MetaChat is an informal place for MeFites to touch base and post, discuss and
chatter about topics that may not belong on MetaFilter. Questions? Check the FAQ. Please note: This is important.
On a side note, the image of Johhny crouched, all crumpled up and despondent is crystal clear in my mind. And the way he said that line, it was so sharp and pointy, it almost hurt.
Really?
Maybe my age is showing but I always thought that the pistols and Johnny in particular were total farce, Spinal Tap and that. I couldn't take them seriously or be moved by them for serious money.
Mr. Lydon has never prompted a response from me other than "hah, whatta herb."
And, it reminds me of some lyrics from that band I am always pimping around here, the rheostatics. The song is called Self Serve Gas Station and the last two lines are:
No one said I would be king-like,
But no one said I could be had!
Full lyrics here...it's a great song. I would YSI it, but I don't have that album here at work.
D_W, yeah Johnny could be a herb, but he really meant some of the shit he said, at least when he said it. That's why I always thought his line about being cheated was so acidic...Fuck, he meant it.
One of the reasons I like Joe Strummer sooo much more than Lydon, is that Joe ALWAYS meant everything he said. Even when he was spouting crap, Joe believed it man.
Maybe my age is showing but I always thought that the pistols and Johnny in particular were total farce, Spinal Tap and that.
I think so, really. Sid couldn't play and Lydon has said that they meant to kill punk, not rejuvenate it. I can't find the interview with Lydon, but it always indicated to me that they intended to be taking the piss out of punk.
I think meaning what you say is not all it's cracked up to be as a justification or an excuse. Joe Strummer was and always will be a hero of mine, despite the fact that he might have been a bit of a party line toe-er, not because he believed what he said but because he didn't pretend not to care. People who pretend not to care invoke my smacking reflex in a big way.
Johnny Rotten is just one huge walking pouter to me. Just me though.
Herb or not, I think just about everybody reaches a point where they're asking themself the same question.
Sure thing.
Sid couldn't play and Lydon has said that they meant to kill punk, not rejuvenate it.
Johhny Rotten was the last person to read that telegram, the joke was on him all the way. Watch footage of them and him in particular, he's fully committed.
Steve Jones and Paul Cook could actually play. The stink of McClaren's artsy-fartsy bullshit hangs over them for sure, and they're second rate compared to the original New York Bands and the Clash & Stiff Little Fingers, but they surely had their moments.
Wino: I hear you about Joe. Perhaps that is what I mean to say. I just know that there is something about Joe that makes me respect and love the guy. Even though I don't always agree with him.
Oh, no. Situationism. That stuff makes my head hurt. And I've gotten my ass handed to me online for saying so. The best I can figure out is that they think boredom is bad. Bully for them. And they seem to like the French.
Joe was committed, and could write some killer rock and roll when the mood struck him, but he was also the original cadillac commie. His dad was a fucking ambassador. Johnny & Sid were actual project rats who came from the world Strummer sang about. Maybe it's my own American LMC perspective to think that matters, but it does on some level.
John Lydon can be contrary and sarcastic but don't think for a moment that he doesn't do sincerety. Unfortunately for him he had to do a lot of growing up in public and I think it was a painful transition for him to move from the sarcastic jolly japes of the Sex Pistols, via Sid Vicious' disintergration to the rather more stark Public Image Limited. Just contrast the vague sloganeering of God Save The Queen and compare it with Public Image (for my money one of the finest singles ever released).
His recording career has been far more interesting than most artists over a similar time frame so, you know, if wants to spend the rest of his life making daft TV programmes then all I can say is good luck to him.
I was a metalhead for awhile. We took crap from all sides. Top 40 kids hated us for being grubby and scary. Arty types hated us for being dumb and crude. Punks hated us simply for the fun of it. But we had fun.
Jon
If we are all meant to be only what and where we came from everyone is doomed. Well, everyone is doomed anyway, but everyone is extra doomed if the rich kids don't get to revolt and the poor kids have to be authentic. They got the weed and they got the taxis.
Sometimes I think metalheads have it the easiest.
It took me six weeks to get the wizard shooting the lyrics to the battle of everymore out his fingers properly airbrushed on my van.
Easy, my dirty hightops wearing ass!
Public Image Limited is a band I actually admire quite a bit. Ironically or whatever.
As for the question, every minute of every day man. Or as the Talking Heads put it, this is not my beautiful house, this is not my beautiful wife, well, how did I get here?
I always enjoyed the Pistols for the image and not the music so much, and the Clash for just the opposite reasons, but both films made me think more highly of the bands in the other ways.
I don't think that made any sense. Did that make any sense? Does anyone understand what I was trying to convey there?
Anyway, go ahead and rent the movies if you are at all interested in either band. You won't be disappointed.
I know the Clash are one of the Bands That May Not Be Criticized, and I dont dislike them, but I think the music and image of the Pistols has aged much better than the freshman-year politics and "look at us! we're white guys! but we like reggae!" of the Clash.
Plus, Steve Jones has the best radio show in the world now.
Criticize away but the Clash were much more (musically) than just pseudo-revolutionaries and white reggae fans, anything more than a cursory listen will tell you that.
I think I let too much annoyance at an easily stereotypeable facet of Johnny Rotten get into my comments about him, fwiw. Something about him obviously pushes my buttons. I think the sex pistols are boring and barely there, but PIL IS a great band.
photo by splunge
photo by TheophileEscargot
photo by Kronos_to_Earth
photo by ethylene
