Rotting John
Bell Boy!
As is customary at the start of a new year, it is time to honor the fallen of the previous. Perhaps one of the saddest obituaries to write is that of former punk legend, John Lydon.
I was born too late to be a punk, but in many ways the punk ethic forms what I do… the suspicion of authority, the DIY attitude, the ability to claim I can play an instrument without any lessons or previous experience… and so Mr Rotten was a guiding light in my youth, an ambassador of anarchy and unrefined creativity.
Sure, he was a bit gobby and occasionally misguided, but who isn’t?
But his death was a tragic affair, a long drawn out illness which came to finally claim him in 2008.
It started with a serious loss of credibility in 2004 when he appeared on the reality TV show ‘I’m a Celebrity’… immediately we knew something was wrong, why would someone of such fine credentials be appearing on a third-rate programme, especially one in which participation insinuates he would consider himself nothing more than ‘a celebrity’?
We watched and we winced as he endured bush trials and maddeningly lame conversation with other celebrities, all whilst mugging to the camera in a mockery of his punkier years.
Really, the vet should have been called and he should have been put out of his misery then.
But his sickness progressed. Reports started coming in about him behaving in a manner entirely unexpected of a self-proclaimed punk…
The first relates to an incident backstage at the Summercase festival in Barcelona, where apparently Lydon presided over a verbal and phycial racist assault on the Bloc Party singer, Kele Okereke. Lydon denies this happened, but other performers back up Okereke’s account. Racism? That’s not really what you’d expect, and as far as I understand it is not compatible with the punk ethic… but getting your entourage to fight for you, that’s really low.
But it gets worse, another assault, this time by Lydon himself… on a woman, the Welsh pop singer Duffy. Bad form, and obviously the later stages of the illness that killed him.
Of course, his last gasp of life, as far as we know occured when he ditched everything we respected about him, and basically erased everything he had ever said when he made a television advert for Country Life butter.
So, there we have it, another dead idol.
Yes, a sad day. We can also add the late Iggy Pop to the list who I saw on an insurance advert yesterday.
I saw that too… at least we can forgive Iggy and his drug-addled mind as I don’t think he’s ever said anything about not being a corporate shill.
Whenever I think of Iggy Pop, I think of ‘Iggy Pop’s Ocelot Shop’ from that one song….
ha I hadn’t seen (or heard) that before.
I’m a bit slow before I’ve had my coffee. I spent a few paragraphs thinking “I don’t recall John Lydon dying…”
I’ll state for the record that I’m completely willing to sell out- for a decent price, even. Unfortunately, I don’t have anything to sell to the out.
I can give you loads of money NOT to sell out…
Yay! Where do I stand in that line?
At the paradoxical end…
I’m fairly certain I’m already standing there.
Oh, no…Johnny Rotten. I loved you well.
Oh, yes. Sadly…
tis so sad to see the great johnny rotten doing adds for butter, just as sad as it is to see iggy pop do insurance adverts…i mean WHY???? I swear if I turn round and see Bowie or Blondie or Slash doing ads for butter and car insurance I’m jumping in front of a bus!!!
the only rock legend who has kept any sort of credbility by doing an advert is ozzy osbourne doing the wolrd of warcraft adverts which are HILARIOUS…
Those are quite amusing, but they turn excruciating when they happen to come on while you’re watching college football with your tee-totalling, Southern Baptist great-grandparents. That was a thirty second block of my Christmas holiday that I could have done without.
I have this love/hate feelings towards Johnny Rotten. But it’s sad to see a piece of punk history gone. RIP John Lydon.
“I have this love/hate feelings”
are they tattooed on your knuckles?
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It makes me cringe and he is a sell-out etc. But I have to say, I’ve tried that particular brand of butter, and It does taste the best.
Me too… and I too can say it isn’t too bad on a crumpet or two (or five), but I’ve never been the figurehead of a punk movement.
That said, I wouldn’t sink so low as to do reality TV.
