There is no denying that punk rock and politics have been intertwined since the music genres birth. From The Clash wailing, “Yankee detectives /Are always on the TV/ ’Cause killers in America/ Work seven days a week” (Lines 12–14) to crooning, “A youth of fourteen got shot down there/The Kokane guns of Jamdown Town /The killing clowns, the blood money men/ Are shooting those Washington bullets again” (Lines 4–7) in “Washington Bullets” their expository song about the overwhelming amounts of violence in the 1960’s and 70’s. The marriage between politics and punk rock defied barriers and swept across nations creating a desire for a so-called revolution, a desire and drive that manifested itself in John Joseph Lydon (often remembered as Johnny Rotten) the fiery lead singer of The Sex Pistols and Public Image Limited (PiL) and a so-called but certainly not self-identified sellable anarchist for the masses.
“You never listened to a word that I said/
You only seen me/ For the clothes that I wear/
Or did the interest go so much deeper/
It must have been/ to the color of my hair” (Lines 2–6)
“In the punk period, Lydon’s identity had been a site of conflict. It had been appropriated, fought over, and, he felt, misinterpreted by Malcolm McLaren, the Sex Pistols, the media, the judiciary, the British public, Pistols fans and other punk musicians. In PiL’s first single ‘Public Image’ (1978), he reclaimed his identity, explaining how his image had been mis-recognized by the public. He suggested the punk audience only understood him as an enthralling spectacle and imitated him by adopting elements of his personal style, without ‘getting’ the depth of his individualist message” (Albiez 362). Lydon became a political mascot for the 1970’s punk takeover in the United Kingdom, a job that he continuously admits to resenting in his autobiography Rotten. He rebukes the idea that The Sex Pistols were ever truly political stating that, “ [Their] interest in politics at the time was zero…[He] just knew they were all corrupt — like the people who would run off with money and fake their own deaths” (Rotten Lydon 104) however his lack of knowledge about the specificity of politics at the time the Sex Pistols were performing in both the U.K and around the world did not stop him from continuously spewing lines like, “‘Cause I want to be anarchy/ Its the only way to be” to the young and impressionable population. Lydon admittedly becomes more political later on in his career and in the creation of PiL but his legacy as the forefather of British punk rock lives on, the question of weather or not he believes it is often completely ignored.
“You make me feel like an emperor/
You make me feel so proud, so sure/
So, so secure from the familiar/
Uncommon sense is the great leveler” (Lines 5–8)
The misconception that Lydon intended to use his music as a call for revolution goes hand and hand with the misconception of the origins of punk rock. The idea that, “Punk […] first happened in America, then crossed over to Great Britain when the Ramones played there on
America’s bicentennial [is problematic]. While the date provides a romantic readymade, the truth is Punk on both sides of the Atlantic arose at the same time and had what one might describe as a symbiotic, yet adversarial relationship” (Stalcup 51) The lumping together of the musical intention and politics behind the lyrics of both sides seems to oversimplify the ideas of both. The romanticizing of the punk movement is common but should not be perpetuated considering the vast majority of it’s participants had no idea how they were affecting the views of the world. Lydon later talks about American punk rock stating that, “[He] didn’t like their image, what they stood for, or anything about them.They had absolutely nothing to do with life in Great Britain [he] only found out about Richard Hell when [he] came over to England after the Pistols’ failed ‘Anarchy in the U.K.’ tour” (Rotten Lydon 118) not to say that he agrees with the punk movement of the U.K or America stating years later in his second autobiography that, “When you’re talking about missing the point, though, the majority of punks win the prize! They just got involved with the clothing, rather than the content. They certainly missed the politics, didn’t they? America’s interpretation, from their early days of poetry-reading punk, to absolute violence punk — just awful, both aspects of that were too much, and too ridiculous for me” (Anger is an Energy Lydon 560) arguing even further and slamming American politics while pointing out the fact that, “there have been conversations here in the United States about why every ex-President opens a library when politicians do not read the books” he declares that, “ reading saved [him], it brought [him] back. And [he] found [him]self in there, so when the memories and bits came back, they kind of made sense to [him] and [he] realized [he] was the same person that [he] was before [he] lost everything — it’s just [he] was ever so much better at it and able to look at [him]self and go outside of [him]self and ask, “Look, what do you think you’re doing? Try getting it right instead of just bumping into situations without any forethought” (Lydon Anger is an Energy 16) criticizing in this passage the actions of the political leaders of the United States and their obsession with action first over education and knowledge. The ever reluctant Lydon does play a huge role in both British and American politics, the Sex Pistols remain influential in both their homeland and abroad, “the socio-political climate in America began to approach that of the England in which they formed. The Carter administration had fallen due to the rise in unemployment and double-digit inflation. Reagan used this against Carter to win the presidency […] Punk in the 1980s, at least American Punk, as the lens panned away from New-Wave enamored England [and] took on a decidedly political tone”(Stalcup 60). Despite their many differences there is no doubt that both British and American punk was birthed from the same mother, the closing of the 1960’s and the uncontainable desire to put a stop to “the hippie culture” (Stalcup 51) but the fallacy of Lydon’s intentions when singing for the Sex Pistols or wearing a “Fuck Pink Floyd” t-shirt are often misconstrued.
