Was Sid Vicious really unable to play bass?
Simon John Ritchie, the mortal vessel that held the immortal spirit of punk rock, Sid Vicious, turned up on his first day as a Sex Pistol and used his bass guitar to whack a cymbal. Though that opening sentence is obviously a lie, jokes in that thrust have run rampant ever since Vicious played his first note. However, where there lies a joke often resides a fragment of truth. The boisterous youth was certainly no John Entwistle, but how underqualified was he?
When Sex Pistols set out in the mid-1960s, they offered the younger generations something a little more tangible and inspiring than the contemporary prog-rock pretensions. Their anarchistic guise relied on sneering simplicity: a simple message in the lyrics and a steady driving punk groove based on primitive chord progressions and 4/4 time signatures. During their rise to prominence, Glen Matlock provided reliable bass rhythms alongside drummer Paul Cook.
As a pioneering band in the UK punk scene, Sex Pistols would admit the influence of artists like The Stooges and New York Dolls. Beyond such name drops, the group needed to be careful not to compromise their image by exposing affection for popular yet unfashionable artists like The Beatles or Tom Jones. For this reason, it was long rumoured that Sex Pistols dismissed Matlock in 1977, just before the Never Mind the Bollocks sessions.
It transpires that this rumour spread due to a jocular yet factually incorrect statement manager Malcolm McLaren issued to the NME at the time. However, as previously noted, where there is a joke, there is often a shred of truth. Indeed, Matlock is a big fan of The Beatles, and if this wasn’t a reason for his dismissal, the rest of the band clearly felt that he didn’t fit the band’s vision.
After expelling their competent founding bassist, Sex Pistols enlisted John Lydon’s childhood pal Sid Vicious. With very little experience and training, Vicious was hired for his attitude and fashion sense alone, which fit the Sex Pistols like a glove. Fortunately, while bass can be a difficult instrument to master, punk only really demanded a bassist to pedal the root notes roughly in time with the beat. Most sources, however, attest to a Vicious with very little natural talent and the work ethic of a tranquilised sloth.
As it happens, Vicious received some basic training just before he joined Sex Pistols from the eminent Motörhead frontman Lemmy Kilmister. Though he dealt in a propulsive style of heavy metal, Lemmy became an early proponent of the punk wave and a friend of the Sex Pistols. “Johnny Rotten used to go and see Hawkwind play. I remember him turning up in his long hair and great coat at London gigs.” Lemmy told Louder Than War in 2011. “Sid Vicious lived in my flat for a couple of months, and I tried to teach him bass, but he was hopeless.”
Presumably, Vicious’ discordant rhythms soon incensed the neighbours, and Lemmy abandoned his mission. Despite his half-arsed attempts to learn the bass, Vicious got the job. “One day, he came rushing into the flat all excited, saying. ‘Lemmy, I got the job with the Sex Pistols.’” Lemmy recalled. “I said, ‘Great, as part of the road crew?’ and I laughed, ‘You can’t even play the bass, you’re hopeless.’”
Besides comedy, Lemmy’s “hopeless” comment gains a shade of poignance in relation to the bassist’s tragic demise in 1979. Though nobody can deny Vicious’s vast influence on popular culture as a fashion and musical icon, his talent as a bassist was extremely limited. Jones and Cook would generally carry live performances as proficient musicians, while Vicious was turned down in the mix. Some sources also claim the bassist was frequently unplugged to prevent his playing from disrupting the sound.
In the studio, Jones recorded most of the bass parts on Vicious’s behalf. In Never Mind the Bollocks, Vicious only received partial bass credits on ‘Bodies’ and ‘God Save the Queen’. These partial credits suggest that he couldn’t even handle straightforward basslines across an entire song under generous studio conditions. We can, therefore, conclude that Vicious is likely the most untalented of the 20th century’s eminent musical icons.