I’m only one day into my hometown musical excursion, and I’m already compelled to make a slight detour because of this fucking virus again. And as I do so, please don’t think for a second that I am in any way oblivious to the thousands of other beautiful lives that have been lost due to the coronavirus or seek to minimize them by harping about another victim who also happened to be a musician I enjoyed. As the death count rises, I’m certain everybody will endure loss; some deep and personal — some less devastating, but nonetheless meaningful for a variety of reasons.
The Stranglers were one of my favorite British punk bands. While the band’s music, apropos of their name, often had a brutal and dangerous edge, it could also be shimmering and haunting in ways that most punk rock was not. The Stranglers were older than many of their punk rock contemporaries, and managed to sound like accomplished musicians on their very first album. There was no developmental period to wade through while you waited for their DIY enthusiasm to catch up with their musical proficiency. Oh yeah, and the band looked more bad-ass and sinister than most punks could dream of conveying no matter how many safety pins they pierced themselves with. In fact, they looked downright criminal; like four guys who had just escaped from prison—the difference, of course, was their evil deeds were enacted on musical instruments and came in the form of aural assaults and nothing more. I thought The Stranglers sounded like a punky version of The Doors; conceived ten years later across the pond in a maelstrom of musical anarchy and attitude. My reason for The Doors comparison is mainly because The Stranglers deft incorporation of keyboards in their music; an instrument generally disdained by most punk bands until later in their careers (if at all). In many ways punk has always been regarded as a fierce reaction to bands who demonstrated competence of any kind—especially on keyboards Mr. Wakeman, Mr. Emerson and Mr. Wright! However, The Stranglers’ keyboard player—Dave Greenfield—embraced his keyboard virtuosity and progressive roots and made it an integral part of The Stranglers sound—much the same way, I think, Ray Manzarek’s keyboards helped define The Doors.
Dave Greenfield joined the Stranglers in 1975, within a year of the band’s formation, and played with them for 45 years until his death last Sunday from COVID-19. He was 71. I think lead singer Hugh Cornwell summed things up best when he responded to the news by tweeting: “He was the difference between The Stranglers and every other punk band. His musical skill and gentle nature gave an interesting twist to the band.” Alex Petridis’ article in the Guardian is a terrific tribute to Greenfield that I won’t even attempt to paraphrase or plagiarize—just point you in its direction in case you’d like to read more about “the beauty at the rotten heart of the Stranglers.” (https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/may/05/dave-greenfield-putting-beauty-at-the-rotten-heart-of-the-stranglers#comments) Of course if you’ve done enough reading for now and would just like to hear some music, the Happy Medium Song of the Day can accommodate that too with the double-parenthetically titled song “(Get A) Grip (On Yourself)” from The Stranglers first album, Rattus Norvigicus.
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(Please use the comments box below to share your thoughts.)
Dave Greenfield
1949 ~ 2020
RIP
1949 ~ 2020
RIP