aintnosin

...hawking a video game?

I guess punk is officially dead.

JasonF

There's nothing like watching a bunch of fifty-something millionaires sing about anarchy. Still, I can't say I didn't enjoy the performance.

Groucho

They had to re-record "Anarchy in the UK" for Guitar Hero 3 because the master has disappeared. Having heard the new version, it's actually quite good (but not nearly as raw as the original).

nodeerforamonth

Funny how people just don't "get" the Sex Pistols. If you could sum up their WHOLE EXISTENCE into one phrase, it was: "take the money and run".

That's what they're doing now. If they DIDN'T hawk a video game in this day in age, THAT would be "selling out".

Brain Stew

Yeah, Malcolm McLaren was really the heart and soul of the band. The Sex Pistols are to punk, what the Monkees are to psych pop rock.

JasonF

And if punk didn't die long ago, it certainly did last year when the AARP used a Buzzcocks song in one of their commercials.

nodeerforamonth

Well the Monkees didn't write their own songs. The Sex Pistols did.

And Malcolm's influence is one of those things where if a lie is repeated enough, it becomes "truth". And most of those lies (according to the band) came from Malcolm. The Pistols were a band before Malcolm came into the picture, though he did introduce Johnny to the band. And Johnny was the one who wrote the lyrics. According to Johnny: "They all had these daft covers, silly love songs they wanted me to sing. But I just wouldn't, couldn't... early on, the band wanted to do a song by the Small Faces. The lyrics went something like '...I love you baby/I want you to know that I care' Well I couldn't have any of that, so I changed it to '... I hate you baby/I want you to know that I don't care...' The exact opposite seemed to work so much better." (Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs; pg 90)

Yeah, Malcolm managed the band, but had little input on their music. Malcolm was the "heart and soul of the band" just as much as Bernard Rhodes was to the Clash. So the Clash would be just as "manufactured"... maybe even more so than the Pistols, because Bernard told the Clash what books to read for their politics and steered them into playing their music a little "rougher".

Read John Lydon's autobiography and watch "The Filth & The Fury" for a little more insight.

The Sex Pistols whole motto was basically "take the money and run". They were a bunch of misfits with a bunch of songs who rode their momentum (right place/right time) and USED the system.

atlantamoi

If punk is officially dead it died off quite a many years before '07.

Pointyskull

Yeah, like 30 years.

I remember back in the olden days reading an interview with Joe Strummer and Mick Jones of The Clash. One of them (I forgot which) said that in their estimation by the time the first Clash album came out (circa 1977) the punk movement was already dead and had begun to evolve into something else.

What I took from that was that punk was like a match - burned hot but quick, though it did start the fire.

They ought to know...

atlantamoi

So I just watched the performance on You Tube. First time I've seen a lick of them post 70's action. Not bad, but definitely a big drop in excitement. Made me wish Lydon would pick up a crew of youngsters and funk up some P.I.L. again.

benedict

Very much the marketing man, and at the rip-off end of the spectrum, I've never really placed much credence in anything McLaren says. At the same time, I think that Lydon is also guilty of self-promotion, sometimes at the expense of other band members. His musings on Sid Vicious seem to change as the years roll on and his glasses become increasingly rose-tinted when recalling the guy, while he has always tended to downplay the role of Glen Matlock who wrote most of the tunes for and played bass on the album released after he'd been replaced by Vicious.