The Stranglers rose from the fertile British punk scene in the Seventies, but, as it was the case with The Clash, their musical output is far more diverse than the boundaries of the genre. At first, they shared the raw energy of punk music with their contemporaries but as the group evolved the sound shifted towards softer, gentler, and more refined songs, although they never abandoned their firm musical taste. Trying to put a general evaluation of their music, critic Dave Thompson said: "From bad-mannered yobs to purveyors of supreme pop delicacies, the group was responsible for music that may have been ugly and might have been crude – but it was never, ever boring."
The Stranglers’ biggest mainstream hit and the most popular song is “Golden Brown,” a song in which I was literally in love as a youngster. But today I’d like to refresh the memory of the older generations with the band’s other big hit, the song “No More Heroes” from the album with the same name, released in 1977. It was their second album, released only five months after their debut album, “Rattus Norvegicus.” The single reached number 7 in the UK, and it became a classic of the era. The lyrics refer to several historical figures, including Elmyr de Hory, Leon Trotsky, Lenny Bruce, Sancho Panza and William Shakespeare, as examples of heroes that don’t exist anymore in modern times. In her article on heroism and celebrities, Breda O'Brien from The Irish Times wrote that “The Stranglers were ahead of their time in recognizing that being a hero is no longer simple. Today, it is much easier to be a celebrity than a hero, because celebrity allows for spectacular failure whereas heroism demands self-sacrifice and courage.” The Stranglers were definitely the heroes of their time, but also they are one of the longest-surviving and most continuously successful bands to have originated in the UK punk scene of the mid to late 1970s.
