Stranglers, The - The Raven Lyrics

"When I was a Viking" ... no sorry, when I was a Strangler fan around the late 70's - early 80's, I subscribed to "Strangled," an official Stranglers periodical Magazine whose fan's voted "The Raven" their favourite Strangler song up until then!

"Walk On By" will always be my favourite Strangler's cover version of a Dionne Warwick classic!

Ooooh well
But music is Good !
Punk are not died
😎🎧🎧

El mejor RIP para mi ...los mejores y preferidos por siempre...gracias desde Argentina.

Love that this was posted 2008. Viking youtube post

The raven way a album brill

Great Stuff.

another great song from a great band

What a times....( stranglers of course)... 😂😎

j adore cette chanson ma preferee des stranglers i like this song the stranglers great musiciens!!! hi from paris its saturday nighttttttttt

Can something be too good?

Stranglers have composed about 100 songs that could be the greatest song of all time. The Beatles did about 10 and queen about 20 so that makes the stranglers only 5 times better than everyone else put together.

I still remember the first time I heard this song. The album had just been released in the US. Still a fan, always a fan, until I die.

Well it's time for ball practice after that one.

Just a awesome band and this song nothing short of BRILLIANT

how does dave greenfield get that synth sound?

Got this album in 79 and still play it in 2018 the combination of bass and keyboards on this album excel

Rattus announced the stranglers with attitude, The Raven was delivered with craft.

Can't believe how good this still sounds! Marc loved the Stranglers, I loved the Jam! Still brilliant. Both! X

Thump Thump Thump....JJ Burnel pure brilliance. Love this song.

they have been left instructions to plot me to this best band ever

Les VIKINGS et le fameux FORT LA LATTE!!!

My friend he was the raven..

Favourite Stranglers song even though Cornwell isnt the lead singer.

When I was about nineteen I lived in next to the river Humber, and on misty Wintry nights I used to put this track on my newly bought Walkman and wander the empty midnight streets , ending up on the riverbank of the Estuary. Gazing up at the night sky, and down onto the shadowy water, I tried to imagine the Viking soul flying on the wings of ancient time in form of a Raven, or I saw in my mind's eye the longboats pulling tenaciously across the North Sea all those centuries ago, up the silent River to their Norse conquests. Yes.. It was like that, being nineteen and a Stranglers fan up North in the early 80s. There wasn't much else to do on a numb Winter Wednesday evening.

Great comment. Yes music (or quality music) can take you somewhere else. The Stranglers, as we know, are the best at that.

Lytton333 night

Love it

@mark woodall 7th biggest city in England but possibly biggest shit hole!

I had a leather jerker with the stranglers raven

I HAVE THE VIKING SPIRIT,......SCOTTISH BLOOD....CUT ME IN HALF LIKE BLACKPOOL ROCK , YOU WILL SEE THE STRANGLERS WRITTEN IN MY SOUL...

what film is this in the video?

Great video to go with the greatest of many great Stranglers' songs. Check out that counterpoint!

I know about the hard time journals gave them, the incident at gilford university, the fact MANY bands were afraid of them not just in the punk scene but mainstream too (will always remember the Raven debut) a who gig i think where they tried to cut their power off or something?, anyways theres the whole taken a journalist up the eiffel tower and tying him up lol but all that and much more i'm missing out i still can't believe thats the reason why the uk or the world of music haven't gave the Stranglers the recognition they deserve. I mean you tell me any other band who have sold millions of records and have toured the frigging world every single year, its insane. Wtf world, you people are wankers. I bet many artists could try and tour every year but to do so and get good reviews every year i don't know. Plus JJ has a bigger net worth than Axl Rose, the Stranglers are hard workers with a huge catalogue.

Most excellent. Death and nights and blood. My friend he was the raven.

When Sweden was good

It's just the greatest thing every put to record. Simple as that.

Good video, well done and thanks. They should have used this song for the HBO series too.

Awesome mate

This song pretty much summarises new wave/punk era. And that bass!!!!!!...

gracias murdoc :}

Hugh's guitar work on this track (and the rest of this album while we're at it) manages to be both baroque and understated at the same time. Talk about underrated.

FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!!

Best rock band ever. Here they morph from punky 60's influences to the dark new wave before the followers. Come visit my eternal fortress in Angband whenever your in town.

jj's bass rules!

go go go kids

Bass that bites ...

FANTASTIC.Punk meets prog rock in a wonderful piece of music, topped with an intense vocal. Dave's keys in this are amazing.

As they indeed always are,but particularly so here.

Excellent way to describe the Stranglers! They are absolutely top shelf music no mater what categories

Marvellous tune from a terrific album.

the bass!!!!!!!!

It wouldn't be the same without that particular bass sound.

JJ Burrell Best bassist I know of

In my top 5 songs ever... Enough said.

Same here! I remember the first time I heard it 36 years ago.

Old farts remembering and I am one of them. Great memories from this song and abum. Bass guitar is always bad ass in Strangler's songs.

Clay C. im having this as the song of when my coffin goes underground

I really wish they still made bands like this.

The Viking conversion to Christianity was their down fall.

+TheGoverning BodyBag Thee Time , as thee Wyrd says , IS changing , anew , pal !!!

+TheGoverning BodyBag Everyone's conversion to Christianity was their downfall.

@mind//matter Then , LetZ  March on , Proud ,   beneath  thee  Raven's  wings  Shadow !

