Sex Pistols: The punk icons Paul McCartney said were “doomed from the start”
Paul McCartney was never one for punching down when it came to rating rock bands. In a world where John Lennon was always known for bringing up the worst aspects of his own songs, Macca was always looking to look on the bright side of life, giving Eric Idle a run for his money before Monty Python got ahold of that sentiment. He could notice a bit of a trainwreck when he saw one, and as he was settling into his role in Wings, he knew that Sex Pistols would burn out way too quickly.
As far as punk was concerned, though, McCartney stood for everything they were against. The new school of rock and roll had seen their predecessors get far more bloated with each passing record, and it was only a matter of time before they started writing the kind of songs that no one in their audience could relate to anymore.
Despite the punk revolution officially starting America with Ramones’ first album, it wasn’t until John Lydon had the idea for a band that the look and fashion fell into place. Throughout Nevermind the Bollocks, Lydon was spewing out his feelings about everything that was pissing him off in the world, from the royal hierarchy on ‘God Save the Queen’ to his own label in ‘EMI’.
They may have wanted nothing to do with acts like The Beatles, but McCartney said he was an avid fan of theirs. When looking at their demise, though, the former Beatle saw the writing on the wall, saying, “If you listen to the music, that’s the enthusiasm for me. It took kids like that and the energy they could bring to it to really rock out. I don’t go for the publicity because that was always doomed from the start.”
For a band like Sex Pistols, the publicity played as much of a role in their development as the music did. They would never claim to be the best musicians in the world, but their entire ethos was centred around making as much noise as possible and calling out anyone who they thought didn’t represent the true punks of the world.
It’s not like McCartney was off the mark for the band going too fast, either. Take their first major media moment on television they made and compare that to where they were just months later. They had fired bassist Glen Matlock in exchange for Sid Vicious, and despite looking the part, they were dead in the water once they went to America, with Sid doping himself up too much and Lydon eventually announcing from the stage at their last gig that they wouldn’t be playing again.
Say what you want to about Paul McCartney, but at least he knew how to keep a group together at the best of times. The Beatles may not have lasted more than a few years, but McCartney did what he could to steer the ship forward, whereas Lydon seemed to not care one way or the other if the band ended in two years or two weeks.
Once they are measured in the grand history of rock and roll, though, McCartney and Lydon’s legacies will be much different. Sex Pistols may have understood the meaning of burning out rather than fading away, but McCartney has cemented his status as a living legend with every song he has released since The Beatles.
