Thursday, January 17, 2008

Sex Pistols Working on New Recordings??


Call me a hater, call me a traditionalist, but I seriously dislike it when things like this happen. For those too lazy to read the actual article, it pretty much states that the Sex Pistols are going to try to record some new material in time for the upcoming summer, and without the notorious Sid Vicious. I mean, duh they're recording without Sid (the man's been dead for nearly 30 years) and Glen Matlock is returning to bass duties anyway, but it offends my delicate sensitivities when any band from my parents' and grandparents' eras decides to haul their rotting corpses up for a reunion. Especially when that reunion isn't really complete because any number of important band members are currently food for worms or in geriatric units.

Of course, as a child, I grew up on The Clash, Led Zeppelin, and the like. And I do wish with all of my heart that I could have lived in London in 1976, or in New York in 1974, just so I could have seen live the bands I've loved to listen to on record. To be honest, the theoretical idea of the Sex Pistols rising Christlike from the dead gives the fangirl in me a little jolt of pure joy. But then I realize that bands like the Sex Pistols and their contemporaries, as amazing as they were, belong in their own time-encapsulated eras of the 70s and 80s, when punk was young and new and completely insane. The world has moved on, and other bands have filled the shoes of and branched out from those who came before them. This feels like a throwback from another age trying desperately to keep up with the new acts simply because they feel old and useless. I don't WANT new tracks from a decrepit Sex Pistols - I want to remember and iconize them as they were, and not acquire a sense of disgust and disappointment at what they've become.

This year saw the resurrection of Queen (minus Freddie Mercury), Metallica, and now the Sex Pistols - who's next? Bob Marley? Are they literally going to start raising the dead?

1 comment:

natalie said...

actually, that's pretty cool. i mean, they should be dead, but come on, wouldn't you go to a sex pistols reunion tour? cause i would. and sid vicious (as cute as he was) really doesn't matter in the MUSIC of the pistols, he was more for the aesthetic of the band and punk as a whole. [and he sucked at playing bass. really. sucked.]

but really, it was johnny rotten/lydon that WAS the pistols, and he's still alive, and fucking awesome. i don't disagree with you, that it's weird when bands that should be dead drag themselves up and out of their holes - but it would still be really cool.