Feel how sex pistols die

“Have you ever had the impression of having been cheated?” In the acid, irritating and sarcastic phrase called by Johnny Rotten, at the end of the last date of the American Sex Pistols tour, the entire epic of the band is enclosed. A path that lasted just over two years, but so intense as to seem five times a lot.

That the real economic success could only be achieved by breaking through in the United States was now a conclated fact from the time of the British Invasion of Beatles and Stones, but also in years closer to the raids of the pistols another half half a rock'n'roll fraud had transformed David Bowie into a superstar also on the other side of the ocean. “David, if you want to become a rock star, you have to behave like a rock star even before being it.” More or less with these words Tony Defries had managed to transform Bowie into a legend also in America, where substantially even after the release of Ziggy Stordust One half -unknown remained. The result of that madness, especially economic, were SANE Aladdin (the Ziggy American, in fact) and a tour that cost much more than what he managed to collect, but which in all respects gave an image of Bowie capable of enchanting the American audience.

Malcolm McLaren, who had tried to bring the New York Dolls to success, perfected the shot with his subsequent project: transforming four misconducts of worker London into the most dangerous group in the world. And, above all, to make it believe even the most reactionary and bigoted part of the States, that to be clear that he did not even know of the existence of the Ramones or Dolls, who also came from their land and that that dangerousness really embodied it.

Finally, after circulating for decades such as Bootleg, they see the official publication (extended individually and gathered in the box set Live in the USA On April 24) three American concerts from 1978 which are also the last of the sex pistols before the dissolution of the training made up of Rotten, Sid Vicious, Paul Cook and Steve Jones. It is not the original line-up, which saw the presence of Glen Matlock, author of almost all their pieces, and it is not even the latest formation, given that for a while the band went on tirelessly without Rotten. It is the one that went down in history. Those concerts entered the myth not so much for the musical value, but because they are full of the clichés of the drifting band, in which the ego, idiocy and unconsciousness were at levels such as to make that first tour on American land a bomb ready to explode without any notice.

The first descent in the south of the United States, scheduled for December 1977, had been canceled even before starting due to the reluctance of the authorities to host such a problematic group. To add a little pepper, McLaren had thought it well to ask some of his acquaintances to bring with him a large number of rednecks capable of unleashing panic inside and out of concert halls. The result, goes without saying, was disconcerting. Above all because Sid Vicious actions were now impossible to stem. Rotten, who initially advocated his entrance instead of the hated Matlock, had found himself with the classic return boomerang in the lower parts. The sid who dreamed of fame was in fact very different from the SID that had obtained it. The pressure, and everything he had started to use to support it, had transformed him into a loose threatening.

Within those few dates, the bassist had managed to be hospitalized with Memphis with the word “Gimme a Fix” engraved on the chest, to fight on the stage in Dallas with a woman who had hit him in the face with a handful and beat a photographer who waited for his exit of yet another hospital hospitalization. “It was all a farce,” Lydon said. “I felt swindled. Sid was completely out of his mind. And I hated myself for bringing it into that stuff ».

It goes without saying that, for decades, the band's last shows were considered the summa of chaos, disarray and the attitude of the English group. But was it really that way? Needless to go around too much around: the one that comes out of the recordings of the three American concerts is truly an extrafire band. Not that they had ever played like the Yes, it is clear, but the level of pressure -reached in the early 1978 was too high even for the band that meditically embodied more than any other the cardinal principles of the Do It Yourself. Mind you, on a historical level, the recording of the shows is precious, but the word of mouth came up to us who described them as the apotheosis of amateurism and tedium was not exaggerated.

Listening to the three concerts in Atlanta (January 5, 1978), Dallas (10 January 1978) and San Francisco (14 January 1978) in chronological order, it is evident that on each evening he increased the cockpit among the members of the group. One of the characteristics of the punk concerts, especially when the bands moved the first steps was the feeling of approximation, but at the same time of honesty that showed it. Here, however, the feeling is that, probably, the only one to have fun is Malcolm McLaren in assisting yet another farce successful. If up to a certain point the musicians seemed to enjoy in making fun of the system, here it seems to witness a sort of therapeutic fury. It is true, sporadically the anarchist and genuine vein is perceived that has accompanied the most controversial episodes of their short career, but even the jokes and provocations of Rotten at the microphone appear more and more tired, almost a script to follow.

In short, in America, pistols play a role with little credibility and with an evident feeling of tiredness and resignation that say it long on the near future of the group. It is no coincidence that Rotten appears more sincere when at the end of No fun During the last scheduled evening he admits that, yes, in fact it was no longer fun. In practice, following the evolution of the last evenings of the training allows us to assist live on the death of sex pistols. Which, if on the one hand it gives the feeling of listening to a historical testimony, on the other hand ends up leading to almost in pornography. Even the moments between one song and the other often leave stucco, with Paul Cook that suddenly Fill Of battery that cannot complete or Steve Jones who, thanks to an economic guitar recovered at the last moment once he landed in the States, seems to smear a six ropes for the first time.

The only one perpetually in ecstasy, paradoxically but not so much if we consider the conditions in which it was located, seems Sid Vicious, that on a couple of occasions we even hear shouting with conviction that what the spectators have in front of is the “largest band in the world”. One thing remains in the lead after the repeated listening of the shows: the “no future” on the ending of God save the queen It never appeared before then so desperate and sinister.