The song Johnny Thunders wrote to attack the Sex Pistols
The punk subculture is most closely associated with images that emerged from the genre’s explosion in Britain during the mid-to-late 1970s. From trousers held together by safety pins to defaced pictures of Queen Elizabeth II, much of this iconography is intrinsically tied to the Sex Pistols.
Johnny Rotten and the band kickstarted punk in England, taking inspiration from New York bands who were pioneering the genre across the pond. Soon, punk became one of the most influential musical movements, and it is hard to imagine the state of contemporary guitar music without the existence of the genre.
However, in keeping with the Sex Pistols’ raucous, outspoken image, lead vocalist Rotten often hit out at other artists, particularly New York bands who claimed to have innovated punk first. To Rotten, being working-class was intrinsic to punk’s ethos, and he believed that many New York punks were too intellectual and pretentious to be authentic. He once described these ‘rival’ punk bands as “poetry-based and too arty and old fashioned”.
Rotten was not a fan of The New York Dolls, one of the earliest bands to be labelled with the term ‘punk’. Formed in 1971, the band merged hard rock with burgeoning glam rock influences, and Rotten was anything but impressed. Thus, the Sex Pistols penned the scathing song ‘New York’, in which they label the band an “imitation”, “hippie tarts”, and “just a pile of shit”. Rotten is anything but kind in his brutal takedown of the band, even referencing their song ‘Looking For A Kiss’ with the words “You’re sealed with a kiss/ Kiss me.”
Of course, the nature of punk is to hit back, not remain silent, so it didn’t take long for another song to be delivered in retaliation. In 1978, Johnny Thunders, a former member of The New York Dolls, released the song ‘London Boys’, which takes not-so-subtle digs at the Sex Pistols. Asserting himself with the introductory lines, “You best believe I’m from New York City,” Thunders directly responds to Rotten’s request to “better keep your mouth shut” with the words “well, you’re telling me to shut my mouth/ If I wasn’t kissing, you wouldn’t be around.”
In a battle of ‘who invented punk first’, Thunders even hits out at the Sex Pistols’ reliance on manager Malcolm McLaren, who previously managed The New York Dolls. “You sit at home, you got a chaperone/ You need an escort to take a piss/ He holds your hand, and he shakes your dick,” he brutally sings.
Listen to Thunders’ ruthless takedown of the Sex Pistols below.
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