The Stranglers were strikingly different from any other band on the ’77 British punk scene. They were older (Jet Black, the drummer was 39 years-old in 1977), they had a keyboard player who looked like a shepherd, and their karate freak bass player, JJ Burnel was beating up everybody who pissed him off. And it was quite easy to piss him off.
The same aggression defined the way Burnel played the bass. In his hands it wasn’t an instrument, it was a weapon. Fact is, nobody ever played the bass like him. No wonder he inspired legions of punk rock bass players, including the guy from Bankrupt. Continue reading →