The thing that interested me most about the Pistols was what happened in their wake. I credit Jones, Cook, and Matlock as a solid stripped-down rock and roll band, and Lydon as a very watchable performer with an ear-catching sneer, and some of those songs were catchy, but aside from that, it's just rock and roll and with plenty of recent precedent, not least in the Ramones. In retrospect it's hard to hear - from the music anyway - why the Pistols could have triggered such hysteria, or how they were supposed to have destroyed music as we know it. And yet - somehow, they were the band credited by dozens (hundreds?) of others that proved far more musically adventurous. The Pistols never ranged as far afield as, say, X-ray Spex, or Siouxsie and the Banshees, just to pick a couple ... or over here in the states, Bad Brains or Black Flag.
But somehow, they were the band that kick-started all those other bands. The Ramones were the originators and had longevity, but the Pistols seemed to galvanize more people into picking up instruments and making something new. And I love them for that.