I bought the butter, but then I gave it away. Is that punk? I never really entered a social scene, rather preferring to ‘go my own way’ – still, it’s always quite worrying to meet someone dressed the same as you.
Tangent aside, maybe he needs the money?
“maybe he needs the money”
Then he should write songs, play some music, practice what he preaches… even asking for money… I’d rather donate to the ’stop a punk selling out fund’ than watch him shill butter on the the television.
There’s probably loads of ways he could make money as loads of people are still fans of him and his music…(maybe not so much since this though haha)
I would understand a bit more if he was one of those old music stars who have completely disappeared off the radar, but he’s not so its just tragic.
Oh come on, people. The Sex Pistols themselves were started as an advertisement for a clothing store. Lydon’s entire career has been built on being a facetious arsehole.
Besides, the Ramones were way better.
You’re not wrong… but just like the way the Monkees were a manufactured band that gained creative and artistic independance before they dropped out of public view, I was hoping the Pistols would try to maintain some facade of integrity.
Not to be.
And yes, the Ramones are way better…. Indeed, I think that’s part of my ire… There are plenty of punk bands without the acclaim of the Pistols who were far better, produced better music, were more punk and still maintain their credentials…
Does any one really give a fuck about punk?
*mutters about star trek and WoW and goes for breakfast*
“Does any one really give a fuck about punk?”
There’s an entire blog post up top- followed by a series of comments- that heavily suggest that people do, in fact, give a fuck about punk.
I’m not sure how Star Trek and WoW apply to punk and butter.
Anyway, isn’t punk about anarchy? Atleast I think it is, judging by the large number of so called punks sporting anarchy tattoos (I’m unique, just like every one else).
This bloke couldn’t be more punk then. He has gone against what you expect and has offended you, clearly he doesn’t give a flying fuck about what you think.
You should hail him as a true hero of the punki ethos.
It is about anarchy… and doing the unexpected…
The problem is that a musician who claims he is a punk and then sells out isn’t unexpected… it’s the same thing they always do, and that’s what is so disappointing.
I never expected him not to sell out… I just hoped he wouldn’t.
And threatening women, I suppose could be seen as his movement towards equality for the genders… but as I see it he’s just a jumped up idiot.
I could have forgiven Johnny Rotten if he’d only said “I can’t tell Country Life Butter from a dead crab.”
(The dead crab, she said she said)
I can’t forgive this, and I can’t forgive Iggy Pop letting the Man use “Lust for Life” to sell people on cruise ship tickets, and I can’t forgive Billy Idol for recording a CD of Christmas standards without a trace of irony.
But I’ll forgive Bob Dylan for doing a Victoria’s Secret commercial, because he once said, some thirty-odd years ago, that the only thing he’d ever sell out for would be women’s underwear, and he kept his word.
I would have forgiven him is he had said that Country Life tastes like dead crab…
but he didn’t…
Go Dylan. If I’m going to sell out, it will be for a teleporting device.
Lol. One’s on my left knee, and the other on my right. Johnny likes it hard:).
Ha! That’s ace, knee tattoos.
The man was on Judge Judy in the ’90’s. Unironically.
Judge. Judy.
Seriously.
I mean, what’s a butter commercial compared to Judge Fucking Judy?
“what’s a butter commercial compared to Judge Fucking Judy?” – probably the thought that went through his punk-addled mind when he accepted to pimp Country Life.
Judge Judy… I think you’re right, it doesn’t get any lower than that.
And if it does, Lydon will find it.
u @$%ing wankers don’t get it this is still classic johnny. he’s just not doing what you poser corpses EXPECT FROM HIM. HE NEVER DID. he’s still doing what the @$%& he wants and being rude about it. check out his attitude back in 1980. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BZ2UoBZzEI&
he was always VACANT. AND NEVER CARED.
PISS OFF!!!
Hey there, Sid, you big old punk fanboy you.
I don’t mind you calling me a wanker, but don’t ever call the people who read this comic that again. It shows a complete lack of intelligence on your part and somewhat undermines your attempt to salvage the reputation of your hero.
