I'm currently reading the autobiography of the notorious Steve Jones. The guitarist from The Sex Pistols. Every time I get my hands on a book about musicians or bands I get hooked and end up wolfing the whole thing in a couple of days. Just to be able to catch a glimpse of what went on behind the scenes is enjoyable enough. These iconic legends live, their road to fame and sometimes their catastrophical demise. Yeah, getting through the Sex Pistols' lifespan as a band and coming out okay the other end? Not easy.
Despite not being the most famous Sex Pistol, Steve Jones is immediately my favourite. He's funny, direct and doesn't care about laying it all out, the good and the bad. He's honest, remorseful but unapologetic. It was what it was. Jones had a shit upbringing which does trully justify a lot of the shit he was up to. That's sentence summarises the whole first part of the book. I don't mean it in a bad way, it's really interesting to read but it is literally one ghastly event after the other and he's not even 20 year-odd.. He came from an extremely working-class family, had an absent father, a neglecting mother, a nonce for a step-dad, undiagnosed ADHD/Dyslexy for sure, and more predatory pedophiles roaming the streets of Battersea than eyes to spare.
As I was reading I kept thinking, yeah, no wonder punk happened. You can see why there was a growing community of young people that were unsatisfied with the hand that life had dealt them, who were angry at how things worked and didn't want to sit quietly and accept their bleak future. So the answer was to let out all the rage somehow. Loud and bold it's easy to see why the movement attracted so many people. It's easy to see how the movement was part of the working class struggle to improve their situation and why it identifies politically with the left. Although it's no wonder that the neo-nazis had a good go at taking claim of punk. They were also loud and angry young offenders, it's just that their anger was directed at the wrong people.
The Sex Pistols weren't the most vocal punk band of the age, I mean, yeah, they said outrageous shite on NME Magazine, but they weren't as political as The Clash or Stiff Little Fingers. The Clash cared, they were openly antifascist and antiracist. And you can hear it when you listen to the music, you can hear reggae beats, influences and lyrics that make a difference. It's bands like them that command my respect not so much the Pistols. The Pistols were just annoyed at pretty much everything. Sid by all rights shouldn't have even been in the band and John Lydon has turned out to be a massive Tory twat.
According to Jones' biography, he was never a racist or a homophobe or anything those neo-c***s trying to take hold of punk were. But he does say that he didn't really care enough to understand the way things were at the time. He had enough on his plate worrying about nicking stuff, getting drunk to forget traumatic experiences at an early age and trying to escape the greyness of the London life in the sixties when you didn't have two pence to rub together.
I can definitely see why the band made it big though. I can understand the effect their attitude would have on young folk with similar feelings of hopelessness and resentment. They were all raging because life was closing in around them and they had no positive outcome, just because they were born skint. These unfortunate souls turn to music, as we all do when in need of comfort, company, community or in need of a jolt to the soul. These young Brits melted into each other's sweaty bodies at shitty venues to scream, jump and batter the shit out of each other. Why not? You're fucked anyway so why not shove each other violently until someone loses consciousness or at least forgets there's an outside world while the music still blares from the amps.
Every generation has been the same since then. In every generation, there is a musical movement of discomfort and discontent. Punk, ska, grunge, rap, trap, post-punk, you name it. There is always a group of working class folk that have fuck-all going for them, feel like they're getting shat on and make groundbreaking music just to ease the pain. It brings us all together. The lowest of the low find new outlets of expression, they become the focus of the world for a while and hold up a mirror on stage to call on fellow scumbags who are unhappy with the unfairness of the world. It's shortlived, eventually the movements degenerate until they become a parody of themselves. The OGs fuck off into a better world or completely sell their souls out and the emerging scene is plagued with posers.
Everything just sort of feels stale until the next big new movement from the working class rises, always one step ahead, ready to bring a fresh monster to life that will take the rest of the world by surprise. This will continue until World War 3 starts and there is no longer a surplus of angry young people. But at least with that loss, we will gain the return of the war poets.
PS: I listened to Never Mind the Bollocks this morning. It still holds up. Holidays in the Sun is one of the best ways of opening a punk album the world has ever seen.
