Never Mind The Sex Pistols, Here's Everything Else

     I have yet to figure out why everyone points to the Sex Pistols as some sort of standard bearer for Punk Rock.  I don't see them as anything but a band that ruined the party for every other band that was trying to get started around the same time.

     Their manager, Malcolm McLaren, and John Lydon (a.k.a Johnny Rotten) wanted nothing other than to provoke a reaction out of people.   Not a reaction out of fans but out of the populace at large. Having interviews that were more interesting than the music on the stage.  Mostly because the shows were always getting cancelled and when they did happen the band would implode on stage and the show would end in a hail of garbage and bottles thrown by the audience.  This publicity over substance approach led to promoters and venues staying away from anything that was labeled “Punk.”

     Evidence of this is the removal of Glen Matlock as bass player of the band.  Sid Vicious was brought in to replace him because Sid had a better look to him.  Never mind the fact that Sid Vicious didn't know how to play bass at the time.  Whenever I do listen to the Sex Pistols, I always reach for the Spunk bootleg which is a collection of early demos that were recorded when Matlock was still in the band.  The songs have an urgency and rawness that feels like it's missing on Never Mind The Bollocks.  The main reason that I still give their records a listen is because Steve Jones is one hell of a guitar player.

     The only positive thing that came out of the Sex Pistols was the amount of bands that started because of them.  When they played their first show in Manchester, there were future members of the Buzzcocks and Joy Division in the room at the time.

     There were so many other bands that were so much better than the Sex Pistols that never got the recognition they deserved because of the scorched earth policy of the Sex Pistols.  The Lurkers, Pseudo Existors, 999 and so many other bands were left to the dust bin of history because they couldn't book shows in the aftermath of McLaren's search and destroy mission for attention from the press.  Luckily, bands like The Clash, The Damned and UK Subs were able to separate themselves from this mess and find varying levels of success.  If it wasn't for reissue labels that are run by people that love this music, some of these bands would be forgotten completely.

     Lydon's post Sex Pistols routine of slagging other bands that came after them is more than irritating.  He always claimed that Southern California punk bands were all a bunch of spoiled rich kids playing pretend.  The thing that he never seemed to realize was that bands like Black Flag and Bad Religion more than likely worked ten times harder than he did because they had to cut their own path due to his poor reputation.  Then he has the balls to demand these bands apologize to him when they take a return swipe at him.

     Every time I start to get some distance from his bullshit and try to get into Lydon's other band Public Image Ltd., I always end up reading something stupid that he said in an interview that puts that bad taste back in my ears and I call it quits.  Behavior like that from someone in their twenties is barely acceptable let alone from a man in his sixties.  Trying to regain relevance by saying stupid shit isn't going to get me to buy your record.  At most, it makes me wonder if he has anyone in his life that checks in on him from time to time.