from the LP Rattus Norvegicus, UA Records, 1977Coming across something like the Modern Lovers on steroids and hardcore porn, or Television with another row of even-sharper teeth (think the Dictators’ uglier British cousins), their timing & attitude seem to be the only tangible reasons why the Stranglers’ first album is continuously grouped in among the “punk” scene when discussions of said era arise; themselves heavily influenced by the work of Roxy Music, their sweeping use of an organ (both for atmosphere and as a lead instrument in its own right) predicted the direction that bands like Magazine or Japan would later take post-punk and new wave. Driven along by a thumping bassline, which does a bang-up job emulating the feeling of walking forward, this catchy song makes lewd chauvinistic wordplay into a fine art, “…well there goes a girl and a half, she’s got me going up & down…all these skirts lappin’ up the sun, why don’t you come on and lap me up…is she trying to get out of that ‘clitares’ (French bathing suit…); liberation for women, that’s what I preach…walking on the beaches, looking at the peaches…” A nasty summer anthem if there ever was on, come along and enjoy some old fashioned cheeky British wit without any guilt--- remember, there was no such thing as “P.C.” back then…
