At the moment I'm dipping into the so called "Uncensored" autobiography of John Lydon, of the late Sex Pistols. Anyone else read this, or reading it?
Very surprising in some parts, in other ways predictable. Uncensored? I tend to think that we would ALL tell our own lives with a degree of censorship, even pretence. How we would have liked it to be, how we would like others to hear. That is the one fault I find so far reading this, that the guy seems pretty desperate to present the "rebel", the guy who won't take no shit - yet - and it might just be me - is really telling a censored story! A bit in love with himself.
I'm hoping it gets a bit better when the Sex Pistols come into it. At the moment John Lydon is just meeting up with Syd (Vicious)
Maybe I'm being a bit harsh here, the guy comes across as more likeable than many! Live and let live!
I can remember when he was around in the Seventies and I've never liked him. First impression was: Attention-seeker. I never saw the clip of that band on TV with the presenter Bill Grundy but I got the gist even when I was 19. They were not swing kids in Thirties Berlin or Vienna, they were never in any danger personally or even professionally. Someone else's head rolled, not theirs, so that's fine.
I let the 'music' pass me by. 'Basic' rock had been done by previous generations, and done a lot better. Elvis, Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran, the Beatles....you name it.
Fast-forward (if that's not too dated a term) to more recent times and there's the whole Brexit/MAGA endorsement. Maybe I'm not his target audience.
Lydon was one of my heroes growing up. Then I saw the photos of him old and fat and decked out in MAGA gear, and read the interview in which he said the anarchism of his youth was basically just for show . . . He is for me a reminder that I must remain authentic
@CBarson Hi, I'm more interested in all things Punk than just John Lydon. There is something very REAL to me in anyone who rebels against pure conformity; rebels against so much that is simply accepted and taken for granted in our world. But it surely has to get beyond just anger and destruction?
But as you say, staying authentic is a real challenge.
