Mr Sacks, Rock Historian

Well, then.

Seems as though, upon some scrolling below, Jim has incorporated a music genre class into the curriculum without asking me to guest lecture. F'n heretic.

Interesting (don't you just hate that word? I remember frothing away in silent fury in those Friday morning classes as every single comment dropped the i-bomb at least once ["I find it interesting..." "What I thought was interesting was..."]. It's a terribly banal catch-all that simply sterilizes whatever feeling stirred one to comment in the first place. Digressive rant: over and out.) post below excerpting John Lydon's, nee Johnny Rotton's, response to the Rock Hall's invitation. But the issue of what is, exactly, "punk as fuck," has been blurred by decades of generic abuse from both within and without. Indeed, this is the case with any inherently extreme/rebellious/revolutionary musical genre once it enters, and is then coopted by, the mainstream. What is it to be "Rock and Roll," or "Metal," or "Punk as Fuck?" What happens when the subversion gets defanged, the clothespin-through-the-cheek fails to inflame, the necrophilic infanticidal cannibalism adopted as Scandinavian past-time/delicacy?

But onto the band in question. The Sex Pistols' significance, in my opinion, is more built upon myths and emblems than actual musical impact. But the website is true: The Pistols were Punk, not Punk Rock. The difference is that Punk Rock preceded the Pistols; it was a movement heralded in by The Ramones, who, in turn, were fueled by the feral, proto-punk of The Stooges (LISTEN TO THE STOOGES!!!!!!!!). The Ramones established the Do-It-Yourself aesthetic and the minimal musical ability that sparked thousands of punk bands across America, as well as The Clash and The Pistols in the UK. But what separates The Ramones and The Clash from The Pistols, and therefore Punk Rock and Punk, is that the former two were self-determined entities focused on MUSIC, whereas the latter one represented fashion and lifestyle.

In fact, The Pistols can actually be considered their genre's boy band: created by a third party to tug the heartstrings of an impressionable, albeit rather malignant, youth so to sell more product. They were assembled by Malcolm McLaren, a fashion guy who ran a London shop and had dabbled in music management with the New York Dolls (another proto-punk outfit known for musical ineptitude, who would end up being to 80's Glam Metal what The Stooges were to Punk Rock). McLaren saw a new fashion trend among the English youth and decided to turn his S&M shop, Sex, into a "Punk" clothing store. He soon assembled into a band some of the young dead-enders who would hang around the store, not caring if they could play an instrument. They became The Sex Pistols, and they were McLaren's vehicle for selling more clothes. Never once were The Pistols in it for the music; they were in it to be the figureheads and lightning rods of a new, brash, particularly English counterculture that made up for in bombast what it lacked in substance. In January 1978, when Lydon knew that the gig was up and The Pistols were never more than a loud, inept shell of a hollow movement, he terminated early what would be their final concert with a statement directed both at the audience and to himself and his own band: "Ever get the feeling you're being cheated?"

I love rock and roll.

Recommended viewing: "The End of the Century: The Story of The Ramones."

Rock.
Mike