I got into John's music/him because.....

[regan]

Yeah, just, not conventionally, I guess. Not what you would call classically attractive, but really interesting because of it. If you see what I mean, here.

[thefilthandthefury]

Hi everyone! I'm new to the board so I thought, what better way to start posting than with this topic.

I first got into the Sex Pistols when I was around 7 years old. My dad collected LPs, and so he came home with a huge box of random vinyls from a garage sale or sale of some sort. My mom yelled at him for always bringing "junk" into the house! lol

My dad was/is a huge Beatles fan, and he wasn't aware of the Sex Pistols. Somehow I was very drawn to the album cover of NMTB because the yellow and the pink logo. lol Eye catching colors!!! I took it, put it in my Fisher Price "My First" Record player, and just started jumping and yelling around the house! lol My mom took it away from me for awhile as she didn't like how "crazy" I was acting whenever I heard it!

Then I went to the school library and asked the librarian about the Sex Pistols. She found a book for me, and when I saw the pictures, I fell in love with Sid! Yes, I was 8 years old and in love with Sid; partially because he's very animated looking in some ways.

But as the years went on, I still really enjoyed the music, but it was suddenly John, and not Sid, who resonated with me on a deeper level. Watching all the interviews, I was mesmerized and intrigued by John - his intelligence, his sarcasm, his sense of humor - everything about him. So while I still find Sid very good looking, it's only on that level, and some sense of mourning over the tragedy of his life and death. However, with John, it's much deeper.

Sid had the myth to fuel his legend, and people always romanticize the "live fast" mentality, but it's really John whom I admire.

I'll leave you with this quote by John from his book that really speaks to me:

"This is all I have, life.… And to die over something as vaguely childish as rock 'n' roll is not on. Even though there's a lot of popularity in Sid's character, the people who buy the Sid myths…[t]hey're wasters…. I'm not part of that. I never was. I'll always go out and make sure it gets better. That's the difference between the Sid fanatic and the John Lydon Appreciation Society. Life and death! There's nothing glorious in dying. Anyone can do it" (Lydon, 271).

[elisabeth]

thefilthandthefury said:

Hi everyone! I'm new to the board so I thought, what better way to start posting than with this topic.

I first got into the Sex Pistols when I was around 7 years old. My dad collected LPs, and so he came home with a huge box of random vinyls from a garage sale or sale of some sort. My mom yelled at him for always bringing "junk" into the house! lol

My dad was/is a huge Beatles fan, and he wasn't aware of the Sex Pistols. Somehow I was very drawn to the album cover of NMTB because the yellow and the pink logo. lol Eye catching colors!!! I took it, put it in my Fisher Price "My First" Record player, and just started jumping and yelling around the house! lol My mom took it away from me for awhile as she didn't like how "crazy" I was acting whenever I heard it!

Then I went to the school library and asked the librarian about the Sex Pistols. She found a book for me, and when I saw the pictures, I fell in love with Sid! Yes, I was 8 years old and in love with Sid; partially because he's very animated looking in some ways.

But as the years went on, I still really enjoyed the music, but it was suddenly John, and not Sid, who resonated with me on a deeper level. Watching all the interviews, I was mesmerized and intrigued by John - his intelligence, his sarcasm, his sense of humor - everything about him. So while I still find Sid very good looking, it's only on that level, and some sense of mourning over the tragedy of his life and death. However, with John, it's much deeper.

Sid had the myth to fuel his legend, and people always romanticize the "live fast" mentality, but it's really John whom I admire.

I'll leave you with this quote by John from his book that really speaks to me:

"This is all I have, life.… And to die over something as vaguely childish as rock 'n' roll is not on. Even though there's a lot of popularity in Sid's character, the people who buy the Sid myths…[t]hey're wasters…. I'm not part of that. I never was. I'll always go out and make sure it gets better. That's the difference between the Sid fanatic and the John Lydon Appreciation Society. Life and death! There's nothing glorious in dying. Anyone can do it" (Lydon, 271).

A very warm welcome to you!
Your getting into the SP's story is the most adorable one I've heard!
''This is all I have, life..'' I always remind myself that quote when things get a bit rough.
Brilliant post!

[Snoogans4Jay]

thefilthandthefury said:

Hi everyone! I'm new to the board so I thought, what better way to start posting than with this topic.

I first got into the Sex Pistols when I was around 7 years old. My dad collected LPs, and so he came home with a huge box of random vinyls from a garage sale or sale of some sort. My mom yelled at him for always bringing "junk" into the house! lol

My dad was/is a huge Beatles fan, and he wasn't aware of the Sex Pistols. Somehow I was very drawn to the album cover of NMTB because the yellow and the pink logo. lol Eye catching colors!!! I took it, put it in my Fisher Price "My First" Record player, and just started jumping and yelling around the house! lol My mom took it away from me for awhile as she didn't like how "crazy" I was acting whenever I heard it!

