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PISTOL_WHIPPED

                                                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                            Later on, there's a
      Pistols doesn't                              back-handed mention of
      really seem to be                            some influence from "The
      justified.                                   New York Dolls": one of
                                                   the Pistols says he used
      To the extent that                           to dance around a bit
      you can tell these                           like the Dolls -- which
      things at all, it                            he finds very
      does indeed seem                             embarrassing now.
      that McClauren was
      instrumental in                              It's nice of them,
      bringing the group                           to mention the "Dolls",
      together, and in                             considering that
      providing them a                             they're a strong
      "look".  Word has it                         contender for "First
      he had them imitate                          Punk Band".
      Richard Hell of the
      New York scene.                                 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                                 FACTORY_DAYS
        one more
        swindle
        from the
        swindler.



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