The musician Joe Strummer said was the heart of Sex Pistols: “You gotta have a tune”
Punk remains elusive. The origin of the movement, and what band was responsible for it, remains in perfect contention.
Many fans would tell you that the genre first found form towards the back end of the 1970s with John Lydon leading what was essentially a sonic revolution. Britain had always struggled to find its feet after World War 2, and following a string of centrist Prime Ministers from 1945 until the moment John Lydon wrote “I hate” on his Pink Floyd T-shirt, the UK was plunged into complete disarray.
That hardship, paired with a bunch of musicians who were happy to wear their frustration on their sleeves, led to the creation of a barrage of bitter tunes that vocalised their disdain for the country. ‘Anarchy In The UK’ was one of their biggest songs, as John Lydon managed to pack angst into every single lyric he uttered.
“Early seventies Britain was a very depressing place. It was completely run-down, there was trash on the streets, total unemployment – just about everybody was on strike,” said Lydon when discussing the backdrop to punk, “Everybody was brought up with an education system that told you point blank that if you came from the wrong side of the tracks… then you had no hope in hell and no career prospects at all. Out of all that came pretentious moi, and the Sex Pistols and then a whole bunch of copycat wankers after us.”
When talking of “copycat wankers” Lydon will have, on some level, been referring to The Clash. Despite Sex Pistols and The Clash often being cited as two of the biggest punk bands on the planet, Lydon wasn’t remotely a fan, as he felt that the bands weren’t genuine and instead put on a facade when they played.
“They really didn’t seem to stand for very much at all other than this abstract socialism,” said Lydon when discussing the band. He also said that Joe Strummer put on an act to the public in a bid to keep up appearances.
“There were some things that The Clash said that really, really challenged my sense of good nature. I mean, talk about class war, Joe Strummer was living in a mansion,” said the Sex Pistol, “No. Fuck that. Look, he pretended to hop off buses, you know, like in his studded leather jacket. It’s nothing personal, I liked Joe. But you can’t be a champagne socialist, you’ve got to be more honest with us than that.”
Given Lydon had such harsh words to say about Strummer, it seems fitting that The Clash member also felt that Lydon wasn’t the most influential band member in the Sex Pistols. Granted, you would be a fool to suggest that Lydon’s lyricism didn’t contribute to the band’s hype, but he wouldn’t have had anything to sing over were it not for Glen Matlock. This is who Joe Strummer praised as being the heart of the Sex Pistols, as he said that without the musicianship of Matlock, you wouldn’t have the iconic songs that the punk band would start a revolution with.
“I was for it, because I’m a Glenn Matlock fan,” said Strummer, “Remember nine-tenths of their career was with Glenn Matlock, and hey, he wrote the tune to ‘Anarchy in the UK’. You gotta have a tune, you can’t just shout gibberish.”
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