Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs
by John Lydon
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Book Summary Information
Author: John LydonEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1995-02-15
ISBN: 031211883X
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Picador
Book Reviews of Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs
Book Review: Johnny Was a Punk Rock Hero
Summary: 5 Stars
Today, 30 years after the Sex Pistols lit the fire that was punk rock, Johnny Rotten (n' John Joseph Lydon) is still a (minor?) rock celebrity, with his own show on VH1, a radio program, and an autobiography. I'm sure many people who've seen his (actually, quite cutting and hilarious) show--Rotten Television-- on cable think he's just another pop culture character with a funny name without much to back it up. However, the truth is that Johnny Rotten presided over one of the single most exciting and influential moments in rock culture history. This "Rotten" persona is one of integrity and humor, and deep, biting sarcasm that, in the mid-70s, threatened to destroy the entire community of popular music. It was not a joke, and many, many people were frightened of him in a way that seems almost naive and quaint at this turn of the century.Published originally in hardcover in 1994, Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs (the sub-title is a reference to signs that hung in some public places in Britain in the 50s) is easily one of the best books on punk rock. I only recently acquired a copy of it, having read parts of it throughout the years but never from start to finish until now. I remember when it came out: I worked in a bookstore and only myself and another employee cared, and since we were in charge of displays were shoved aside the Clancys and the Steels and the Kings and put "Rotten" front and center. For several days Rots glared out at in-coming customers. We thought this was a good laugh.What makes "Rotten" so great is its rich, insightful, witty style. Whether describing his Dickensian childhood, the outrageous perversions of public schools, his misadventures with a young Sid Vicious, or the Great Rock'n'Roll Swindle itself, Lydon comes off as honest to a fault, with a sharp tongue (of course you knew that) and a sharp eye. His prickly Irish background is evident in his mania for the odd, gruesome little details that bring these stories to life. You really get a first-hand, in-depth look at the original punk movement. Lydon recalls the heady excitements, the furious disappointments, and the beatings with captivating style. There is no nostalgia here, for Lydon's persona will allow no such niceties, and the scene at the time was too intense for that to suffice nowadays."Pop culture assassins" was how Malcolm McLaren saw the Sex Pistols, and it's quite apt. Despite the notorious conflicts between Lydon and McLaren, they did see (sort of) eye-to-eye on the ridiculous nature of music and celebrity as it was in the mid-70s. Diatribes against Elvis, Paul McCartney and the record company establishment itself abound. Story after story is recounted about the attempt by savvy teens at the time to create their own youth culture for themselves. Lydon describes perfectly the individuality, the fashion, the attitudes of early punks that he came to personify. I can't imagine the stamina and self-possession it must have taken for a 19-year-old to become one of the most lauded and vilified people of the day. To quote Rotten himself, "We mean it, maaan!" And he did: he meant every word. He knew he had the truth on his side. There is much fun to be had reading Rotten and lots to be learned. It reads at once as a sociological piece about youth cultures in Great Britain, and as a hilarious, sometimes scary, sometimes sad, yet always exciting and inspiring rock'n'roll autobiography. With sometimes slightly contradictory contributions from Steve Jones, Paul Cook, Chrissie Hynde, Billy Idol, Bob Gruen and others, it's not nearly as self-serving as you may think, for Lydon--as always--cuts out all ... and gives you a completely un-romanticized picture of true Punk Rock.
Summary of Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs
"I have no time for lies and fantasy, and neither should you. Enjoy or die..." --John Lydon
Punk has been romanticized and embalmed in various media. An English class revolt that became a worldwide fashion statement, punk's idols were the Sex Pistols, and its sneering hero was Johnny Rotten.
Seventeen years later, John Lydon looks back at himself, the Sex Pistols, and the "no future" disaffection of the time. Much more than just a music book, Rotten is an oral history of punk: angry, witty, honest, poignant, crackling with energy. Malcolm McLaren, Sid Vicious, Chrissie Hynde, Billy Idol, London and England in the late 1970s, the Pistols' creation and collapse...all are here, in perhaps the best book ever written about music and youth culture, by one of its most notorious figures.
Punk has been romanticized and embalmed in various media. An English class revolt that became a worldwide fashion statement, punk's idols were the Sex Pistols, and its sneering hero was Johnny Rotten.
Seventeen years later, John Lydon looks back at himself, the Sex Pistols, and the "no future" disaffection of the time. Much more than just a music book, Rotten is an oral history of punk: angry, witty, honest, poignant, crackling with energy. Malcolm McLaren, Sid Vicious, Chrissie Hynde, Billy Idol, London and England in the late 1970s, the Pistols' creation and collapse...all are here, in perhaps the best book ever written about music and youth culture, by one of its most notorious figures.
"Much has been written about the Sex Pistols. Much of it has either been sensationalism or journalistic psychobabble. The rest has been mere spite. This book is as close to the truth as one can get ... This means contradictions and insults have not been edited, and neither have the compliments, if any. I have no time for lies or fantasy, and neither should you. Enjoy or die."
So writes author John Lydon, a.k.a. Johnny Rotten, in his introduction to the book Rotten, an oral history of punk: angry, honest, and crackling with energy. Seventies punk has been romanticized by the media and the up-and-coming punk bands of today, but the sneering, leering disaffection of that time has been lost. Now, Lydon candidly and at times, dare we say it, fondly looks back at himself, the Sex Pistols, and the "no future" attitude of the time. Rolling Stone calls Lydon a "pavement philosopher whose Dickensian roots blossom with Joycean color," and the San Francisco Chronicle calls Rotten an "invaluable [book] ... sheds welcome light on that short period of great music and spasmodic cultural change."
Bollocks you say? Read, sneer, and enjoy or die.
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