"The Rock n Roll Hall of Fame is about as rock n roll as Wilfred Brimley," I wrote last year on FlynnFiles. Perhaps The Sex Pistols were reading. The one-album wonders (buy it here) scoff at the idea of attending their induction ceremony. "Next to the SEX PISTOLS rock and roll and that hall of fame is a piss stain," the group announced on its website. "Were not your monkey and so what?" In case of confusion, they added: "Were not coming." Sometimes eloquence comes wrapped in an ungrammatical snarl.

That is funny and an appropriate response from the Pistols.

Odd coming from Lydon though if you consider he is the longtime buddy of Richard Branson (Virgin Records) and spent most of the 80's and 90's as frontman for Public Image Limited, an interesting band (influential to boot, maybe more so than the Pistols, at least musically) but one securely part of the mainstream of post-punk alternative music.

But seriously, as a Sex Pistol he has to say bollocks to the music industry, and he does it so well!

Was PIL ever mainstream? They came around too early, in my book, to ride the success of the alternative wave. PIL's "Rise" is one of the best songs of all time, IMO, certainly better than anything the Pistols produced.

Your mentioning of Branson is interesting. The Sex Pistols were a marketing act, every bit as much as NSync or the Monkees. It just so happens that instead of marketing to freshmen girls or children who watch Saturday morning cartoons, the Sex Pistols were marketed to people who find something "real" in being a scumbag, which is why Malcom McLaren put Sid Vicious in the band. Johnny Rotten has always been contrived, and this refusal of the R&RHofF's invitation is marketing too--right down to the deliberate grammar and spelling errors. Still, I agree with the sentiments, so I can't begrudge them.

Point taken. I may be calling them "mainstream" a bit retroactively since in hindsight, and since they lasted till sometime in the early 90's I think, P.I.L became known as one of the more important (though admittedly not so widely known) alt acts. I know they came together out of Johnny "Rotten" Lydon and Branson's friendship and so were always a Virgin Label act, certainly part of the "recording industry" which that Sex Pistol's release gives the finger to.

I definitely agree with the sentiment as well which is probably why I have never been a huge Sex Pistols fan! Like you say they were a tad contrived. I prefer my early Brit punk coming from the likes of Stiff Little Fingers, Generation X, The Jam, and The Damned.

But, hey, the Pistols were the first in the UK and caused kids to make actually good bands so bully for them, but punk rock just simply does not belong in the HoF.

The Sex Pistols for the R&R Hall of Fame? Who's next? Flock of Seagulls?

What exactly, did the Sex Pistols do that warrants a spot in the Rock and Roll hall of fame? Sid Vicious couldn't even play the bass, they had to turn his amp off during shows.

plain and simple the sex pistols blew. as did the whole punk rock thing. as for the hall, any org. that snubbed Black Sabbath for so long aint worth sheeeat!

How ironic that the Sex Pistols say, " we're not your monkeys", when, in fact, they WERE "The Monkeys of punk rock"; contrived, over-hyped, self destructive and delusional.

The main difference between the two is
that The Monkeys were backed by top notch studio musicians and actually had some hits in the U.S.

He's not called Johnny Rotten for nothing.

The Sex Pistols for the R&R Hall of Fame? Who's next? Flock of Seagulls?

Posted by asdf at February 25, 2006 11:08 AM

No...Right Said Fred!