Then I went to the school library and asked the librarian about the Sex Pistols. She found a book for me, and when I saw the pictures, I fell in love with Sid! Yes, I was 8 years old and in love with Sid; partially because he's very animated looking in some ways.

But as the years went on, I still really enjoyed the music, but it was suddenly John, and not Sid, who resonated with me on a deeper level. Watching all the interviews, I was mesmerized and intrigued by John - his intelligence, his sarcasm, his sense of humor - everything about him. So while I still find Sid very good looking, it's only on that level, and some sense of mourning over the tragedy of his life and death. However, with John, it's much deeper.

Sid had the myth to fuel his legend, and people always romanticize the "live fast" mentality, but it's really John whom I admire.

I'll leave you with this quote by John from his book that really speaks to me:

"This is all I have, life.… And to die over something as vaguely childish as rock 'n' roll is not on. Even though there's a lot of popularity in Sid's character, the people who buy the Sid myths…[t]hey're wasters…. I'm not part of that. I never was. I'll always go out and make sure it gets better. That's the difference between the Sid fanatic and the John Lydon Appreciation Society. Life and death! There's nothing glorious in dying. Anyone can do it" (Lydon, 271).

WELCOME!! We are very happy to have you and I hope you will become a regularly posting member.........if so.....we shall send you the password to the pictures section.......methinks you will like!

Please continue to post......we LOVE John here......and the Pistols and PiL and John solo and........well.........you get the picture..

[thefilthandthefury]

Thank you to everyone for such warm welcomes! Oh, don't worry about me, I will be posting a lot now that I've discovered this message board.

And...thanks to you all for further fueling my obsession! lol

[kathy]

Hello and welcome. Enjoyed reading how you got into the band very much! Looking forward to your posts - we do have fun here!

[Joan D]

What got me interested in John Lydon? I’ve held off responding to this thread as my answer is really, really long. I figured that no one would want to read it all. But then I decided that if you find it too long & boring, you can just skip past it. I’ve thought about this before & thought it was high time I wrote it down. (That way I’ll have something to remind when I’m too old to remember!)

Even though I’m as old as John and could well have been a Sex Pistols fan from the beginning, I wasn’t. Not that I didn’t like them, I just never paid any attention to them. I’ve realized that it has taken me a long time to really be the one selecting the music that I listen to. In the past, I was usually listening to what someone else chose.

Sometimes I think “wow, I missed so much. I could have been there.” But then again I realize it is probably just as well. Cause, if I had been into the Sex Pistols back then I definitely would have gotten tickets to see them for their first concert of the USA tour which was to be in Pittsburgh. That would have led to arguments with my parents (who would have not liked me going to a club in Homestead – not so great an area at that time) followed by extreme disappointment when it got canceled due to their visa problems.

Anyway, since I’m not sure whether there are limits on the size of an individual reply, I’ve broken this down into five parts. Here’s the first.

Part One: The Beginning of Music (for me)

Generally people start to get interested in music in their pre-teen years. For me, since I had a sister 3 & ½ years older than me, I listened to whatever she chose. My memory is that I liked it. I remember listening to Herman’s Hermits, Paul Revere and the Raiders, Gary Puckett and the Union Gap among others. It seems to me that she mostly bought singles. I remember having a phonograph that could hold a stack of 45’s that would drop down individually onto the turntable to pay. I don’t remember my sister having many Beatles records. I do remember our closest friend getting into the Beatles relatively early on & me not being impressed. I have this memory of running out onto to her front porch screaming “Help - she’s making me listen to bug music” when they first hit the states (that would have been 1964 when I was eight). So, that was pretty much the 60’s music for me, listening to my sister’s records (and generally liking it).

Closing out the 60’s, my friend (the one who liked the Beatles) ran away from home when she was 14 (I was 13 at the time). She hadn’t talked to me about it before hand but I remember my parents & hers trying to get me to tell them where she was – however, I really didn’t know. Turns out that she had run off to Florida with some guy in his 20’s. By the time she returned several years later, our friendship didn’t really renew itself.

Continued. . .

[Joan D]

Part Two: The 70’s, Teenage Years & College

Coming into the 70’s I didn’t really listen to much music as I was totally absorbed by baseball & the Pirates. Pittsburgh actually had a good team back then and if I couldn’t go to the games (which was often) I’d listen to them on the radio. I absolutely loved Roberto Clemente – he had everything – great hitter & fielder and so good looking. When he was killed in 1972, I was crushed. I stayed with baseball for a while, but it wasn’t the same without Clemente.

