Garbage Days Revisited #34: The Only Ones - "Even Serpents Shine" (1979)
"Now I know what you want. But I don't have to give it" - The Only Ones - Flaming Torch The Only Ones were the classic "thrown in with punk due to being around in the same era but really didn't have a lot in common with that movement at all" band. It probably says a lot that they were a classic "slow burn" band with me when I first discovered punk - when I first heard Another Girl Another Planet on various punk compilations, my thoughts were "what, this isn't punk, it's a love song and why isn't he shouting?" Of course, twenty years later I'm more than happy to hold my hands up and say that my early twentysomething self was a total idiot who completely missed the point - of course the Only Ones weren't a punk band - if anything they were closer in spirit to imperial phase Stones (somewhere between Beggars Banquet and Goat's Head Soup if anyone's keeping track). When I came to warm to Another Girl… as I ...