He May Not Be So Rotten After All

While on the subject of Sex Pistols alumni (see below):

The once hard stool of the former Mr. Rotten's reputation gets a serious softening in this recent BBC interview. Given for the occasion of promoting his new autobiography, Anger is an Energy: My Life Uncensored, the former Sex Pistol even manages a little dew to the eyes.

And just in case you missed the intended message of his music, he puts it thusly:

Really my message from my music is really learn to love each other properly, because you only get one go at it.

                                                  

Sex Pistols Live in 1978

So this is the filth and the fury: I must say, it's pretty impressive. (That is, everyone but Sid.) 

Worth a listen. You won't be disappointed.

Sex Pistols Jacked Up!

Imagine a Sex Pistols album that was even rawer, louder, and pissier than the official Never Mind the Bollocks. Well, there was one and it was called Spunk. Spunk was the demo rendition of Bollocks recorded with producer Dave Goodman and original member Glen Matlock. (There seems to be some dispute as to what Matlock's exact role was on Bollocks.) Eventually, the songs would be rerecorded for Bollocks and the rest was history. 

Spunk would be strategically "leaked" in the UK at the same time of Bollocks's release (October of 1977) – though Malcom McClaren would later deny any involvement it does sound awfully très McLarenian, no? While Bollocks was clearly the slicker (if that's even the right word) and more presentable product, arguments have been made for Spunk's superiority. It does have more of that saliva-in-the-veins essence of the Pistols. (The early version of Anarchy in the UK – then called Nookie – is miles more snarly than the official version.) Some of the songs seemed fatigued (e.g. EMI), some would later be relegated as single b-sides (though, No Fun is a blistering stand out), and of course there's no Holidays in the Sun, one of Bollocks's masterpieces.

Is it better than Bollocks? You decide.

YouTube disabled the embedding but you can go here to hear it. (There's also more info on the recording at the link.)

Xmas with the Pistols

The Sex Pistols showing they could put their little dark hearts in the right place when they wanted. Good on 'em.



Via The Washington Monthly.

"We're Not Coming."

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted the Pistols in 2006. As you'll see, they chose not to attend. (While Mr. Rotten gave them the respect of a handwritten note, you'll note that the style of his writing and singing are very similar.)

Wiki devotes a line to the matter but more space to the general controversies of the institution itself which, you may not be surprised to know, operates more like a business and less like a museum.

Also noted that if an artist chooses to attend, induction comes with a price.

Back when it all meant something...

Here's the Sex Pistols in their full entropic glory from their 1976 television debut on the short-lived British music show So It Goes. All the spark and spunk and Filth and Fury that would be their legend is probably most accurately captured here. (Their promotional film for God Save the Queen, despite its much elevated Westwood fashion, doesn't even begin to record what goes on here.) According to Wiki, this essence was, as one critic descirbed, "the last and greatest outbreak of pop-based moral pandemonium." This is the essence of raw performance in blood red: The E. coli practically airborne. The attitude is not just edgy, it's serrated. You'll never hear pitchy vocals used to such excellent affect. It's nearly inconceivable that an act could come along and rage such happy destruction today; That culture is long dead.

Not long after Sid joined, the band's quality would precipitously wane. (Original bassist Glen Matlock would be asked back to play on the album, a point Herr Rotten abuses him for in The Filth and the Fury.) The album later to come, as we all know, would be amazing. (A point lavished with effusive praise by the critics of the time.) But as a political and cultural moment, there would be none to equal to the early singles, most particularly God Save the Queen. The Pistols were a blinding supernova with a very limited shelf life. That character gave them more in common with The New York Dolls (an acknowledged influence) than contemporaries like The Clash. Often, though, it's the thumbnail that renders far more magic than the final drawing ever does. Here, definitely, was such the case.