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julieveg's review against another edition
DNF. I picked this up from a Little Free Library on a whim. I read about 30 pages. It didn’t hold my interest.
lakecake's review against another edition
4.0
Takes a little time to get into, just because of the style, but this is a pretty great oral history of the beginnings of England’s punk scene and in particular inside (from one angle) the Sex Pistols.
hamandaj's review against another edition
4.0
I bought this about 6 years ago when I was a young impressionable 15 year old. I read it like the bible. I was never really into the punk scene, but it FASCINATED me. I began to show up my punker friends with my Sex Pistol knowledge. And it really helped me figure out a lot of things. I began to carry this book wherever I went. It had notes upon notes in it, underlines, circles, everything! I studied this book more than any of my textbooks. Unfortunately I gave it to a friend to read and her mother found it at a very inopurtune time and discarded it. The thing is I am Mormon, raised Mormon, and love being Mormon. So was my friend, but she was fighting it. She didn't believe and that's totally fine with me, but her parents had issues and felt that it was inappropriate. See the thing with reading a book like this when you're 15 is your maturity level. I saw the terrible things that happened in that book as a result of drugs and though "Oh okay, bad, don't do that". Others saw it as "OOOOh! Let's try that! Sid Vicious did it!". So I think I am going to rebuy this book because it's really important to me to own this book. I love music, I love people and it hit me at a really influential time in my life.
amahnu's review against another edition
4.0
What a great insight on the music industry of 70's. I recently got into Sex Pistols and when I saw this book on the book fair I just had to have it. It was a really fun and genuine book to read.
Never realised that John Lydon could be such a good writer. I mean, he writes amazing songs but I never thought he could actually write a book. Very judgmental of me, but yeah... I guess I am judgmental after all....
The only thing I didn't like is that in basically 200 or so pages different people talk about the same thing. It's really great knowing how different people from different sides viewed certain events, but really, those parts were kinda the same, only having slight differences from person to person. My favorite part of the book was the part after the Sex Pistols. Reading about Sid's death, about the break up, his relationship with Malcolm after all this time and how John formed Public Image Ltd. It's sad how a lot of people in that world is very hypocritical and basically don't care about the music and artists, just money.
I love this book and am grateful for having the opportunity to read it. Things they did for music culture was very influential, though you can't find a band like them these days. There won't be anything like them ever again.
Never realised that John Lydon could be such a good writer. I mean, he writes amazing songs but I never thought he could actually write a book. Very judgmental of me, but yeah... I guess I am judgmental after all....
The only thing I didn't like is that in basically 200 or so pages different people talk about the same thing. It's really great knowing how different people from different sides viewed certain events, but really, those parts were kinda the same, only having slight differences from person to person. My favorite part of the book was the part after the Sex Pistols. Reading about Sid's death, about the break up, his relationship with Malcolm after all this time and how John formed Public Image Ltd. It's sad how a lot of people in that world is very hypocritical and basically don't care about the music and artists, just money.
I love this book and am grateful for having the opportunity to read it. Things they did for music culture was very influential, though you can't find a band like them these days. There won't be anything like them ever again.
monty_reads's review
4.0
“Anger is an energy,” John Lydon sang on Public Image Ltd.’s nihilistic anthem, “Rise.” That emotion courses through his memoir. Lydon spits anger at the church, the monarchy, the record business, his bandmates, & Sex Pistols’ manager Malcolm McLaren. Surprisingly, Lydon doesn’t spare himself. At various times he laments his ugliness, his insecurity, & his impetuosity. But the book isn’t just 300 pages of spleen venting. It’s an exhilarating, insightful account of the rise & fall of inarguably the most important British band since The Beatles.
The book’s subtitle is something of a giveaway for what’s to come. Lydon situates his long-percolating rage in his childhood. As the son of Irish immigrants growing up in North London, he was used to seeing signs that read, “No Irish, no blacks, no dogs” hung in local shop windows. This cemented his outsider status at an early age, & that carried through his early unsuccessful experiences in education & work.
Any memoir is a selective account of a life, but to Lydon’s credit, Rotten at times reads more like an oral history of punk music. In addition to Lydon’s narrative, we get interview transcripts from fellow Pistols Paul Cook & Steve Jones as well as other key figures from the time, including Chrissie Hynde & Billy Idol. And, crucially, the book closes with a chapter written by Lydon’s father that recounts his son’s devotion to his mother. The result is what makes the book so compelling: we come to see Lydon as a conflicted, infuriating figure that we both admire & revile.
I’ve been a fan of Lydon & The Sex Pistols for 30 years. But I still learned some things:
Fashion played a much larger role in punk’s genesis than I realized.
Richard Branson played a pivotal role in signing the Pistols, which means he’s been around forever.
No one – & I mean NO ONE – liked Nancy Spungen (the hanger-on allegedly stabbed to death by bassist Sid Vicious).
My one criticism is that Lydon dwells too long on the court case that extricated the band from McLaren (we didn’t actually need to read so many affidavits). But if you’re a fan of The Sex Pistols – or punk music in general – this is a must read.
The book’s subtitle is something of a giveaway for what’s to come. Lydon situates his long-percolating rage in his childhood. As the son of Irish immigrants growing up in North London, he was used to seeing signs that read, “No Irish, no blacks, no dogs” hung in local shop windows. This cemented his outsider status at an early age, & that carried through his early unsuccessful experiences in education & work.
Any memoir is a selective account of a life, but to Lydon’s credit, Rotten at times reads more like an oral history of punk music. In addition to Lydon’s narrative, we get interview transcripts from fellow Pistols Paul Cook & Steve Jones as well as other key figures from the time, including Chrissie Hynde & Billy Idol. And, crucially, the book closes with a chapter written by Lydon’s father that recounts his son’s devotion to his mother. The result is what makes the book so compelling: we come to see Lydon as a conflicted, infuriating figure that we both admire & revile.
I’ve been a fan of Lydon & The Sex Pistols for 30 years. But I still learned some things:
Fashion played a much larger role in punk’s genesis than I realized.
Richard Branson played a pivotal role in signing the Pistols, which means he’s been around forever.
No one – & I mean NO ONE – liked Nancy Spungen (the hanger-on allegedly stabbed to death by bassist Sid Vicious).
My one criticism is that Lydon dwells too long on the court case that extricated the band from McLaren (we didn’t actually need to read so many affidavits). But if you’re a fan of The Sex Pistols – or punk music in general – this is a must read.
bent's review
3.0
I read this when it was first published and the thing that's stayed with me is how immature John Lydon is. The book was written more than a decade after the whole Sex Pistols things, and Lydon is still trying to bury Glenn Matlock. Really? Was he that bad? You haven't got over him yet? I mean, you kicked him out, so you won. Disappointing to see how little growth Lydon has had over the years. He had his moment in the spotlight, and it's been years of milking it ever since.