The Great Rock and Roll Swindle

[TheSollyLama]

Bet you didn't know the Sex Pistols- who only ever made a single complete album- also had a feature length movie.
Actually there was supposed to be two, but the band imploded before Who Killed Bambi could be completed.

The Great Rock and Roll Swindle is almost a documentary. It features Malcolm MacLaren explaining that the Sex Pistols were really just a made up band to bilk money from record companies.
It's done as a sort of detective spoof with Paul Cook and Steve Jones (the only two members that had parts in the movie itself) trying to track down Malcolm for money he owed them.
Sid was already dead and Johnny had nothing to do with the movie. Although both appear in scenes that were shot for other videos.

Highlight- two actual videos that Sid made after the Pistols break up. If you've seen the movie Sid and Nancy, you've seen a remake of "My Way". Now see the real thing, with the real Sid and Nancy.

Some of the film is animations that were done to show the wild excess of Pistols partying. The end credits are animated to the tune of "Friggin' in the Riggin'." A great tune.

So it's semi-historical, but with that MacLaren spoof on his own creation. It does reveal the very true bit of bilking a couple record companies and never actually providing an album. It also has great real footage of the infamous Queen's Jubilee boat concert that got the band arrested. Also real footage of when the Pistols came to podunk town USA and nearly caused the world to implode. Sid attacking audience members (a bunch of rodeo hicks no less) with his chest bleeding from carving NANCY or I NEED A FIX into it.

If you know nothing of the band and it's history, the film will make very little sense to you. But it's still pretty fun. Being a Pistols fan, you've probably already seen it. If not- bollocks to you.

[TheSollyLama]

After the response for SLC punk, am I really the only person with the Great Rock and Roll Swindle???????

[E-Rawk]

I"ve never heard of it Solly, I'm gonna look for it now.

[Nostradumbass]

As an old school punk fan, I'm familiar with the Sex Pistols' history and they're music. I've never seen this movie, nor do I particularly care to. Apart from one or two good tunes, the Sex Pistols were basically an early punk version of today's boy bands: a few marginally talented (at best) performers thrown together to take part in a cynical and pathetically transparent money grab.

Sid & Nancy was a good flick, though.

[BurnMyHeartDown]

Sex Pistols were way overrated...still are. like the Clash....let's talk Misfits...

[TheSollyLama]

Overrated?! That was the entire point. They were blown up into so much more than 4 (5 if you count Glenn) scruffy kids from London hanging out in a sex fetish shop.

This is the beauty of the Pistols. THey absolutely do not deserve the legions of fans they have- but at the same time accomplished more with doing nothing that demands a certain respect.

How punk is that?! Success from abject failure. Ugly dudes with little talent made the Queen of a country notice them. This is the heart and soul of punk.
How much more in your face could a band be than to celebrate the Queen's Jubilee with a free concert that got the band arrested for being anti-brit, when they represented the core of poor, unemployed britain?

The whole point of the Pistols, and punk itself seems lost on people.
Could they play? Barely. Were they pretty? In no way shape or form. Did they have big hits? Not a one. And yet they are still considered (along with the Ramones) as the fathers of punk.
They took punk past the music. It was the entire point of the Pistols to thumb a collective nose at everyone around them- and in that they succeeded in spades.
While the Ramones were just guys from Forest Hills jamming simple tunes, the Pistols took it that one step farther and made wreaking havoc part of the punk paradigm.

Sheena isn't a punk rocker- she's the chick in the mall with a few piercings and a debbie gibson record hidden under her bed.
Johnny Rotten spent a wad on a hand written letter from Sid to Nancy on Ebay- only to incinerate it on TV. THAT's fucking punk.
Smash the icons. Anger your parents. Scare the local church group. Make a queen take notice of you.
Right there is the central nerve of the whole scene.

[ThePhorest]

I like Emo. How punk is that!?!?!

[BurnMyHeartDown]

Emo gives me diarrhea

[ThePhorest]

Sorry to hear it...snag some Pepcid AC and you'll be ready to rockn'roll.

[King Cobra]

Sorry, I only give a damn about good music.

[TheSollyLama]

to each his own. Punk isn't for everyone. I for one loathe rap and hip hop with a burning passion. Actually, that's not even music by my standard (like having actual instruments instead of scratching up your mom's vinyl albums or faggoty beat boxes) but I hate it nonetheless.
Good thing there's lots of genres to choose from, huh?