Surely their downfall was meeting the Saxon army at Stamford Bridge in 1066????

cant go about raping and piligeiing nowadays oh wait a minute mmmmmm

Went to see them again in March 2015 in Oxford and they opened with Longships and The Raven (ah 17 again)

This lot and THE CLASH were awesome live [ I was a young UK punk , 15 -78 ]  This album and BLACK N WHITE still rank as the best albums alongside GIVE EM NOUGH ROPE ETC of the punk era ......When I was a Viking.....My friend he was the RAVEN !!!!!!!!!!!!

i get where your coming from but these guys blow the clash to fuck out the water

Pour mon humble part, le Raven , c'est , toujours , mon ami, étant,encore, entre maintes entités , le Viking !

To jeden z tych numerów tego bandu przy których mam ciary. To jeden z tych numerów po wysłuchaniu którego wiem dlaczego słucham tej kapeli od 30 lat.

Still sounds fresh as fresh milk......

Brilliant. And the bass player, is the singer. Cornwell doesn't sing  till the 3rd track. Listen to JJ's stated, buttoned down bass.

Is Hugh playing the normal guitar part?

Superb stuff.

burnermusic like a boss

The guitar steals the show on this song.

No, the bass does.

It may have escaped your attention but when JJ sings on most of the songs
he sings, it leaves Hugh free to focus on the guitar and this is where the best
guitar playing is found . eg Princess of the Street. JJ must be one of the best
bassists in the world in my opinion but I stand by my comment.

Dave singing?

JJ Burnel

we'll never realise until...we're men in black

Je connais les Stranglers depuis un concert au Bataclan à Paris en 1977. Ce morceau fait vibrer ma cordre celte.

Over 30 year ago I painted the album cover on the petrol tank of my motorbike and called it the raven. Honda CB650

+Steve Lambert   Yeah same here M8 !! [ BLACK , GS750 ]  and on the back of me Leather jacket in me punk daze , One of the best albums .

+ZERO XX77 Ian sez back in the day some leathers were just pure feckin art. No bollox. My bud had the discharge dove on his

ALWAYS WANTED A YAM WITH THAT

Oh dear

Steve Lambert great sentiment, but shit bike. I was there 😉

Gosh I love the Stranglers up to Black and White, and the Raven.

I love the bass - it sort of goes thunk, thunk-a-thunk-a-thunk, and it's great the way the keyboards and guitars mesh together. The band sounds totally different with Burnel on vocals, like a garage pop band.

I thunk n' thunk..... I think

My culture,my heritage,my pride.

Same here, from hell's heart I stab at thee

Yeah ! great band

 when I was about 15, I  stencilled the raven and decided to put it on my bedroom wall with red gloss paint, up the wall and across the ceiling and down the opposite wall,it looked the bollocks!,I wonder if its still there? coliston rd, southfields,sw18,a work of art from a true fan when they were still together.

Cool - I spray painted The Jam logo on my bedroom door when I was 14.  I stayed there until I left at 21 and then mum and dad re-decorated and changed the locks!

The pain you must have caused them!

"When I was a Viking my friend he was the raven." I remember listening to this in...1979...maybe?

i am white. sometimes i behave just like a child. 

Could be their best (maybe just my bias Viking ancestry) so many works of genius to choose from. No band can revitalise like the Stranglers

KILLING JOKE

Could be their best (maybe just my bias Viking ancestry) so many works of genius to choose from. No band can revitalise like the Stranglers

Post the Raven nevermore? This bird likes Poe and people that like POE.

brilliant

It's allways the sun with The Stranglers (The Stranglers with Hugh Cornwell , I mean...).

Your Kinga Elska is phonetic spelled Swedish for Yes, Jesus Loves me. The long boats reminded me of my Grandma Olga who spoke and sang in fluent Swedish. Svenska

The Stranglers rocked the roof off the Fast Lane in Asbury Park, NJ in 1980!

great track, but holy-wood flick WTF?

FUCKEN RIGHT !!!! BROTHER

Great !!

Stranglers twice in Vancouver, Canada Yeah!
Long live them all.
Diamond Dogs

Oh indeed, yes - mind you, I was just provoking the wussiness inside every spoilt, soppy , upper middle class, brit kid who often complain and whine about my straightforwardness in comments, here, every time I see something that's really up my street (both musically and chronologically, if you know what I mean). So, yes, it was a great time, but now I'm so aware that this is such a time waste in wankerland that'll do you a favour and shut my mouth for good. Good riddance!

I see your english has improve! ;)

Aren't you always?

You were drunk?

don't ruin a good jam with your x-box brainwashed brains...

when i was a viking, my friend he was the raven

Great song ! Shit film !

keith farmer
what film is it? i was in awe of the landscape. the theatrics not so much

I bet no one else can say Murdoch Nichols sent you here...

Great job !

One of my favourite tracks ever!!

Jean I salute you.

o ya its like that media-mag critics

indeed i always listen without anyone's imagery

European band dream

When was a viking, my friend he was the raven. Fucking classic album of all time.

I've never thought of it that way your quite right, JJ did do a number of old songs, '5 minutes', 'London lady 'etc, but maybe never felt confident enough.

So true, so true.

Sinfully under apreciated band. They are the best

an absolute brilliant song from one of the greatest bands ever..pity the video is shit..