This was John Lydon’s reponse when the Sex Pistols were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They won’t be attending. Can’t say as I blame him. Gotta love them!
This says it all
7 thoughts on “This says it all”
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“The cinema is an invention without any future.” ― Louis Lumière
Gone Elsewhere 
“The Filth and the Fury” was my favorite documentary of 2000. For those who missed it, Julian Temple did a doc in the ‘80s called “The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle” in the ‘80s that posited that manager Malcolm McLaren was the man running the Pistols’ show, which most people would say is incorrect. So, Temple got a chance to set the record straight in this 2nd doc, and he delivers a really great history of the Pistols, with the members being brutally honest in interviews. It would be really interesting to see these 2 docs as a double feature, or you could even throw in “Sid and Nancy” as well and make it a tripleheader.
I appreciate a good “fuck you” to the system as much as anyone, but…
I was never a Sex Pistols fan, I preferred the earlier punk acts that focused a little more on “talent” and “listenability” like Patti Smith, Television, and The Clash. Bands that broke ground in interesting ways and sounded great because of it. The Pistols had energy and bad attitude in spades, but music needs more than that to be any good. Hell, Sid Vicious even admitted that he didn’t know how to play the guitar, and it shows in their music.
This whole “punk is not for sale” attitude is what eventually led to the demise of the genre. Now it is nothing but pretty-faced wannabes that all sound the same. Maybe if more great bands had been interested in selling a few records then there wouldn’t be a market today for generic crap like Good Charlotte or Simple Plan.
Eh, I’m not impressed, but I’m not impressed overly by the Sex Pistols anyway. It’s a very lazy form of punk just to hate everything and have that be that.
Much harder to turn anger into something productive. If the late Joe Strummer had written something like this, I could take it somewhat seriously. But John Lydon hasn’t earned the right to have this regarded as anything other than the childish rantings of a second-rate talent.
I respect the Sex Pistols both for what they stood for, and what they achieved, or rather were among the first to do.
And the letter is pretty funny.
Haven’t seen The Sound and The Fury, but do intend to. As soon as I’ve seen Sid & Nancy.
But I never could get my head (ears?) around their music. Like Chris said, The Clash were better.
The letter is pretty funny, but because it looks like it is written by a very angry 8 year old punk. I imagine John Lydon hunched over at a school desk with a bottle of whiskey in one hand and a crayon clutched the other fist, slowly reading aloud to himself as he writes.
(Jeez, is there no way to put a link tag in here?)
Yeah, just use <a> tags, as in
<a = “url”>text</a>
Duh, you’re right, forgot the “href”. I thought it looked funny…