Rock’n’roll’s most visionary scam – World

World – Never mind the bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols comes out on October 28, 1977, and, before being a rock record, it is a gesture of public health, which sweeps away in one fell swoop all the musical metastases that rock had matured since the end of the 60s and which years later had blocked every exchange of innovative aesthetics: progressive, hard rock, the imperial decadence of Pink Floyd with Animals (I hate Pink Floydwas written on the tattered shirt that brought Johnny Rotten to success), that masterpiece of strategic marketing which was in 1973 the Tubular bells by Mike Oldfield…Of course, the tolls of the new had already been heard: Bowie and his Berlin trilogy, Brian Eno had already rehearsed ambient with his Discreet music, from the devastated New York of the mid-seventies (Welcome to the Fear City, recited the flyer that plainclothes agents handed over to visitors arriving at the Kennedy in those days) the filthy Bowery club CBGB had projected the shadows of Television, the Ramones, Patti Smith and the Talking Heads into the world. And yet, the big body of rock of those days was really the result of a conservative vision of the world, which tried to keep together with worn formulas the electric soul with the classical one, social criticism with the pleasure-loving acceptance of the world, the harsh reality society of the cities of the time with the imaginary worlds of fairies and elves.

Until they arrived, the Antichrists…
Antonio Baciocchi’s book, Sex Pistols – God save the queen (and punk rock)published by Diarkosa publishing house in Santarcangelo di Romagna with omnivorous interests, apparently presents itself as a work with a strong popular impact, very rich in news, information and direct sources on the history of Sex Pistols as a group and as individuals. In reality, I read it as an essay on the history of rock that goes directly, without frills, to the essential themes posed by the London group. And already in the introduction the author poses the question of the questions: the Sex Pistols were really the biggest scam of rock’n’roll, as their manager wanted Malcolm McLaren, or a large group that in just two and a half years of life, in tune with the Live fast, die young of the gnomic punk, produced the greatest collective revolution of rock music (nothing to do, for example, in terms of social impact and of aesthetics, with grunge, new wave, psychedelia, etc.)?. And above all, he produced great music, even if concentrated in the twelve songs of a disc. It is the same question that arises Greil Marcusthe great sociologist of rock history, in his book Lipstick traces: Secret history of the 20th century, published in 1989 and whose first chapter is dedicated to the Sex Pistols’ last concert, only after 50 pages of philosophical, historical and artistic references. In reality, even if Baciocchi does not answer the question directly, he seems to understand that he is on the side of music.

Il trailer del film “The Great Rock’nRoll swindle” di Julien Temple (1980)

It is true that with the Sex Pistols the theme of the relationship between manager and musician has always been very much alive in rock’n’roll music (just think to the relationship between Elvis and Colonel Parker), acquires a strength never seen before, with the manager trying to convey the narrative that his group is exclusively a marketing fencing, a strategic plan to be imposed on the big fashion brands. But just listen to the record to understand that such a devastating sound, that nasal singing of Rotten that deforms the final vowels of the words, those guitar recordings that don’t aspire to rise to the rank of solos but become lethal riffs in intensity (doesn’t remember enough the role of the guitar of George Harrison in Beatles records?), well, all of this becomes music that imposes a sound, a vision of the world, a potential for disruption and change that cannot be solely the result of a market strategy. And also the density of the masterpieces in Never mind the bollockswhich are certainly not limited to the songs of the four singles published between November 1976 and October 1977, before the release of the 33rpm, namely Anarchy in the U.K., God save the Queen, Pretty vacant, Holidays in the sun. No, we have the cutthroat Bodieswhich deals explicitly with the topic of abortion, their raucous version of the Stooges’ nihilistic anthem No funthat assault of pure rock’n’roll , as the author writes, which is No feelings. In short, here as a percentage of unforgettable songs we are around Revolver of the Beatlesor of the Ziggy Stardust Of Bowie…

But there is another aspect of the book that I found very interesting: the author precedes the central body of his work, i.e. the history of the Sex Pistols, with an introductory chapter, which is dedicated to protagonists of the saga. And it is as if he wanted to make a reference to the great dramas of the Elizabethan theater of Marlowe and Shakespeare, those tragedies where everyone conspires against everyone, because the story of the Sex Pistols is the story of an unstable and dangerous equilibrium, oscillating between a possible failure which secret alchemies turns into worldwide success and a success that due to mutual hatreds and antipathies is destined to last the time of a blinding explosion of magnesium… And there they are, our heroes, parading all of them: Malcolm McLarenthe situationist manager who first created the Sex Pistols and then wanted to destroy them by turning them into a band of puppets; Johnny Lydon said Rottenthe son of an Irish Catholic couple who transforms himself into the icon of the Antichrist, but who soon tires of the group and abandons it after the San Francisco concert on January 14, 1978; Paul Cook e Steve Jonesdrummer and guitarist respectively, the axis of childhood friends who love glam rock and rock star life, who remain together until the end; Glen Matlockthe good bassist and author of most of the music, even if it didn’t take much to receive this judgment with the Sex Pistols of the beginning who really didn’t know how to play any instrument, killed by McLaren because he was too reminiscent of Paul McCartney; Sid Vicious and her friend Nancy Spungenor the face of toxic and desperate self-destruction, with their story of death and nihilism which constitutes the last chapter in the history of the group, which in the meantime had already dissolved.

The book contains an illuminating statement by Rotten “Not only did we appear to the public as if we didn’t like each other, I think we really didn’t like each other. It was the longest year and a half I’ve ever lived.” Rotten was disliked by everyone in his vaguely autistic isolation, and eventually conspired to get the group out of Mclaren’s control; McLaren initially imposed Rotten on the duo of childhood friends (who had already created a group of few claims that would have been condemned to anonymity if Rotten’s iconic genius had not arrived), then demanded the release of Matlock and the replacing him with Vicious; the latter was a friend of Rotten but not to the point of abandoning the protective wing of McLaren who, at the time Vicious died of an overdose in February 1979 in New York, was still his manager. And then there’s her, Nancy Spungen, the toxic groupie who came from America and who was stabbed to death in a room of the Chelsea Hotel, probably by a completely stoned Vicious.

As can be seen, the comet of Sex is very short-lived, but of blinding dramatic intensity. And it is right that Baciocchi concludes the gallery of the protagonists of the Elizabethan drama with a collective, festive, iconic subject, the Broomley Contingentthat group of young punks who followed all their concerts, some of whom would soon become rock stars: Siouxsie Sioux e Steve Severin, Steve Strange (voice of the Visages), Billy Idol. And here we are faced with another fundamental aspect highlighted by the author: the maieutic role played by the Sex Pistols in the English scene, they were the biological fertilizers of post-punk. Whoever sees them, whoever listens to them, comes out transfigured by the experience. At one of their concerts in June 1976, with the Buzzcocks as a sidekick, in the crowd there are Mark E. Smithwho will later become the leader of the Fall, Morrisseythe members of what would become the Joy Divisione Tony Wilson who two years later would found the Factorynamely the independent music label that would give birth to the Manchester music scene a decade later.

And it seems to me that this reference is sufficient to decree the inconsistency of Malcolm McLaren’s point of view: if the Sex Pistols really were rock’n’roll’s greatest scam, there was never a scam more visionary and richer in the future than that.