A Record Review by Ted Fisher

I love my friends and none more than Ted Fisher. We've been pals a long time, yes, but the fact is our tastes don't often converge. So when I found this product review he'd written over at Amazon, I was really pleasantly surprised to find the two of us in such close accord.

True, we are both pretty much the same age and grew up together in similar environs. And, yes, we liked a lot of the same stuff, music especially, when we were teenagers. But since then, our opinions have matured independently and it really shows lately. He's basically a nut for classical (and is becoming quite learned on the subject) and I'm... not. Or not as much.

So when I read this recent piece of his, I had to smile over how, after all this time (it's been since, I think, 1993 that we last stood in the same room) we still share a few things, so I thought I'd share just one of them with you.

The Record That Changed It All

by Ted Fisher

July 10, 2008

I just listened to this record again after I went to a Sex Pistols concert on the 4th of July, 2008 in Slovakia, of all places. It is still a great record after more than 30 years, although hearing them in concert singing about the Berlin Wall ("Holidays in the Sun") and their spat with their former record label ("EMI") did sound a bit dated today.

I think a lot of reviewers have it right when they call this the "album that changed everything". But I don't think most of them go far enough, because they seem to limit it to punk. Without the Sex Pistols, we would not have had New Wave, which within a few years turned into the industry mainstream. The Police? Not there (so no Sting either!). U2? No way. Duran Duran? Nope. The B-52s? Don't kid yourself. Devo? Well, maybe -- but probably in a different form. The musical reality that we now know as the 1980s could not have happened without the Sex Pistols. They really did change everything.

This isn't just the "greatest punk album of all time", which it actually may or may not be. It's the album that set the stage on which the musical background of the entire Reagan era was played. (Let's ignore "Thriller" and Stevie Nicks for a moment -- great as their achievements may be...)

Understanding the evolution of pop and rock music into what we have today means, at a minimum, understanding Elvis, the Beatles and the Sex Pistols. Those are the guys that came along and changed everything -- the paradigm shifts, as they say. (Number 4 is probably Grandmaster Flash, but let's ignore that as well for now...)

The Sex Pistols were far from a perfect band. Image got in the way of the music quite a lot -- in part because the project was launched by Malcolm McLaren, who wanted a band out there that would let him sell more clothes at his London shop, called "Sex", dealing in what would become punk fashion. Unfortunately for the band, the image obsession meant replacing Glen Matlock, who could actually play his bass and who played a key songwriting role, with Sid Vicious, who had little musical ability but who looked nasty and didn't have Matlock's feathered, Bay City Rollers-style hair. Vicious was a disaster, and met a disastrous end.

But none of that really interferes with the record -- Matlock plays bass on much of it, and where he doesn't, guitarist Steve Jones fills in. No Sid here.

The Sex Pistols were more of an idea than a band, really. The image often took over everything. Thankfully, the real merit of the record is the music. This isn't just guitar distortion, crashing drums and shouting. The songs almost all have melodies that grab you from the start. (The only real exception is "New York", which I still wouldn't recognize in a lineup today, although I've heard it hundreds of times.)

Steve Jones' guitar playing is remarkably tight, and really is brilliant in many places. His style really is minimalist, but you don't immediately notice that through the power and distortion. Where he does use flourishes, they are melodic and memorable. Johnny Rotten, the vocalist, creates a thoroughly misanthropist persona simply using his voice. The sound he creates is unique and quintessentially punk, and he doesn't have to actually say "I hate you" because you can feel it. In many ways he created the mold for most punk singers after him, including a way of phrasing that lets you know he doesn't care what you or anyone else thinks.

Actually, seeing the Sex Pistols in concert today is a totally different experience in two important ways. First, Glen Matlock back on bass, still with his feathered hair, and this puts the music rather than the image in focus. Second is a complete change in Johnny Rotten -- or actually John Lydon, as he now goes by the name of his birth. He no longer hates everybody and everything, but actually seems to really enjoy himself and to genuinely like people in his own "in your face" way. When I saw them in concert, he waved his naked paunch at us like a belly dancer and told us: "We love ya." This was not the Pistols of 1977, but rather more like a thoroughly enjoyable 2008 tribute band to the Pistols of the past.

Enough from me -- just get it. This is one of the basics. You don't have to like it, but there's a good chance that after a couple of listens you will find something to your liking. I think everyone should at least know what the Sex Pistols were and sounded like.

Also keep in mind that these people who seemed to make the selling of nastiness and destruction their livelihood at the time are warm and fuzzy middle-aged guys today. They weren't actually hateful, they just seemed that way.