« Mhis mother wanted me to be a notary. Instead, Jean-Jacques Burnel went punk. But not like the Sex Pistols or the Clash who “pretended”, specifies the bassist of the Stranglers, the only member of the original formation still active today. Admittedly, at 70, the dry Frenchman, who, one evening in the fall of 1977, in London, had “slapped” the influential journalist Jon Savage – at the same time sinking the reputation of the group – has calmed down. The only thing he can possibly hit now is his instrument. It is moreover his way of playing which gives a hard, rumbling, metallic sound to very melodic lines.
Recognizable among a thousand, his style has made Jean-Jacques Burnel a “bass hero” whose influence Peter Hook (Joy Division, New Order) and Adam Clayton (U2) recognize. The bassist takes his technique from his apprenticeship, as a teenager, of the flamenco and classical guitar but also, more prosaically, from the first concerts of the Stranglers, who had to manage with “rotten” equipment and sound, explains- he to Anthony Boile, the author of Strangler in the Light (The Word and the Rest).
An unlikely bathtub race
In this collection of interviews, the musician speaks frankly, even without filter, to his interlocutor. This is precisely what makes the interest of the book. We do not expect the turbulent bassist of the Stranglers to say, referring to his parents, “the family was fantastic, I was very happy”. We pity him when he recounts his memories of school in a xenophobic climate in the south of England. We are surprised by his passion for Debussy – « The girl with linen hair »? ” Oh dear ; It’s ecstasy”.
But after all, Jean-Jacques Burnel is the ace of paradox: he is a master of shidokan, a very hard form of karate, and he participated, during the summer of 1986 in Cagnes-sur-Mer, in a championship of the world of tub racing. He combines a deep interest in history and a pan-European ideal with a fascination for extraterrestrials, it is true shared by the other members of the group – it leads, in 1981, to the disturbing album The Gospel According to the Meninblack… Others ? Jean-Jacques Burnel does not overlook his differences with singer and guitarist Hugh Cornwell, who left in 1990. He remains inconsolable over the death of eccentric keyboardist Dave Greenfield, who died of Covid-19 in 2020. “Dave , for me it was like an old coat, you know: always there, it keeps you warm, always reliable and predictable. »
In France, “the most French of the English and the most English of the French” was the producer of Taxi Girl (Seppuku, 1982) and Dani (N like Never Again, 1993). If we remember less his participation, in 1987, in the album CQFD… utronc of Jacques Dutronc, the evocation of this memory gives rise to a surprising revelation: the missed opportunity by Françoise Hardy – “the error of my life”, she insisted in Best, in 1988 – to work with Jean-Jacques Burnel. The book closed, we continue to wonder about the content of the disc that this curious alloy would have generated…
« Jean-Jacques Burnel, Strangler in the Light. Conversations avec Anthony Boile » (The Word and the Rest, 420 p., €28)