General Interest > Let It Bleed

The Essential Punk...

<< < (3/6) > >>

Anonymous:
Yeah, the Pistols did bother people.  They had that down.

Anonymous:
I remember meeting Steve Jones about 1o years ago at a club in Boston while he played with Idol, some guy fom GNR, and some guy from Duran.  Hanging out wit those guys were as boring as it gets, but the show was okay.  It was at Aerosmith's former club, Mamamkin, which was a good place to see a show.  Hate those big arenas. Jones was in good shape, but the others seemed pretty blah, especially Idol.

try another castle:

--- Quote ---The Pistols are the Monkees of Punk Rock--a contrived band calculated to sell records.
--- End quote ---


Agreed. Majorly agreed.

Ganja:
Sure, but they knew it & had a sense of humor about it -- "The Great Rock & Roll Swindle."

Anonymous:
I met Steve Jones of the Pistols about 10 years ago, performing with Idol, Duff McKagan, some Taylor from DuranDuran, and let me tell you, "the essential punk" was gone. Plus Idol kept nodding off into oblivia. They seemed as bored as they were boring. The only one with any charisma as Steve Tyler, who was only there 'cause he owned the place. It definitely was the whole "meet your idols and you will be disappointed" scenario, though I've never been one to idolize the rock stars.  They were however, genuinely surprised that I didn't hook up with Jones after a backstage pass. He looked good and healthy, but the groupie gene bypassed me. He ended up calling me at 5 am to ask me to go to LA and my roommate got on the phone yelling, "I don't know who you think you are, and I don't care! But don't. fucking.call. at 5AM in the morning!!" The next day her boyfriend was stunned that she told off Steve Jones and begged me to call him back. (He is a true punk aficionado.)

Anyway, I don't put the pistols on the same level as some contrived boy band. Yes, McL put them together,but hardly by auditioning, giving them talent lessons, and sending them in for a makeover.  These kids were already a group of talentless malcontents hanging out who represented the sense of rage and disconnection that was percolating at the time... bucking the class system and pointless sense of propriety. They already were cutting up clothes and sticking selves with pins... and squatting, while hanging about wreaking havoc. McL and Westwood borrowed many ideas from them, not the other way around. They just "branded" an ideology that already existed.

 A good book is Johnny Rotten's No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs.  It gives an authentic look at the times with the benefit of hindsight without over sentimentalizing it.  (I think he does in his way--but he'd never cop to it.)  Other people of the period also contribute.  It's decidely English though in terms of not giving a whip about American punk.

When I think of the NY scene at the time it seemed to me that it thrived on being degenerate without the cacophony of emotion. It seemed a bit more prententious.  Maybe I'm wrong.

There's a good book of oral testimony about that NY CBGB scene, called "Please Kill Me."   Ramones, Patti Smith, Lou Reed, some MC5 and Stooges stuff in there, too.

From a sociological perspectve, it's interesting.

Just don't give me a book on Disco.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page