1970s and sex pistols

[Scarlett]

Why were the sex pistols so angry? Was it a marketting gimmick, or were the 1970s really that bad, socially or politicaly?

[andy hughes]

A combination of the two actually.

There is no doubt that The Pistols were part of the genuinely disaffected youth of the time. Social unrest was rife, with mass unemployment, and a breakdown of social services, three-day week and so on. Musically, the scene was dominated by 'progressive' bands - long on hair and solos and musical integrity, short on excitement and refreshment.

Enter Malcom Mclaren, a Svengali-type manager who decided to form a band using some of the youths who hung around in his Sex clothing store. Using the thre-chord thrash DIY ethic imported from the US - punk was born in the UK, and the rest as they say, is history.

Time has proven that Johnny Rotten nee Lydon was a seriously intellgient and shrewd individual with genuine talent and ability, both as a musician, and a media manipulator. He carried the venomous message of youth to the masses with his tongue stuck firmly in his cheek, and the rest of the band simply behavedd badly because they could.

[Octavius]

Every generation or decade has a disaffected youth.

The Sex Pistols remain influential for their musical style and in terms of their influence on the British cultural landscape. Whereas previous challenges to the class system, and to the post-war British ethos of uncomplaining sacrifice, had come mainly from within, such as from the public school and Oxbridge dominated satire boom of the late 1960s and early '70s (including the Monty Python troupe), or from the social-realist novels and theatre of the 1950s and early '60s, the Pistols communicated directly with a much wider, more vernacular audience and, to some extent, the resulting shock waves can still be felt.

It can be argued that the Sex Pistols were the most influential British band of the post-Beatles era.
Conversely, it can also be argued that the Sex Pistols were a manufactured pop act in the vein of The Sweet, Mud, and other early-'70s 'hard rock' singles acts, in as much as their look and sound were in part innovations of Malcolm McLaren's. Opinions, however, differ widely on McLaren's actual responsibility for the band's artistic and cultural relevance, with the evidence suggesting that McLaren was never fully in control of events, and played almost no role in creating the band's actual music and lyrics.

John Lydon (Johnny Rotten) was the iconoclastic lead singer of the Sex Pistols an Irish individualist anarchist (anti-establishment). With his leering, swaggering and sarcastic public persona, he laid down a new template for rebellious youth and band frontmen that continues to be imitated today. His parents were both Irish immigrants. He grew up in the working class environment of Finsbury Park with three younger brothers.

[vehelpfulguy]

Funny, I have always though Johny Rotten a rather sad and pathetic person who is always angry because he does not have the intelligence to be anything else.

He thinks being angry makes him seem intelligent, but he has been acting it for so long he has forgotten what he is suppsed to be angry about.

He is rather like the angry teenager played by Harry Enfield, negative about everything but with no answers and an inability to put any sensible argument across, but unlike the Harry Enfield teenager, he has never grown up.

[Scarlett]

I know what you mean. But I don't think it's that he has just got used to playing his "character". I think it is because he is Aquarian!!! (No offense to Aquarians..) A lot of what he says is completely understandable and makes SO much sense, but he is quite "ahead of his time" in his beliefs. I saw a great interview with him on a Sunday Morning programme recently, and he justified his beliefs and behaviour, and I totally saw where he was coming from.

[jno]

Octavius I think it's a bit harsh to say the Pistols' predecessors were public schoolboys - pretty well all of the British musical success stories from the 1960s were working class (Beatles) or lower middle class (Stones); I can't remember any Oxbridge types there at all, off the top of my head.

[andy hughes]

jno - the sort of bands the Pistols raged about were Genesis (Charterhouse Public School Boys), Pink Floyd (Camvridge 'toffs') and similar bands like that - it was the 'progressive' bands like Yes and ELP that really got their collective goat.

vehelpful guy - I have interviewed John Lydon, and I can assure you he is very bright, and has a seriously sardonic wit, which some people interperet as his personal angst. he has lawyas understoood the gameplaying that goes on in the media - he leaked a rumour that he and his partner had got married in Rome, and The Daily Star sent a reporter out there to find their non-existent marriage certificate! I would back JL to hold his own in an argument with just about anyone.

[Octavius]

Well punk fans were outraged when he agreed to appear on I'm a Celebrity. But for someone who is quoted on Richard & Judy as saying: "I don't need to swear - I have a big vocabulary."

Why did he call the viewing audience "cucking funts"(sic) on live TV?!!

Hilarious!

[Chillum]

Never mind the Bollox. They were the Sex Pisols.

[madpunk]

jonny rotten is cool are you all mad i know jonny isent he swindled his way to the top and as made a fortune so get your facts rite.doods