The Stranglers'legacy WAS Re: Foreign Diplomat Killed in Mexico
Michel S.
Jafo wrote:
>
> On Fri, 06 Feb 1998 07:02:39 -0800, The Anti-Spencer, yet another in
> an endless series of assumed names for Michael Snider, aka Siggy
> Malatesta, wrote:
>
> >-=BajaRat=- wrote:
>
> >In May I will have better things to do than respond to said drivel.
> >Actually I probably will quite soon...but for sure this will not be the
> >case then.
>
> You've advanced your departure date from 1999?
>
> <snipped>
>
> >MS: Don't you remember the UK new wave rock band, the Stranglers ? I
> >remember quite well when their singer Hugh Cornwall was being
> >interviewed on KROQ right after Reagan was elected president, and he
> >managed to tear the interviewer to shit with his view on world affairs.
> >This really seemed impressive to my teenaged ass at the time.
>
> To this day, I've never heard either of the individual or the band,
> which may say something of their importance in the scheme of things.
MS: Never heard " Peaches " ? Or " Get a grip on yourself " ? " No more
heroes "? " Vietnamerica " ?
> And what *were* the sage views on world affairs by the head of a new
> wave band?
>
MS: Not too different from my own, although I doubt that those views
played much role in the development of my own. I just remember being
extremely impressed that a rocker could be that literate and together in
analysing things. I remember he mentioned something about the film " The
Killers ", Reagan's last and best film ( a ' 63 crime flick that starred
Lee Marvin and Angie Dickinson directed by Don " Dirty Harry " Siegel
)and his only villainous role. Cornwall said, " in 'The Killers' Reagan
played the head of the Mafia. Now he's the head of the ultimate Mafia. "
Certainly nothing that one could not find in lets say the New York
Review of Books or the Guardian - but how many teenaged rock fans read
those papers ? Turns out that he'd actually been a professor before
being a rocker. Very cynical, dark and more than a little misogynistic
and what many would call " anti-American ". It probably was not too
different from what I have said quite a few times. In any case, they
have held up quite well, in their mixture of new wave and punk with
older influences like Roxy Music and Hawkwind. Unlike many performers of
that genre they were highly accomplished musicians and obviously not
just some kids making noise. The closest comparison in terms of
California would be Fear although musically they could not be more
dissimilar - just in terms of older, accomplished musicians who were
obviously no dummies keeping up with the times. ( I remember an
interview with Fear when they were asked, why they were doing that kind
of music when they were obviously quite accomplished. They stated,
because all the greats were dying in obscurity like Mingus and Roland
Kirk. When told that Mingus was not exactly obscure, Lee Ving stated he
was compared to Donny Osmond. )
> ~ Jafo http://bounce.to/jafo