The most overlooked aspect of the Sex Pistols, according to John Lydon
There are a few bands who are viewed less as musical outfits and instead as moments in time. Sex Pistols are one of those bands, as they did a lot more than just make music; they came at precisely the right time, with precisely the right message, in order to start a full-blown revolution in music. This means that the band were taken very seriously by people who both loved and hated them.
Sex Pistols were happy to talk about a number of different topics within their music. They discussed politics, the monarchy and wrote as a reflection of the world around them. This trickled into public appearances, too, as news outlets and music magazines loved asking band members, particularly John Lydon, about their opinions on different aspects of everyday life.
A lot of this was very intentional, as the Sex Pistols had a very clear ideology in mind when they started making music. Lydon said it himself, “Early 1970s Britain was a very depressing place. It was completely run-down, there was trash on the streets, total unemployment – just about everybody was on strike. Everybody was brought up with an education system that told you point blank that if you came from the wrong side of the tracks… Then you had no hope in hell and no career prospects at all.”
After describing the state of the country, the singer confirmed that his band were the product of young people simply having enough of the unfair circumstances around them. He said, “Out of all that came pretentious moi, and the Sex Pistols, and then a whole bunch of copycat wankers after us.”
The band caused such a stir that even though they only released music for a few years, people use songs like ‘God Save The Queen’ and ‘Anarchy In The UK’ as rallying cries for revolution. They also frequently ask band members for their opinions on music, politics and other social issues.
Because of how much of a social critique Sex Pistols were, the band were taken incredibly seriously, to the point that many aspects of the band were frequently overlooked. One of the biggest aspects was their sense of humour, as the band would often enjoy making jokes on stage and during interviews. These were often never taken as jokes.
When John Lydon was asked whether he thought the humour of the band was overlooked, he said, “Like totally. Yeah. People think it’s some dour, dark thing with spiteful intent. Well, it isn’t. But spiteful arseholes out there think it’s that way because that’s how they are. Don’t reshape my history to accommodate your vision.”
It’s a shame that some of the band’s humour was missed, but it’s also not much of a surprise. They were viewed as shocking, so people often struggled to accept that anything they did should be taken at less than face value.