There is no one more inextricable from the first wave of British punk than John Lydon – also known as Johnny Rotten. Finding notoriety as the flame-haired, furious mouthpiece of the Sex Pistols, he was the perfect figurehead for the group. Like the proverbial cherry atop a cake, his cutting, sardonic lyrics topped off their rowdy rock ‘n’ roll, and confirmed it as the defining sound of a generation, which drew a clear delineation between the sounds of the past and the future.
Like the rest of their punk peers, the Sex Pistols, sought to do away with the classic rock era of music, and particularly the archetypal rockstars who they thought had long since become far too obsessed with the confines of their rear cavities. They believed the majority of the world’s most famous bands were symptomatic of a sclerotic society that was collapsing around them. In response, they crafted an angry, refreshing sound to pull listeners out of their stupor and call them to action. It was simple: things didn’t have to be this way, but only taking agency could change things.
While relatively short-lived, the Sex Pistols led the punk charge, which paved the way for a new era that rejected rock ‘n’ roll excess and would, in time, thanks to post-punk and new wave come to cherish experimentation, and personal and musical transgression. Ultimately, it was this era that set the scene for the immensely varied and boundary-pushing world of popular music today.
Given that Sex Pistols were a refreshing outfit that brought shock and awe in equal measure, rousing the youth and angering their parents, the members were also big fans of artists that were moving the needle, whether they were aesthetically punk or not. Despite Lydon openly stating at the time that he hated pioneering rock acts such as The Beatles and Pink Floyd – groups his generation deemed inseparable from the passé rockstardom – after he left the Sex Pistols to start the chameleonic Public Image Ltd, he has opened up about the array of experimental artists he loves, and even softened his stance on the above.
At face value, one of the most surprising admissions, is that Lydon is a big fan of Kate Bush, a contemporary of the ‘Holidays in the Sun’ outfit. While his band were calling for bloody insurrection, Bush’s rebellion came in a different form, with her unusual delivery for the time, Baroque-leanings and intensely artful style re-establishing what a ‘pop’ artist could be. Without her, art pop as we know it would not exist.
Lydon has always loved originality, and when speaking to The Guardian in 2009, he named Bush’s 1978 debut, The Kick Inside as one of his favourite albums of all time. He said: “It’s very hard for me to prepare for something like this because I collect non-stop, discover new things every day, and take music very seriously. I hate the technological rip-offs that pass for music formats these days and go back to vinyl to hear a good record because the sound is always so much fuller.”
The punk icon continued: “I don’t even like listening to music in the car. But it would be ridiculous not to mention Kate Bush as someone who creates a powerful dreamscape and a great mood, but I also love Traffic, the pop textures of Marc Bolan, and all kinds of techno.”
