[PREV - MUSICAL_DAMAGE] [TOP]
December 19, 2003
About "The Filth and the Fury",
the Sex Pistols documentary. Footage of people
famous for being
There's a lot to like famous like Sue
about this flick. The decision to interview Catwoman was
the band members backlit definitely
like anonymous witnesses appreciated.
is cute: it keeps you from
being distracted by inane
thoughts like "they're not
young any more".
But they're playing
games with warping
history:
The party line here is:
(1) Malcom McClauren (2) Nothing preceeded
was useless. the Pistols, There was
no New York punk scene.
Rotten does succeed in
painting Malcom McClauren as Early on in the flick,
an asshole. The worst detail they do a bunch of cutting
in this documentary: it around to different bands,
strongly suggests McClauren providing the musical
encouraged Sid Vicious to context for the early punk
backslide into heroin use years. They don't hit
again. anything more extreme than
Roxy Music. In the
(but from other beginning, things were
But Rotten's sources I hear dull, then there was...
resentment at the that McClauren The Sex Pistols!
idea that McClauren was anti-drug).
"created" the Sex
Pistols doesn't
really seem to be
justified. Later on, there's a
back-handed mention of
To the extent that some influence from "The
you can tell these New York Dolls": one of
things at all, it the Pistols says he used
does indeed seem to dance around a bit
that McClauren was like the Dolls -- which
instrumental in he finds very
bringing the group embarrassing now.
together, and in
providing them a It's nice of them,
"look". Word has it to mention the "Dolls",
he had them imitate considering that
Richard Hell of the they're a strong
New York scene. contender for "First
Punk Band".
FIRST_PUNKS
Malcom McClauren
managed The New York
Dolls for a time,
before forming the
Sex Pistols.
PLEASE_KILL_ME
McClauren is analogous
to (and was probably
consciously imitating) (Though Paul Morrisey
Andy Warhol in the insists that he was
Velvet Underground story. the Factory member
that really worked
on the VU project...)
So it's
one more
swindle
from the
swindler.
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