RIP, Dave Greenfield

I’ve been meaning to post this for a while, but just now getting around to it.  If you hadn’t heard, COVID-19 recently claimed Dave Greenfield, the keyboardist of The Stranglers, a decent first-wave band overshadowed by the great ones.  To me their work is more interesting than good,  but I give them credit for riding the wave at all.  They were at least different, and very competent musically.  Most importantly, when The Ramones and The Sex Pistols drew the line, these guys stepped on the correct side, unlike most.  I haven’t heard all of them, but my favorite is their overly-long cover of Burt Bacharach’s Walk On By .  Which I guess is another way of saying they needed more hooks.

3 Replies to “RIP, Dave Greenfield”

  1. I don’t know a whole lot about these guys, other than they took a lot of shit from other bands about being too old and jumping on the bandwagon when punk took off.

  2. If you had told me they were from Memphis I would have believed you. Probably because my friend who really liked The Cramps was into them too. Thanks for the link!

  3. Honestly, I don’t know much about them either. I heard a few of their singles in the late 70’s during a giddy time when my brother and I were devouring each punk single or album as they came out. I liked them OK, mostly because they didn’t sound like the crap getting played on the radio in the U.S. Although they could play better than any of the punks, they just didn’t have as memorable songs as the best.

    No doubt there was much hostility as more bands got on the bandwagon. I’d give The Stranglers points for at least not sounding like everyone else. Some others who jumped on late, like say Generation X and Sham 69, pretty much just imitated the innovators. Perhaps most opportunistic was Billy Idol, who later managed to veer mainstream musically while parleying Sid Vicious’s sneer into MTV stardom. Nothing wrong with picking up some bucks, but nothing much going on there musically. I guess Dancing With Myself is pretty good. But with him it was mostly about fashion. Either he or a clever manager figured out the the U.S. was finally ready for Sid’s iconic look. I’d bet Macolm McLaren was pissed he wasn’t cashing in on that. Jesus, I’m rambling.

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