William_the_Bloody

To accuse the Sex Pistols of having elements of "right wing" national socialist aspects to their music is a very serious allegation, can you please cite your sources & their context. (ie what was the context of Sid wearing a swastika? What elements of racism in their lyrics? Are you referring to Belsen was a gas?)

Considering that it was the 1970's and many members & affiliates of the band hung out in reggae and gay & lesbian clubs. I have reason to doubt this accusation, thank you.

Unknown Soldier

There is nothing serious about it whatsoever and I never stated that they had these elements in their actual music, we're just talking about a punk band that shocked the world back in the late 1970s and used what they could to promote themselves! If you insist on knowing, well I actually used to have a photo-feature book that came out in the 1980s, which actually showed quite a few racist aspects linked with bands such as the Sex Pistols, mostly in terms of imagery and those that followed the band. I also remember a radio interview back in the 1980s, where a journalist had talked about right-wing propoganda being linked with punk bands like the Sex Pistols back at that time. I doubt the band were genuine right-wingers at all and just used neo-Nazi material for shock value, but that doesn't change the fact that a section of their fanbase were right-wingers and I remember the scene here at the time.

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William_the_Bloody

No worries, it sounded like you were saying the Sex Pistols flirted with the far right, so my apologies if I misinterpreted your intent. If you would allow me, I would like to clear up this issue with some quotes from John Lydon's autiobiography.

On Nazi regalia.

"It was like the Nazi gear. I don't think anyone knew what it meant, and if they did know, it was perceived as a reaction to a right wing thing. It was a reaction to mum and dad talking about world war 2."

Marco Pirroni from Adam & the Ants. (Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs, 1994, pg 217)

"Even when you consider all the trappings, the swastikas, leather bondage & chains, we never felt much intolerance. To us these weren't badges of intolerance, but symbols of provocation to an older generation that had to get out of the way to make room for younger voices. To do so, we made use of any form possible. However the swastikas were dropped fairly quickly because we realized it wasn't the most clever way to get our point across."

John Lydon (Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs, 1994, pg 182)

On the early punk scene.

"I think the music also attracted Rasta people into the fold because it initially was more tolerant. There was always dub reggae around, and it was the most experimental music going."

John Lydon (Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs, 1994 pg, 182)

"The beauty of the punk thing was that from January to June of 1977, non discrimination was what it was about. There was little or no sexism or racism. For a start everybody loved reggae music. It was uncool to be judgmental of somebody's sexuality. "

Chrissie Hynde: The Pretenders (Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs, 1994, pg 153)

On Johnny Rotten

"I started taking him to reggae clubs. We went to a place called the Four Aces in Dalston, which was the heaviest reggae club in London. No white people went in there. The only white person there was John, because I took him. Everybody left John alone. We black people had a respect for him because he came across as a real dude."

Don Letts: Big audio Dynamite (Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs, 1994, pg 270)

"I'm not a revolutionary, a socialist or any of that. That's not what I'm about at all. An absolute sense of individuality is my politics. All political groups that I'm aware of on this planet strive to suppress individuality. They need block voting numbers. They need units. It doesn't matter if it's left or right...The thing these people strive for is mass uniformity."

John Lydon (Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs, 1994, pg 309)


On Sham 69

The band has no right wing lyrical content, unless I'm missing something. They did however have a huge National Front following because their rowdy shows attracted a lot of working class white youths.

However the band called it quits precisely because of this unwanted contingent. See 2:40 of the clip onward. After Sham folded the skinhead movement largely attached themselves to ska bands like Madness & the oi! movement, before evolving into something much more sinister.



Anyways not arguing, I just don't want people to get the wrong idea about the Pistols.

dust1n

I prefer it!

"We'll no longer pay the price, we'll get organized.
We'll no longer believe, working for you will set us free."

Yeah, consumer capitalism at it's finest. Deal with it.

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dust1n

It has always seemed to be the case to me that punk music is not so much about being any for particular solution (though some bands had their affiliations) as it is a general dissent against capitalism/globalism.

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bernard666

I agree man, burn all the punks at the stake!

XtremeEclectic

Music is what you take from it. The punk genre itself can not be classified as one or the other government or politics etcetcetc since you can find at least one song probably advocating or against every form of government on the market. Things like this simply stem from people that don't care for punk music and just need people to listen to them. Music is just like religion, there is always that group of fanatics that just cant handle tolerance and have to make whatever effort they can to down or degrade another style or belief. simple as that.