[King Cobra]

I mean honestly, if a band doesn't have something important to say through the music itself, why bother? Compare Megadeth's Countdown To Extinction with any 1 album released by a punk band in the last four decades; which do you more thoroughly appreciate? The punk band with it's simple angst and misguided rebellion?..or the thrash band with it's honesty and aggressive introspection? Kind of a strange analogy, I agree, but I don't know how to express this concept any better.

[Nostradumbass]

Originally Posted by King Cobra

I mean honestly, if a band doesn't have something important to say through the music itself, why bother? Compare Megadeth's Countdown To Extinction with any 1 album released by a punk band in the last four decades; which do you more thoroughly appreciate?

Spoken like someone who hasn't heard too many punk bands. The Sex Pistols never really had anything important to say, and that's why serious punk fans don't really regard them as a good punk band... or even a good band period. Conversely, listen to any album by the Dead Kennedys, The Dicks, Government Issue, M.D.C., Minor Threat, etc, etc, etc, before you try to tell anyone that punk bands have nothing to say.

Kind of a strange analogy, I agree, but I don't know how to express this concept any better.

It's not a strange analogy, just a poor one. Let me use my own poor example to illustrate why I think your point isn't valid: "Metal bands have nothing intelligent to say, because I listened to a Poison album once, and all they sang about was chasing tail." Hope that explains it a little better

[TheSollyLama]

Metal is simply a different type of expression. Good metal is an excersize in technical ability and pure aggression. It has 'balls'. That raging disortion fuzzing out the lead is it's signature.
Punk is the exact opposite. It is SuPPOSED to be sloppy and simplistic. Listen to alot of punk and you'll hear an almost 50's sounding theme. Glenn Danzig in his Misfits/Samhain days sounded very 50's. As did songs like Do You Wanna Dance from The Ramones. The entire point is to reject the huge excess of the current trend. In the 70's it was crap like the Bay City Rollers (disco and big band stuff like Boston), and in the 90's it was grunge. That's why Nirvana was able to make a career around 3 chords. Grunge was a form of punk- just a mass produced and commercialized one.

And lots of punk bands do topical stuff. Bonzo Goes To Bitburg (Ramones), God Save The Queen (Sex Pistols). I even consider Frank Zappa a punk in his own right. Punk has always been associated with social commentary.

But also remember that metal is also pretty heavy on songs about war- even though not a single one of the band members has ever been anything but a long haired stoner sitting in his room learning guitar to pull chicks. Mandatory Suicide (Slayer), Disposable Heroes (Metallica), Peace Sells (Megadeth).
What does Dave Mustaine know about war?

So it's really a matter of perspective. And also don't forget that during the recording of Countdown, Mustaine was so whacked out of his skull on smack, that his social commentary was delivered by a junkie. I love Dave, man. He's always been 100% pro-America. But you have to look at the source sometimes.
The Pistols came from London in a time when the garbagemen were on strike for months. People went to the local park to dump their crap. Imagine the city park being a giant landfill a block from your house, and no job to give you an excuse to even leave.
But the queen hosted a giant party at great expense glorifying the empire.

That's awfully deep social commentary- even if delivered by a band of kids practicing in a sex shop.

[Nostradumbass]

Originally Posted by TheSollyLama

Punk is the exact opposite. It is SuPPOSED to be sloppy and simplistic. Listen to alot of punk and you'll hear an almost 50's sounding theme. Glenn Danzig in his Misfits/Samhain days sounded very 50's. As did songs like Do You Wanna Dance from The Ramones.

Most of the 1st gen. punk bands started out that way, true. But dig a little deeper and it's not hard to find some amazingly skilled musicianship. I think this applies to just about any genre of popular music. It starts out fairly simple, but then gets better as it evolves... and besides, all the halfway decent 3 chord combinations had been used already

But also remember that metal is also pretty heavy on songs about war- even though not a single one of the band members has ever been anything but a long haired stoner sitting in his room learning guitar to pull chicks. Mandatory Suicide (Slayer), Disposable Heroes (Metallica), Peace Sells (Megadeth).
What does Dave Mustaine know about war?

Perhaps you took my crack about Poison the wrong way. I made a statement about heavy metal that was similar to the one King Cobra made about punk in an attempt to illustrate the falacy of his argument. I do realize that many (perhaps most?) metal bands have a social conscience, and tha they're not all a bunch of ridiculous cock-rock fops like Poison, Ratt, et al.