“I wanna see some history/
Cause now I got a reasonable economy” (Lines 4–5)
Lydon’s dismissal of his intentional involvement in the political movement fueled by his music and by punk rock in general is valid, however, it does not discount the fact that the music did strike a few chords, literally and metaphorically. “The punk subculture in Britain was the most outspoken effort to restore working-class values in British rock and roll in the late-1970s. Punk rock articulated the frustrations of working-class British youth in an era of unemployment and inflation, through the development of a new subculture, manifested in music, fashion and attitude. The ability of punk musicians to challenge the boundaries of class culture through these texts — a ‘rhetoric’ of class culture — was fundamental to the subculture’s success, and they subsequently created the most stimulating, exciting and culturally significant music of the 1970s” (Simonelli 121). Punk rock snuck it’s way into the homes of everyday people and infiltrated the minds of the youth, making words like revolution and anarchy catchphrases of popular culture and igniting a spark within young minds. Lydon’s voice became the voice of the working class, the voice of the ignored, and the voice of everyone who couldn’t help shouting “bollocks” at their situations. The truth he says is, “far more interesting than the tittle-tattle they fill history books with. Nothing is as easily explained away as the powers-that-be would like it. The American Civil War was not really at all about freeing the slaves. That’s nonsense. No war is ever fought over moral issues. It’s always about economics. You only have to look at history” (Lydon Anger is an Energy 1037). Punk rock was not merely music, it was screaming cry for diversity while allowing people to have a bloody good time while calling for it, “the sexual curiosity that glam rock kicked up — Bowie standing up for something, saying, “Who are you to tell me what to do?” — it was a great breeding ground for punk to begin. Punk didn’t just begin overnight; it came from all of these things. It was a gradual gravitation towards the bloody bleedin’ obvious” (Lydon Anger is an Energy 118). Punk rock was not a genre that came onto the scene out of the blue, it was the resurrection of the ideas and the passion of the music before it and one if it’s most infamous forefathers was none other that Mr. John Joseph Lydon.
“God save the Queen/
She ain’t no human being/
There is no future/
And England’s dreaming” (Lines 5–8)
Even despite Lydon’s incessant rants about the nature of the punk rock movement (or lack there of) stating that there, “wasn’t a movement, there was just the sex pistols, everyone else didn’t count” (Lydon) in a 1987 interview with the Finnish Broadcasting Company. There is no denying that punk rock and Lydon skipped hand in hand down the road of a musical revolution and a desire to be heard within politics and the world was at a all time high. As the relentless and extremely vocal opposer to Margaret Thatcher’s political agendas (the Prime Mister of the United Kingdom from 1979–1990) or as the one man to shout, “I want to kill Jimmy Savile” when his countless rape accusations surfaced, Lydon remained a fighter, a revolutionary, and the King of Punk Rock despite his attempts to free himself of labels. The movement that was punk rock was not about it’s catchphrases, it was not about the stringing together of chords or the safety pinned suits sold at Malcolm McLaren’s famous shop “Sex”, it was about the politics of real life. The struggle of the everyday man. To Lydon the idea of punk was to, “break down all social barriers” and to create a place for, “All classes, all grids, all religions, all colors” (Lydon) he expresses that, “all these fucks can run around with their punk agendas but they don’t understand what humanity is. My idea of punk is humanity, it’s not vacuous nonsense like, “Are you wearing the latest outfit? Cool, dude!” Everything I do is always about my community, my friends, my family” (Lydon Anger is an Energy 1306–1307). To Lydon being a “punk rocker” was not dying your hair and screaming spineless orders at your government. It was about people and society opening their minds to the possibility that there could possibly be something more, something that may have gotten lost along the way.
“May the road rise with you/
May the road rise with you/
May the road rise with you/
May the road rise with you” (Lines 11–14)
Punk rock became more to Lydon and the people involved in making it than the blaring lights flashing around them and three chord guitar riffs the, “study of John Lydon demonstrates the importance, and possibility, of taking seriously the personal narratives of musicians as they experience or reflect on their creative process […] [Lydon’s] art sensibility, [general] discomfort with music as industry, [and] belief in absolute individualism [creates a] sense of music’s potential as a utopian cultural force” (Albiez 372). John Lydon became the wary warrior of politics within punk rock and eventually of the world. He combatted the way the world saw the power of music and the lasting affects it could have on society, “the world punk rock can be a problem, but also a joy to be called” (Lydon).