I started college in ‘74 and was mainly focused on class work (being the geek that I am). One my close friends had a boyfriend who was working at being a musician & was really into the Beatles. Of course they had broken up by then, but they left a large catalog of both music & memorabilia (plus they all had new single material coming out). I got way into them – this is probably when I realized the internal need I have to “collect”. I’m sure I listened to more, but I remember only a few albums that I played most of time while studying: Band on the Run (McCartney), Imagine (Lennon), Slowhand (Clapton) and Desire (Dylan). When the Pistols were to have played Pittsburgh (December 28, 1977) I was in Florida for our Christmas break from classes.

Continued. . .

[Joan D]

Part Three: Hey Look, I’m an Engineer Now

Graduated in 78 and the Pistols had come & gone without me noticing. I started a job & met my current boyfriend. He was the second guy assigned as my lead engineer. The first one quit the group a couple of months after I started (I don’t think it was my fault). They assigned my training to Bob as my new lead. Within 2 years we had moved in together (I like to say he was my lead engineer & he led me astray). Bob was really into jazz at the time, so that’s pretty much what I was listening to in the 80’s. It was generally new to me & I enjoyed it. We went to see Pat Metheny several times. We also went out for a lot of local jazz, with a favorite club being the Encore in Shadyside. It was a very small place with the band squeezed in the back corner. Very intimate – loved it. Pittsburgh didn’t have any of the really big record stores. So, we would go to Tower Records in Washington D.C. or New York City and spend hours picking out CDs which were just coming out. Most of these got copied onto cassette tape so we could play them in the car.

As we were getting into buying CDs, we realized the great gift potential they held for his dad. Bob’s dad (who grew up in Italy) was a total opera fanatic. Coming into the 90’s he was slowing down & not able to attend the opera like he used to. So, we started searching for opera CDs & in the process started listening to them as well. We ended up getting season tickets to the Pittsburgh Opera. This was way new music for me. I’ve since found I like opera best in the theater – the visual impact adds to the beauty of the music & voices for me. It isn’t quite the same on CD, or even DVD.

How could this all lead to the Sex Pistols? Well, that actually comes from another entertainment source – TV – and a show called Buffy the Vampire Slayer. We’ve been generally talking about music, so I never mentioned my obsession with vampire books & movies. Even so, I didn’t start watching Buffy when it first came out. Several reasons for that: a) high school show – after surviving 90210 while my niece was living with us, I swore I would never, ever, watch a show about high school again; b) the title implied the focus was on those who killed vampires – not the vampires themselves – and I have always found the vampire the more interesting subject; and, c) my general aversion to getting involved in any new TV show – i.e., I don’t need to watch more TV. I knew my brother watched the show, but I figured he just liked seeing Sarah Michelle Gellar in a short skirt kicking ass (I probably would too if I was a guy). But by chance I caught one show as a re-run on a Saturday afternoon & my interest was peaked – really good looking vampire & Buffy wasn’t killing him (she isn’t all that stupid). And I got hooked on the show. Pretty much just in time to have it come to an end. I watched all the seasons on DVD – that can go surprisingly fast when you are somewhat obsessive about things.

And, you ask, what does this have to do with the Sex Pistols??? Patience is a virtue, I’m getting there.

Bob ends up getting ill one Saturday when we were supposed to go out & left with nothing planned, I’m searching the net for Buffy related info. Lo and below, I discover fan fiction. Wow – you could live on-line forever & never get through all of that. Buffy lives on through the web. Many, many fan fiction sites, and I happen on one that is basically just a fan site for James Marsters, who played the really hot vampire. Turns out he goes to a number of conventions (sci-fi & the like) and the site had transcripts of some of the question/answer sessions with him. Interesting to read as he talked a lot about the mechanics of acting, which I (being a geek engineer) never paid much attention to before. He was also in a band (trust me, there is a lead-in.)

Continued. . .

[Joan D]

Part Four: Enter into the Twenty First Century

Now coming into the turn of the century I really wasn’t listening to much music at all. Bob was all excited about the advent of MP3 players & having “all your music with you”. I was saying, “so what – we rarely listen to any of the like 400 to 500 CDs we have when we are in the house”. Truthfully I was in a job that I really didn’t enjoy all that much &which managed to take up way too much of my time. Things changed shortly when I managed to get out of that management job that was sucking the life out of me.

My new position put me in a new building & back in a cubicle. The guy in the cube across from me had a radio as did the guy in the one next to me. They probably kept the radios on to drown out the voice of the woman on the other side of me who was constantly on the phone - that’s actually good as she is in customer sales – her on the phone means business. But for an engineer like me who needs to focus on the analysis I’m working on it can be a little distracting. Both guys kept their radios on the same oldies station and that was OK, I could listen to oldies (except I still have to wonder why when the station is playing songs from over 4 decades, you end up hearing the same ones every day). However, a little later on the guy across from me finds a country top 40s station to listen to. Now country music is probably last thing I would choose to listen to, but to make it worse, the other guy still has the oldies on & I can hear both their radios & our sales person. This was driving me insane. Solution – head phones. Which means I need to bring in music to play on the computer.

