Though I've enjoyed punk my entire adult life, The Stranglers are new to me. In my youth, British accents weren't my thing, and the more snotty they got, the less interested I was. The Stranglers aren't snotty or really punk to my ears, but for context, all that early UK punk, and punk adjacent, is new to me. I've been particularly interested in their Black and White album and their Raven album. Their first two are more straight-forward rock.
Born contrary, The Stranglers had begun in 1974 as a prog-jazz-rock hybrid sweating blood on London’s notoriously hard-to-please pub-rock circuit. Burnel was a classically trained guitarist who’d read history at university, before Cornwell got him drunk and persuaded him to become the band’s bassist.
Black owned a fleet of ice-cream vans – one of which became the band’s makeshift tour bus – and was an accomplished jazz musician. Keyboard player Dave Greenfield was a moustachioed, Meerschaum pipesmoking piano tuner with hair down his back who dreamed of playing in Yes. Cornwell was a university graduate in biochemistry, whose first band included future Fairport Convention folk-rock star Richard Thompson.
https://www.loudersound.com/features/the-stranglers-no-more-heroes
I know nothing about Punk.
I grew up with Chuck Berry, Beach Boys, Beatles, Stones, Jefferson Airplane, CS&N, Zepplin, etc...
Though I did spend 10 days on a train traversing Scotland with the drummer from the Clash....Topper Headon.
My wife knew he was, but I had no idea.
We just enjoyed each other's company.
On the third day we were visiting Glamis Castle, family home of the Queen Mother (Elizabeth's mother).
We dropped into town.
He hadn't taken ten steps and the autographed seekers and selfie contingency surrounded us.
I was immediately elbowed to the outer perimeter.
At cocktails that evening I asked, "If you dont mind me asking. You know I'm an archaelogist. What do you do for a living besides sign autographs?"
His response, "I beat on things."
My wife laughed.
I replied, "Apparently, you do it pretty well."