Murray on prole models

[Dennis]

> Consider "Never Mind The Bollocks".  Vulgar, coarse ... and, well, bloody
> gorgeous.  Consider now the aptly-named "Great Rock'n'Roll Swindle" - the
> Pistols' second album.  Vulgar, coarse ... and, well, vacuously humdrum.
> Whatever the difference between the two sets, it's not anything to do with
> vulgarity or coarseness.  I think it's to do with the recognition, on the
> part of corporate capital, of the potential of the new genre; corporate
> capital's consequent ham-fisted take-over of the process; and mebbe a bit
> of resentful response on the part of the Boyz.  The first album was sorta
> like what laCapra calls 'popular culture', and the second was more what he
> calls 'mass culture'.
>
> Cheers,
> Rob.

As a Pistols/PiL/Lydon fan, I must correct you Rob. "Swindle" was not a
proper album. It was a hodge podge of early singles ("Substitute," "Steppin'
Stone"), Steve Jones cuts,  and the truly, beautifully vulgar "My Way" by
Sid Vicious. Malcolm McLaren, never one to pass up a chance to grab bucks,
threw this together after the Pistols broke up. "Bollocks" remains the only
real Pistols album, and a brilliant one it is, too. Real working class anger
and spite, poetically framed and nastily delivered. I mean, the Pistols
remain the only act in English pop history to have the number one record,
"God Save the Queen," erased from the charts. Blank space. No radio play.
Now *that's* vulgarity I can get behind.

As for the Boyz and related gangsta fare, I have to confess I like a lot of
it. Biggie Smalls is (was) a great rapper, whose lyrics dealt primarily with
car jackings, bustin' caps, livin' large in the mansion rap bought, and so
on. Not what the adults call "socially redeeming" music, but righteous phat
beats, inventive rhyme schemes and, yes, a certain level of vulgarity.

DP