JOHN LYDON MUST DIE
Just kidding...I read Billy's post about our punk icons selling out. McClaren was always a peckerwood to me...but Johnny Rotten?Never the sell out.
If you were hardcore about the punk thing,he was a sellout from the get go. After the pistols anyway...The Pistols blew up in Austin around '77...The first single I bought was Pretty vacant b/w No Fun,The cover had a pair of buses going to boredom and nowhere...stops that haunt me to this day.
PIL's record "Generic" was a constant on my turntable..."rise" being a favorite.But he "sold out".I was a big Clash fan, but they too,"sold out"...Black Flag,Social Distortion and more bands than I can remember "sold out"...Henry Rollins is the biggest sellout of all...but I still love him.
The bands I listened to that didn't "sell out"...The Jam(who broke up before the sell out but weller resurfaced before the scab was dry and did just that),Subhumans,FOPI,CRASS,Amebix,faded away from memory because they didn't "sell out".There are more than I can reference...but the point is this...
I believe if you have a message that catches on...no,wait...If you strike a chord with the masses initially and get a major contract...no, wait...If you don't jump on it (read:sell out) You are destined to the discount/cut-out bin and stories of what could of been and a body of work,that if your'e lucky will bob up every 10 years or so,like dennis leary's "asshole"...an overlooked novelty,whether you were serious or not.
And given the opportunity to sell out,you will...and they did...except for Amebix...yet.
Punk rock is a distant memory,obscured by the blink182-offspring-good charlotte abortions that it spawned,remembered by people like me....40 something's with a chip on their shoulders who dust off the vinyl and rue the day they "sold out"...................