Heart of a Punk - Soul of a Rasta

Punky Reggae Part 2

April '77 The Clash's debut album is released and included on the self titled album is a cover of the reggae track "Police and Thieves" previously recorded by Junior Murvin. Later in '77 Bob Marley sanctifies the Reggae Punk union in his song "Punky Reggae Party" recorded during his legendary recording session with Lee Perry.
Punk and reggae were now bound together ideologically and more importantly musically. Between '77 &'79 many tried their hand at the new genre, here is another of our favourites:

Last up we had "Watching the Detectives", conceived & written by Elvis Costello after being inspired by The Clash's debut album, Peaches by The Stranglers was certainly not inspired by The Clash's first reggae foray since it predating The Clash's debut by quite some time in both the writing and the recording of the song. In "The Stranglers - Song by Song" by Hugh Cornwell and Jim Dury, Mr Cornwell tells us that the song came about whilst The Stranglers were being managed by the Safari Records black impresario Reg McLean. Hugh & JJ had visited Reg's black club on Peckham High Street and this had inspired the duo to turn their hand to reggae.

With its thunderous yet still tripping bass line, standard reggae beat and lecherous vocals, Peaches is both punkesque and reggaesque without really being Punk or Reggae - quite a trick to pull off in itself. The original Stranglers were always at their best when they were melding & welding at least two lyrical narratives or two musical styles together; I suppose that's one reason among many why they have endured.

I've heard Peaches played live by The Stranglers more times than I can remember, in fact the number of times must exceed the number of hairs that still cling doggedly to my head. But the one occasion that has stuck in my mind was back in '80 '81 at Birmingham Odeon. The Stranglers had played a full set, shuffled off then shuffled back on and done a two track encore with the final track being "Toiler on the Sea" after which each member of the band disappeared one by one leaving the crowd amid the swell of Dave Greenfield's undulating keyboards. The house lights came up and us punters happy enough with what we'd got for our KASH began to leave the debris of the nights work behind us. But bizarrely The Stranglers suddenly strode back into the fully lit auditorium and retook their places on stage. Burnel quickly tuned up his bass and launched into Peaches. Some punters had gone, somewhere between New Street and New Street Station presumably; some on hearing Peaches start up quickly returned, it was truly a strange experience; the stark white house lights remained full on throughout as we watched the Meninblack in Technicolor.

The Dub Pistols recently had a go at Peaches; it was on their "Speakers & Tweeters" album. The Dub Pistols dispensed with the majority of the original lyrics, they came up with a whole lot of their rapping own. Obviously being the Dub Pistols they needed to rhyme Pistols with Bristols - mmmmm - as for the narrative of both versions of Peaches, well it's a misogynist minefield, so I think I'll leave the critique of the lyrics for someone else to get maimed by. It's a tough original to follow but The Dub Pistols version is pretty good, the only let down for me was that Dave Greenfield's keyboard solo wasn't given more of a blue beat feel.

Also Peaches was recently voted the best bass line of all time in Bass Guitar Magazine - and who am I to question this accolade, for me the bass line is certainly a peach, if only for the reason that it remains to this day the only thing I can play on a bass.

Back within the pages of Song by Song" by Hugh Cornwell and Jim Dury I was amazed to read that "In the Shadows" by The Stranglers was also reggae inspired, this time by the dub of Burning Spear. If I hadn't read it I'd certainly never have thought it, but now, ok I'll go with it. Anyway at the expense of being too obvious, I'm sure they'll be another Punky Reggae track by The Stranglers in our top ten before we're done.

So to conclude Peaches is a truly great track, a truly great Punky Reggae track, but why did Bob Geldof name his daughter after it! I suppose we will never know.

Why "What do I Get" by The Buzzcocks?
Well, play it and you get Peaches, don't ask me, I dunno.