The “silly” punk band John Lydon called “an imitation of a comedy act”
There aren’t too many bands that John Lydon has been able to give the seal of approval to.
Lydon has routinely become a bastion of absolutely battering bands. The punk icon has never been one to be quiet when shouting will do, and Lydon has often given himself the chance to ridicule some of the genre’s greatest artists. In fact, for the most part, Lydon has played this game of pin the insult on the punk band more than he has actually been in a punk band himself.
Ever the frontman, Lydon has lived up to his “rotten” persona every time he has opened his mouth for an interview, willing to push the envelope or drag any artist through the mud that he thinks deserves it. Although Lydon may have helped invent the punk aesthetic, he felt that one band represented the nadir of what the genre stood for.
When Lydon and Steve Jones first put together Sex Pistols, the entire ethos around the band was destroying all the norms that had come before them. Even though the musicianship wasn’t on the same level as other mainstream rock bands, the energy that they created on Nevermind the Bollocks became a lightning rod for controversy, spawning legions of imitators in their wake.
As the 1980s began, the punk scene drifted towards newer sounds. Once MTV took over, the next wave of punk moved underground, with bands like Minor Threat emerging with the hardcore movement and a DIY aesthetic to their career. Although Lydon had already reinvented himself in Public Image Ltd by then, punk was bound to see another reinvention once grunge broke.
Despite bands like Nirvana leaning into the punk mindset, most mainstream audiences didn’t get their dose of punk until it blended into pop sounds. Starting with acts like Green Day, fans were suddenly proud to dye their hair any colour they liked and rally against the authority in their lives, even if that authority was their parents telling them they had to wake up to go to school.
While Lydon had no time for Green Day during his tenure, the sounds got even more mainstream when Blink-182 started making waves around 1999. With the release of Enema of the State, the punk trio quickly became the darlings of MTV, often taking the piss out of the traditional music video format with their clips for ‘What’s My Age Again’ and ‘All the Small Things’.
For all of their posturing, though, Lydon was not impressed with the band when he first heard them. When asked about whether he was a fan of the band, Lydon replied, “No. Isn’t that that bunch of silly boys? They’re an imitation of a comedy act. They’re so bad they should be permanently featured on Saturday Night Live, which, as far as I can see, is the ultimate insult”.
Of course, it’s fair to say that Blink-182 have been concerned with comedy in their work from the very start, and, most punks, would recoil at the idea that the trio would represent their genre. But it still feels somewhat unnecessary for Lydon to be quite so cruel.
Regardless of Lydon’s words, that didn’t stop the band from becoming one of the biggest names in music for the next few years. Outside of strictly punk rock, Blink-182 would continue to evolve their sound until their hiatus, eventually flirting with the sounds of new wave and post-punk and even including a guest verse from The Cure’s Robert Smith on their song ‘All Of This’.
Then again, Lydon’s hatred for the band may have come from two completely distinct kinds of punk rock. Sex Pistols may have been about tearing down the established order, but Blink-182 were built from the same punk fun that Ramones had started around the same time.
