John Lydon tribute thread
No he's not dead, I hope not anyway as I consider him to be a national treasure despite never being that keen on his music.
There are few people I find as watchable or as fascinating, and I've killed a lot of time YouTubing him over the past few days. Very decent bloke deep down, tremendously sharp, brutally honest, witty and opinionated.
Also known as Johnny Rotten, (for those of you who may not know who I'm talking about) he left the Sex Pistols waving all flags and with all guns blazing and has done what he wants in life and made a living doing a number of things from touring to kids programmes. He also appeared in a movie with Harvey Keitel and despite having an annoying singing voice, he influenced the voice of that silly Liam Gallagher and has been a huge influence on pop music as a whole.
People liked The Sex Pistols fro the wrong reasons, for trendy reasons - something of which he is fully aware and has no problem pointing out.
I remember my first impression of him years and years ago was that he was an attention seeking council estate scumbag who got lucky. Probably what my parents would have thought anyway and this knee jerk judgement of character was probably a result of my own social conditioning of which I was not completely immune.
Anyway, nothing wrong with being an attention seeker if you have something to say. Self promotion is something that is frowned upon, but he is who he is and I'd vote for him any day if he were running for PM - not that he'd strive for that kind of power, though he is interested in politics.
He's lovably imperfect, and occasionally a hypocrite but so what... I don't agree with everything he says and I have nothing against Queen Elizabeth as she had no choice in her destiny. He has been attacked more than he has attacked, a great example of how anybody who defiantly refuses to conform and who speaks the truth is either mocked or vilified.
Lydon has lived in Amerka for 25 years because England is too violent for him. Have any of you Merkins heard of him?
Anyway, I thought i'd share that with you. Here's a couple of recent interviews, one featuring nice John and one featuring nasty-but-funny John and, fuck it, have another. If you've read this far you may as well watch the first clip as it's the shortest and the one in which the audacious foul mouthed clown (I say this with sincere affection not, Robertsonesque scoffiness) made me chuckle the most.
YouTube - Johnny Rotten lets loose
YouTube - ~ The Sex Pistols ~ Most Banned Song ~ (John Lydon) ~
YouTube - John Lydon || Culture Show Special || 2*3 || HQ