> I think that this is a misreading of Savage's book, which emphasizes
> Lydon as an intellectual figure in his own right. The situationism
> often was an influence of Lydon's conversations with artist Jamie
> Reid, not McLaren. Lydon also brought in his own interests,
> intellectual and aesthetic, into the group as well as a fairly
> substantial and esoteric set of musical interests (from dub to Can,
> along with other interests) Savage's text often shows that McLaren's
> attempts to shape the band were failures, and reveals the lie behind
> the McLaren narrative of the band, although one cannot dismiss him
> entirely, either. The conventional rock influences come out of the
> work that Steve Jones put into the lp, layering guitars, adding sheen,
> etc. This is also worked out by Savage in his book. robert wood
I haven't read the Savage book, but Greil Marcus's 'Lipstick Traces' suggests Lydon, Reid and McLaren each brought something to the party and all come out as pretty interesting characters. IIRC Marcus doesn't draw an opposition between Reid and McLaren, who were partners.
I have to agree with Angelus on this one; I find the Sex Pistols' music boring, Lydon's vocals and lyrics being the best thing about them - that and of course the narratives writers have woven around them, Marcus in particular. PIL is a different story.
I don't doubt the Pistols made a cultural bang - and our impression is surely a generational one. They disintegrated (shortly) before I was born. Now that the music of the 1970s is laid out flat as history, they compare pretty poorly to the supposed proto-punks like the Stooges, Television, Suicide, Patty Smith, etc., and to all the great 'post-punk' they were really contemporary with - not to mention all the other greatnesses of the 1970s, Eno, Bowie, Krautrock, funk, etc.
Mike