Tuesday, February 28, 2006

God I love Johnny Rotten

A.K.A. John Lydon. Not so much for his music, especially with the Sex Pistols. For me the best thing about punk is that it gave birth to the new pop, post-punk and post-post-punk groups like Thompson Twins and Pet Shop Boys.

(There is a direct connection-for details and further reading, see Like Punk Never Happened by Dave Rimmer, Pet Shop Boys-Literally by Chris Heath and The Best of Smash Hits, edited by Neil Tennant before he became a pop star.)

Pil was more to my liking--especially "This is Not a Love Song," "Don't Ask Me," "Seattle," the groundbreaking collaboration with Afrika Bambaataa "World Destruction," and "Disappointed." But he just seems like such a laugh, and he's so emminently quotable.

Case in point. The Pistols were recently announced as being among the next entrants into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. Well, it seems Johnny is just not having that, as evidenced by this official announcement...

Sigh. I tell you people, if I were a teenaged girl, John Lydon is exactly the kind of bad boy I would get hung up on.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

And I saw 'em!

Ben Varkentine said...

Well, sure-you're really, really old.

Anonymous said...

And not on the comeback tour, either! In fact, I'm old enough to have seen:

The stones 6 times
Led Zeppelin
The Who (all original members)
Pistols, The Clash, The Damned, PiL
Miles Davis with Sun Ra opening
Lester Flatt
Count Basie
etc...

Yeah, being old has it's rewards...you whippersnapper you...