And still you ask, where are the Pistols?? Well, Spike, back to the really hot vampire, was written as kind of a punk rock vampire. On the show, they always mentioned Spike’s musical interests in the Ramones & Pistols. And, I’m reading fanfic stories about Spike & Buffy in which Sex Pistols songs keep popping up. All this at the same time I’m looking for something new to listen to. So, I end up on Amazon looking for Ramones & Sex Pistols CDs to try out. For the Pistols – wow, so many – but wasn’t the group only together for a couple of years? I end up with NMTB based on it being the one actually released while the band was together. It arrives in the mail along with the Ramones. The Ramones CD (don’t really remember which one I bought first) was enjoyable – but definitely familiar sounding – like back to fifties (at least to me). I was sure that Bob would like it (turns out he didn’t & still can’t stand to listen to them). But the Sex Pistols – wow – that was definitely a different & “in your face” sound. I was intrigued.
So, now I want to know more about the band (typical for me – must read everything available). Looking at the available literature – again so many to choose from – I settled on John’s book Rotten, No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs, basically because it was the only one written by someone actually in the band.

Continued. . .

[Joan D]

Part Five: And Why John?

That book (Rotten) made me a “fan” of John. Is it the most well written book I’ve ever read? No. . . But it has a certain honesty to it; it made me feel I was just sitting the room with him while he talked about his life. I was also drawn to the fact that this was a biography of someone who, while born the same year as me, lived a very different life. He is an Irish, Catholic boy raised in a poor section of a very large city. I’m not only a different gender, but grew up strictly middle class, Presbyterian, in a relatively small city. I wanted to explore the differences & in the end was drawn in by the similarities in our lives:

- While I wasn’t in coma like John, I did spend time in the hospital when I was a young child. I was four & had a problem with my legs – they thought it might be polio, but fortunately it wasn’t. However, I know how scary the hospital can be to a young child (especially back then when visiting hours were visiting hours & applied to parents as well – no staying over with our child).

- I was very shy as a child – actually still am.

- I lost a parent I very close to (my Dad) when I was in my twenties. My Dad was too young to die as was John’s Mom.

- My “significant other” is what some would consider to be significantly older than me (Bob is 12 years my senior) and also is the only man I’ve ever been in love with. (I really respect John's devotion to his wife & commitment to their relationship.)

- I don’t have any children of my own, but my niece moved in with us when she was a teenager (like John’s grandsons). Now she feels more like a daughter to me than a niece & I imagine he feels the same.

- I love animals & John has shown a similar inclination. Especially cats.

- I’m also into science fiction, which John has indicated a like for, including Star Trek.

- I’m still registered as a Republican, but I think more like a Libertarian (generally believe people should be allowed to do what they want, but I shouldn’t have to pay for it).

In the end, it highlights a theme I’ve found throughout life – you are drawn to people based on your similarities – but, you really learn about life and the world by listening to them when they explain the bases for the differences. And, that is what keeps me interested in John.

I apologize for the really long post, but ask a question . . . .

Thanks for listening.

Joan

[Snoogans4Jay]

WOW Joan, that was fascinating, quite a path to John It is always interesting to me to see how others have come to John's music. As for being there in the beginning, it would have been neat, but John said in a recent interview that he doesn't care who was there and who was not as far as fans go, it makes no difference to him, we are all fans. I like that.....

[Joan D]

Snoogans,

Thanks - nice to know that someone made their way through it all. Also, thanks for putting together this site that allows for the expression of such personal introspectives.

Joan

[Snoogans4Jay]

joand said:

Snoogans,

Thanks - nice to know that someone made their way through it all. Also, thanks for putting together this site that allows for the expression of such personal introspectives.

Joan

You are very welcome Joan, it always makes me happy to know that there are a few others that love this little board too

[kathy]

admin said:

WOW Joan, that was fascinating, quite a path to John It is always interesting to me to see how others have come to John's music. As for being there in the beginning, it would have been neat, but John said in a recent interview that he doesn't care who was there and who was not as far as fans go, it makes no difference to him, we are all fans. I like that.....

Snoogs: I second what Joan said about this board. You guys do a great job around here!

Joan: Upon reading your entries, I noted that while you were living in the Steel City, I was across state in Philadelphia. I was aware of the Sex Pistols in '77, and wanted to see them upon hearing they were touring the U.S. But I didn't have a driver's license and my mother would have never, ever allowed it anyway so that was the end of that!

Please add some more when you can - you are an excellent writer!