What John Lydon did for rock and roll is simply immeasurable. Think back. Disco, funk, jazz fusion – WTF. Even the respectable stuff from that era – soul, glam, and math rock – tended towards a exclusionary, centralized “professionalism.” Too much polish, too much product, too much about the show. After Mr. Lydon and the Pistols knocked it all down, it opened opportunities for musicians of all types. I wanted to examine it from the ashes of all he destroyed.
I’m not about to write off the whole decade; there’s some really good stuff that came out of the 70s. The list is long. But for pop and rock royalty of the 70s, their time had come. They had to go. What replaced them, thanks to Mr. Lydon & Co, was what lit the fuse for me. I don’t think I would have been interested in music at all if it weren’t for Billy Bragg, The Smiths, Elvis Costello, Talking Heads. Bands like Gang of Four, Television, XTC, Hüsker Dü, The Cure, and of course, Joy Division.
What a world that was. I don’t think that any “movement” since has lived up to what was going on in the post-punk era. To me, it was an explosion that burned brightly enough to inspire me for decades. Let’s relive it here for a moment.
Re-mastered with bonus demo tracks
Streaming Links: Spotify, Pandora, YouTube, Apple, Amazon
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