#18- The Stranglers - Peaches
#3 Out of 13 - Punk
This is hardly Bob Dylan, but Peaches is one of the odder songs to pop up during Punk. For one thing all the guys were over 30 and the drummer, the recently deceased Jet Black was almost 40. The guys were not in with their peers, but their attitude was brutal. Misogynistic, rough and their music was guttural. They courted trouble and the bass playing of Jean Jacques Burnel was like a man wielding a weapon. People didnt **** with them. Unfortunately their gigs were total sausage fests and songs like Peaches, Bring on the Nubiles and Bitching, to name a few, are not only women repellants, they are frankly disgusting. But they were authentic. As bad as that was. Peaches was a big hit single, with no film clip that is on youtube anway. Whats it going to be? 4 perverts looking at womens breasts on the beach? Despite all this its a great song. The debut album Rattus Norvegicusnand follow up No More Heroes, both released in 1977, are classics of the punk genre. Each song tells a story, is well written and catchy as hell.
Burnel was actually 25 at that time, only a few months older than fellow scene glommer/pub rocker Joe Strummer ... the Brit bands certainly skewed younger for the most part, yes - but, hell - Johnny and Tommy Ramone were pushing 30 by this time, they actually played their first gigs in summer of '74, even getting a proper run at CBs.
i kinda got over all that stalinist bullchit, tho it were a deterrent to the Stranglers being fully "accepted" - but they did just fine, regardless - "Peaches" damn near hit #1 in England, it just couldn't leap over a certain banned Pistols tune (dunno if you featured it yet).
much like the Damned, they matured out the clubs and gobbing, and made some remarkably memorable magic in the 80s ... "Golden Brown" and "Always The Sun" are such incredibly gorgeous songs - the boys done good.
great selection here - so "anti-punk" that it was punk as f***