Library Rock's Backpages

The Stray Cats

David Burke, Vintage Rock, September 2014

IT WAS 1979. Year Zero had been and gone, though the confrontational, contrary spirit of punk was manifest in the new wave, while its emphasis on image would soon be taken to an audacious and sometimes ridiculous extreme by the new romantics. Then out of Massapequa, New York came a trio of friends with a '50s fixation. Stray Cats were neither revivalists nor revisionists - their touchstones were not only Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent, but Joe Strummer and Johnny Rotten too. They bridged the generation divide, renewing rock'n'roll and making it hip again for a younger audience, and they did it with attitude, energy and a whole lot of style.

Total word count of piece: 1955

Subscribe

Becoming a member is easy. Membership gives you access to all the thousands of articles in the library.

Click here to go to Subscribe page.

Click here for academic and other group subscriptions.