the guys from The Stranglers
There are some bands of whom I only have one of their albums but that one album is such a heavyweight that it has sustained me for decades and the Stranglers are one of those bands and
No more heroes is that album. I absolutely love it and have done for 40 years. There is not one poor or even average song on it and it is packed to the gills with great songs, great music, great lyrics, great humour, great observations, great darkness and great playing. Everything about the Stranglers was punk except their music ! And lyrically on that album they went way further than any punk band I'm aware of. Racism {I feel like a wog}, Suicide {Dagenham Dave}, incest/paedophilia/anti-feminism {Bring on the nubiles, English towns}, bad acid trips {Peasant in the big shitty} etc, etc, you name it, they touched on it. I also really dig "Peaches" and even "Golden Brown."
It's funny people think Sid was on Never Mind, but it was Glen Matlock?
Matlock wrote most of the music but he didn't actually play on the album, guitarist Steve Jones played the bass parts. Sid did play on "Bodies" but so did Jones and Sid's part was buried low in the mix because he was shit.
It's said they'd turn Sid off in the US
I'd've been turning him off long before they got to the States !!
I used to play with an outfit that had a singer that just could not sing. We were playing at a friend's wedding in 2002 and beforehand, I said to the sound guy please, just turn her mic off. There were 3 of us that could sing {we did loads of recording together actually} so it didn't matter as we could more than cover this one woman that had the voice of a skunk's left foot little claw. Fortunately, once the sound guy heard her sing, he complied !
It's written Mick had to show Paul the bass parts
This is true but only initially and Paul learned quickly, was able to build on what he learned and went on to be quite an influential bass player in punk circles.
Mick Jones is in my top 4 guitarists of all time
A playground I once worked at had a benefit gig back in '91 in which Big Audio Dynamite played and Mick Jones {who is the cousin of a guy that was the producer of a close friend of mine, who knew Mick which is how BAD came to play at our benefit} was really obnoxious on the night, trying to play the cool star while I was on the gate. I never liked the Clash anyway and I was seriously tempted to tell him so....but being a gent I remained the model of raging, blazing cool, almost the ultimate paradox !
My favorites off the first album is Marlene on the Wall and The Queen and the Soldier
Add "Cracking", "Neighbourhood girls" and "Small blue thing" and they're my favourite 5 on the album. "Marlene on the wall" actually inspired a song I wrote about my younger son when he was a baby called "Baby talk."
I played those two back to back and don't see an inch of resemblance
That's the thing with Zeppelin, some of the songs they plundered don't sound a bit like the songs they are supposed to have been plundered from although in some instances many of the lyrics are the same. By the same token some of the songs they didn't credit or part credited are straight lifts that they should never have received credits for. "Boogie with Stu" and "Dazed and confused" being great examples. They aren't even witty steals, they are outright thievery !
My two faves off PG are In The Light and Ten Years Gone (my #1 Zeppelin song)
Both are great tracks. "Graffiti" has some of their greatest {in my opinion} and most underrated pieces like
Black country woman, The Rover,
In my time of dying, Houses of the holy,
Night flight, Bron Yr Aur,
The Wanton song and Sick again.