‘Classic Johnny’ – I stand by my statement, he’s a former boyband member turned homophobic, violent corporate shill – He’s no more punk than daytime television.
What I do also find shocking is your self-censorship. Free speech is good, express yourself without the need for the ampersand and the asterisk.
Must say though, I admire you telling everyone to piss off. It’s like a formal punk sign off – Like the Hippie ‘peace out’.
I’ll sit on the fence with mine… Peace Off.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhiFG03mtRI&
OH. AND UP YOURS!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh dear, Sid.
You’re starting to sound like a charicature of the 1980s sterotypical punk… a bit like Vivian from ‘The Young Ones’.
What I’m saying is that I somehow doubt your punk credentials now… believing more that you are probly some fifteen year old who still lives with his mum (she buys your clothes, right? But you customise them by putting holes in them)… or, what’s maybe worse, you might be one of those Americans who tries to speak with a fake English accent and ends up sounding like a stroke victim?
Which is it, Sid?
Is SID an acronym? Maybe Sudden Infant Death? Or was it meant to be Sid, but you forgot what the Caps Lock key does?
Ben´s last blog ..Hopping Mouse
Aww, that’s so sweet! I’m sure that Johnny will send you postcard for your support. Actually, he probably won’t, as that’s what we EXPECT!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZimbxYoRe2U
i do believe ALL THE POSTERS ON THIS SITE ARE BLOODY WANKERS.
UP YOURS, ALL OF U.
AND PISS OF, ADAM!!!
Hey there Mr ALLCAPS,
Glad you came back, because I wasn’t quite finished with you…
“i do believe ALL THE POSTERS ON THIS SITE ARE BLOODY WANKERS.”
That’s a lovely generalisation there. I’m assuming you’ve met them all and read all of the comments posted on this site? You see, that’s the sort of gross assumption and lack of tolerance that tells me you aren’t punk in the slightest.
It also implies that you, as a poster on this site, are a wanker. At least that makes one correct point. Well done.
“UP YOURS”
Yes, as you already said… consider ours very much ‘up’… can you not think of a better insult than that? I mean that’s the sort of insult you can hear on children’s television these days…
“AND PISS OF, ADAM!!!”
Sid, you’re a legend, I take it all back, you really are ‘punk’, so punk that in the all consuming rage of injustice you’ve decided to replace the letter ‘f’ with a comma… no one is going to expect that, and there we have, sticking it to the man and breaking down social norms with spelling errors.
Rock on.
I believe “Piss of Adam” is a required ingredient for a Lancashire witches’ brew.
Joseph Hewitt´s last blog ..The Other
Well ofcourse, amongst all of the other things that I am, I am a wanker.
I spend months at a time in remote and isolated parts of the Australian Outback (you might need an atlas, then some time at school to figure out how to use it…), hundreds of kilometers (not miles) from the nearest female. It is even further if you raise the standard to the nearest female that is obviously female. Thousands if you consider that the only female I want to see is my gf.
The kind of wanker I am not, is the kind of wanker you are, which the kind that last about 10mins in the real world once every one realises how much of a fucking tosser you are (did you see that there? No self-censoring, great huh?).
I am going to piss off, I have a sunrise to watch, 15km of track and pipe to survey, some photos to take, etc, I might even go goat hunting if I get time. In the mean time, feel free to go fuck yourself.
Ben´s last blog ..Thorny Devil
Surely if all the posters on the site are, as you put it, “WANKERS”, this would include you, as you told us this in, um, a post. (What’s wrong with masturbation anyhow- do you find yourself lacking the necessary equipment?)
I would also like to impart at this juncture that mine is also up (indeed, as far as it may go without injuring anybody.
Your what is up?
Is it that time of morning? Maybe you should do something about, cold shower, cold spoon, photos of Dame Edna?
Ben´s last blog ..Thorny Devil
It’s all a question of money…