba

There seems to be a bit of sibilance on the words "see" that start off the line in the first verse. Or maybe it's just my ears.

Good sounds, I like the panning vocal cry later in the song.

[TheTestingYak]

good choon brav