Dijon

[Greatkudu]

I'm so sorry to admit I have a summer in the city t shirt that I bought at the Albert Hall gig in 1997,it was demoted to my exercise T shirt long ago, they actually played the said song at the Albert Hall finale, luckily I left before then, but got to see it on the DVD, I think the Albert Hall version is even worse with some added John Ellis Egyptian style dancing, all there previous covers were really good, the highlight of course walk on bye. Lt Kudu.

[jason]

The original Summer in the city is a pretty good song but somehow the Stranglers managed to murder it! And why did they decide to play it live?!!!!

[theraven1979]

I think at the time it was announced they were gonna cover it in Strangled. So naturally you're kinda thinking "yeah if they do a straight cover it could sound interesting". But then they did this trippy version which really doesn't work. Probably the reason the cover of "Fire" is firmly shelved and will never see the light of day


Jim

Sent from my Pixel 4a using Tapatalk

[Jon the Impaler]

The original Summer in the city is a pretty good song but somehow the Stranglers managed to murder it! And why did they decide to play it live?!!!!

Maybe they should have renamed as UB40 just for that single .....the experts of murdering other peoples songs

[jason]

The original Summer in the city is a pretty good song but somehow the Stranglers managed to murder it! And why did they decide to play it live?!!!!

Maybe they should have renamed as UB40 just for that single .....the experts of murdering other peoples songs

Well they did tour with them once not too long ago!

[Greatkudu]

The original Summer in the city is a pretty good song but somehow the Stranglers managed to murder it! And why did they decide to play it live?!!!!

Maybe they should have renamed as UB40 just for that single .....the experts of murdering other peoples songs

Well they did tour with them once not too long ago!

Sir now that is below the belt, take 50 lines immediately and go to the back of the class, UB40 is the only gig I walked out on, it was Bournemouth 2003 or 2004 I think? Stranglers were supporting and were great, I managed 30 seconds of UB40 with the original lineup and they were truly shocking, the UB40 fans said is it that bad? I didn't answer and just evacuated ASAP. Lt Kudu.

[StanInBlack]

Yeah, it's not like "Summer in the City" in inherently a bad song - far from it, in fact. The original version by the Lovin' Spoonful is a classic slice of '60s pop. The version on Written in Red is Paul Roberts arrangement and I think by changing the arrangement of the song too much they ended up wrecking it. Some songs don't lend themselves so well to being radically rearranged.

[jason]

Yeah, it's not like "Summer in the City" in inherently a bad song - far from it, in fact. The original version by the Lovin' Spoonful is a classic slice of '60s pop. The version on Written in Red is Paul Roberts arrangement and I think by changing the arrangement of the song too much they ended up wrecking it. Some songs don't lend themselves so well to being radically rearranged.

Yes if they'd done it in the same style as the original it could have been a belter!

[toilerinblack]

Yeah, it's not like "Summer in the City" in inherently a bad song - far from it, in fact. The original version by the Lovin' Spoonful is a classic slice of '60s pop. The version on Written in Red is Paul Roberts arrangement and I think by changing the arrangement of the song too much they ended up wrecking it. Some songs don't lend themselves so well to being radically rearranged.

Yes if they'd done it in the same style as the original it could have been a belter!

Yep good point a version more like the original song could of worked well say like 96 years was and all day...yes it could of worked instead of a style that never worked at all for me.

[Bogenbroom]

I never really saw the point of 96 Tears and ADAAOTN, other than attempting to get some chart action. They don’t add a lot to the originals and could have been done just as well by any competent pub rock band. They’re quite good live, because they’re short and energetic, but that’s about it.

Summer in the City is a failure because the cover loses any sense of the original song, but at least album version has some interesting sounds and textures. I don’t mind the recording and it fits in fairly well with the rest of album.

The real disaster is when they try to play it live, can’t recapture the various production elements, and PR gives a pretty horrible vocal performance because the verses are pitched too low to sing loud and in tune so just end up as a tuneless growl (a bit like when he tries Thrown Away). I generally liked what Paul Roberts brought to the band, but that was a bit of a low point.

[droopsnoot]

I never really saw the point of 96 Tears and ADAAOTN, other than attempting to get some chart action.

I think that was basically the idea for both of them - one because the album it accompanied was a live one, so no other single options, and the other because they'd been a bit quiet. I recall Simon Bates really liking "96 tears" - I think it was him that played it on Radio 1, then said something about how much he liked it, then played it again.

[jason]

I never really saw the point of 96 Tears and ADAAOTN, other than attempting to get some chart action.

I think that was basically the idea for both of them - one because the album it accompanied was a live one, so no other single options, and the other because they'd been a bit quiet. I recall Simon Bates really liking "96 tears" - I think it was him that played it on Radio 1, then said something about how much he liked it, then played it again.

I think Someone like you might have done well as a follow up single to 96 Tears. Its got a similar kind of sound.