The band John Lydon called “the Journey of the ’90s”
You cannot get much further away from the defiant sounds of the punk rock revolution than Journey. The San Francisco rock outfit defined styles of self-indulgent, profit-driven arena rock. In other words: Journey represented everything that punk hated. After all, the genre was built upon a DIY ethos and a complete rejection of commercialism and the mainstream music industry. So, if Sex Pistols frontman John Lydon identifies a group as being comparable to the middle-the-road stylings of Journey, he probably isn’t a huge fan.
Ironically, Lydon was instrumental in the creation of one of punk rock’s most commercial groups. The Sex Pistols were concocted by music mogul and clothes salesman Malcolm McLaren, based almost entirely upon looks, rather than ability or dedication to the cause. Nevertheless, the intense success of the Pistols managed to popularise punk, spreading the revolution to the suburbs and provincial towns of the UK and spawning countless bands to follow in their footsteps.
Since his days as Britain’s archetypal angry young man, Lydon has repeatedly voiced his disgust of current music trends and artists. Over the years, the part-time butter salesman has taken aim at everybody from The Ramones to Pet Shop Boys. However, there is only one group for Lydon that earned the distressing moniker of being the 1990s equivalent of Journey.
During an interview back in 1995, the Public Image Ltd frontman assertively said, “Pearl Jam’s the Journey of the ’90s”. That statement is particularly controversial given the grunge beginnings of Pearl Jam. Formed in Seattle, Washington in 1990, Pearl Jam were the latest in a growing group of rock outfits that embraced the grunge genre. In many ways, grunge was a natural follow-on from punk, imbued with the same anti-consumerist ethos and DIY method of music making.
Despite Lydon’s clear influence on grunge, he did not seem convinced by the bands that made up the scene. “Only a fool thinks that those bands don’t have publicity machines behind them,” he said, in a statement that is particularly ironic when looking at the origins of the Sex Pistols. “To pretend otherwise is really, really phoney,” Lydon continued, “They are calculated businesses, which is all fine, I don’t see anything wrong with that, just be honest about it, don’t pretend you’re doing this for the kids, because, really, they’re not”.
Although he might be a little harsh, Lydon’s opinions on Pearl Jam do ring true to some extent. Out of the grunge scene, Pearl Jam were certainly the most mainstream in terms of sound. Their records are much closer to the sound of arena rock groups like Journey than they were to the abrasive sounds of Nirvana or Mudhoney, for example.
Whatever your opinions of Pearl Jam, or John Lydon, his views expressed in that 1995 interview should be taken with a pinch of salt. Not long after he took aim at Pearl Jam, he expressed his disgust at the commercialism of MTV, concluding, “That’s exactly why I won’t re-form [the Sex Pistols]”. However, only a year after the interview took place, Lydon did participate in a six-month reunion tour with the Sex Pistols.
