31. January 2014
John Lydon Still Rotten At 58!
By Walter Price
The GTC would like to wish multifaceted punk RAWKlegend, as it he is, John Joseph Lydon A Very Happy 58th Birthday!
Yeah, that is Johnny Rotten to you and me. The always eager not to remain silent voice of the Sex Pistols and Public Image Limited is awesomely still with us and causing minor stirs here and there just to keep things interesting, indeed.
The history books can get into all the goings on during the punk movements of NYC vs. London in the 70’s but not us, not on your special day.
We would like to offer you, Mr. Lydon, a special ‘thank you’ for letting the kids of the world, of privilege or not, the chance to hear some raw, mostly sonic bombardments, sounds and social commentary to make us feel a part of the anti-mainstream for however long we could before the harsh realities of the real world inevitably set in and we attend college or get life-long crap-fest jobs that will most likely kill us at an early age.
‘Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols‘ is most definitely an album all little boys and girls should have in their starter record collections. Why, because it is the ultimate in your face anti-establish statement for any angst filled pimple faced rocker! SHAZAM!
After I somewhat regained my sanity after my early years of life I have found you to be entertaining on several other occasions. First in ’96 on the Sex Pistols reunion tour. I saw you guys play in a Dallas warehouse and it was wonderfully awful. Wouldn’t have missed the chance to have you get irritated at me for my relentless pursuit of gaining stage access. Oh the good times.
The second being your appearance on the Judge Judy program defending yourself against an ungrateful touring band member who wanted to be treated like the pop-star YOU are! It was ridiculous perfection!
Then the third, most recent, butter advert coolness. You decided to fight the record business man with an all-out financial assault all in trying to regain control of your music. With butter! Damn, that is smooth…
“I was trapped from what seemed to be a great promise from the beginning. The deal with Virgin, for instance, turned into a musical death trap for me. It was a shackle; they wouldn’t release records from me, they wouldn’t fund me, so I could literally not function and I had to go outside of music to raise any kind of money at all…The money for the butter ads wasn’t huge but it helped me put something up against the outstanding debt, and I could start crawling my way slowly and surely out of those constraints. I could then basically buy myself out of those restrictive contracts. When I worked with the butter people, they gave me a free hand. I enjoyed working with them very, very much, and there was a lot of mutual respect. But it wasn’t done for any scandalous reasons. It was quite anarchistic of them to want to connect themselves to Mr Rotten.” – John Lydon (clashmusic.com)
Well played!
This is your day Mr. Rotten and what better way to celebrate but to hear more from your always on target wordy jaws!
“I’m not here for your amusement. You’re here for mine.” – John Lydon
“Listen, you know this: If there’s not a rebellious youth culture, there’s no culture at all. It’s absolutely essential. It is the future. This is what we’re supposed to do as a species, is advance ideas.” – John Lydon
“People don’t like other poor people, and rather than blame the people that make you all poor, you blame each other.” – John Lydon
“Move to Italy. I mean it: they know about living in debt; they don’t care. I stayed out there for five months while I was making a film called ‘Order Of Death,’ and they’ve really got it sussed. Nice cars. Sharp suits. Great food. Stroll into work at 10. Lunch from 12 till three. Leave work at five. That’s living!” – John Lydon
“If you ever want to know why I’m not on a record label, look at ‘The X Factor!’ Honestly, of all the people that strive to break barriers in music and do good things and write great lyrics, not one of them would ever pass the first round on any of these competitions.” – John Lydon
“The real color of my hair is mouse. I always want to be ginger, which I was when I was born, or blond, because I live in L.A., and I want to look like I go surfing without any physical effort.” – John Lydon
“You’re made to feel ugly, and I made ugly beautiful. Just by sheer persistence. Nobody has the right to say that I am ugly, and I will not be a professional victim, you know. Sorry!” – John Lydon
“There’s nothing glorious in dying. Anyone can do it.” – John Lydon
Long Live You John Lydon!