#97 With A Bullet

And we find ourselves at 97 with Steve Jones.

I never really turned on to the Sex Pistols...and it seems odd. They probably inspired hundreds of bands I like, and I dig very much their near contemporaries in The Stooges, The MC5, The Saints, Television, The Ramones etc and on it goes. I just don't get much from UK Punk...it all seems a bit picking-your-nose-and-eating-it and giving-the-V-sign...and so by way of this caveat (that I don't much like the band) here is my reading of Steve Jones.

Ho hum. There is nothing going on whatsoever. The whole approach and aesthetic of the band may have inspired but Steve's guitar playing is desperately unremarkable. It is not bad or objectionable...it is just some ordinarily strummed power chords. Obviously he is on the list for his influence but this is more for the band he was in, not for what he played.

I know, I know plenty of people will be apoplectic were they to read this (obviously plenty of people won't read it) but listening to the recommended tracks of God Save The Queen and Pretty Vacant found me unmoved and unsure even of the supposed rage felt by the band. I don't even buy the limp political stance. Give me American punk and hardcore ahead of this any day.