Cop Rock

[Freuds_Cat]

The sex pistols were to punk what the Monkees were to pop. They had sold out before they even started.
Doesn't mean I dont enjoy listening to both bands though.

Mind you, that ad is possibly the best thing I've ever seen JL do 

[Highlander]

There are several over here now, Bret, but that's the only one I found for quick use...

[uwe]

Come on, it was earlier than signing to EMI when the Pistols lost their soul! It was the minute when Lydon walked into McLaren's and Westwood's boutique and McLaren caught sight of him. McLaren then transformed from a scientist watching some strange animal in the wild to the manipulator he became. But he was right from the start to the Sex Pistols what Kim Fowley was to The Runaways, except that McLaren was far more visionary than Fowley ever was.

That said, I like Herr Lydon better today than thirty years ago (and I also like him better talking than singing), and that butter ad is good fun. He should be a talk show host really.

[Dave W]

He wouldn't be able to restrain himself as a talk show host. He'd tell people off.

It would be great fun to see him try, though.

[Freuds_Cat]

Come on, it was earlier than signing to EMI when the Pistols lost their soul!

Well thats before they started isn't it? 

[Dave W]

Well thats before they started isn't it? 

Uwe doesn't let minor details like that bother him.

[uwe]

It wasn't in disagreement with you, but with this guy here:

"I think that happened the moment the Sex Pistols signed with EMI."

Herr Westheimer still is endeared by Lydon's gang for them shaking the foundations of what he calls "stadium rock", albeit only for a little while. Never mind the bollocks that three decades onwards there are whole magazines devoted to tracking the history of eternally uncool bands like Foghat and Journey while the Pistols remain an aged novelty act.

Rant:

I always thought the Sex Pistols grossly, even obscenely overrated as a cultural and musical phenomenon. I preferred the Bruddahs from NYC, The Damned, The Clash or The Jam (if you want to call them punk) anyday. That whole first Sex Pistols album sounded like glam rock rough takes to me, without embellishing overdubs. And even as a 17 year old, I thought the lyrics politically naive and gratingly nihilistic. Britain wasn't a "fascist regime" ever (as the sorry state of The National Front throughout its existence shows, if anything Britain is proudly fascism-resistant) and Herr Lydon didn't have the faintest grasp on the political concept of anarchy. It has nothing to do with throwing bombs. He could have sung "Britain is an entrenched class society" (fascism, otoh, is about creating the illusion that class boundaries cease to exist within a nation once fascism is in control of things), that would have made a valid point, but would not have rhymed with "Queen" and "dream".

End of Rant


But I give Steve Jones (on the right, all hippienesque and furry) credit for playing on this killer track with Herr Osterberg:

[Freuds_Cat]

I was listening to the Saints, Radio Birdman and the Boys Next Door (Nick Cave as an angry young man rather than just a depressed one) when the 1st Sex pistols album came out and I just thought it sounded contrived.

[Dave W]

Herr Westheimer still is endeared by Lydon's gang for them shaking the foundations of what he calls "stadium rock", albeit only for a little while. Never mind the bollocks that three decades onwards there are whole magazines devoted to tracking the history of eternally uncool bands like Foghat and Journey while the Pistols remain an aged novelty act.

So they're not your favorites, eh? 

They never cared about the kind of fan who follows Foghat and Journey or tried to appeal to those fans. And I'm sure they don't care that some people would read those magazines today.

The Sex Pistols mined a certain vein. They were trendsetters, and their influence over their own type of music is still strong. Even if Lydon doesn't really care for it anymore.

[Highlander]

Crushed... I really like Foghat and Journey... gonna go into a deep sulk and respray the Peter Cook Custom (to give her her original name) with even more colours to try and ease the pain...  might have to go for that headless mod to the RD after all... man I'm depressed... I need to do something radical to cheer me up... gonna play some Sarah Mclachlan... 

I never bought into the Pistols either... when many of my school "buddies" turned tail and ran with the pack, I stayed true to my colours - jeans. tees, long hair... 

They were another genre that deserved there time, and that has now gone...

[Freuds_Cat]

Just to be clear on the matter, I too have multiple Foghat albums and even 2 Journey albums. I have however gotten used to it and have come to terms with my eternal uncoolness. 

[lowend1]

Just to be clear on the matter, I too have multiple Foghat albums and even 2 Journey albums. I have however gotten used to it and have come to terms with my eternal uncoolness. 

There is nothing uncool about liking Foghat.

[Dave W]

Cool or not, people like what they like, and sometimes that's different from what you like.

It wasn't until the internet came along that I realized just how many people are unclear on this concept.

[Freuds_Cat]

Conversely the internet showed me just how many people like things that I like, which previously had made me think I was more uncool that I actually am.