Sid -n- Johnny
CARICATURE: I never really pursued it very vigorously-------as I get older, I get further and further removed from 'celebrity culture'------it does nothing for me: I just cannot be annoyed keeping up with current trends or 'who is meant to be famous'...I have long realized it is a waste of precious time, following this un-neccessarry dross. I steer well clear of it.
I am no Andy Warhol fan, but his observation about 'everyone in the future being famous for 14 or soforth minutes' was absolutely spot-on: the only thing is, every Tom, Dick or Harriet can now become 'famous' through the recent Internet technologies.......it is not exactly Presley/ Sinatra/ Beatles /Mohammed Ali - level fame we are witnessing anymore, though.......it is often cheap and talentless stuff, in a lot of cases, as witnessed on dodgy 21st-Century TV.
Still, in my earlier years, certain folks gained access to the Media-waves and gained a lot of my attention: music-wise, the pop music World of the 60s was the quality apex, but I was far too young to really appreciate it------I grew up in the 1970s and Early 80s, this was 'my time' as regarding current Musical Trends. The early 70s were fab, with the melodic-but-tastelessly-attired Glam Rock: great stuff!-----------the mid-70s saw a definite dip in quality with sub-pop like the Rubettes , Leo Sayer and Brotherhood of Man dominating the airwaves----however, come late 1976, a brand-new, back-to-basics 're-invention' of Rock and Roll exploded onto the scene, in the spikey shape of PUNK ROCK.
A real shell-shock to the system, this was, at the time: this was genuinely uncharted territory, to the point it was interpreted as sinister and alien to many punters and innocent bystanders. It took me a few months to pick up on it but come time I embraced it--there was a raw excitement in there, without a doubt. You had to percy-vere with it, of course: were the Stranglers just a bunch of old opportunist f*r*s [some of their stuff is still great, I reckon], or were the Clash just streetwise sloganeerists ?------[well, sometimes it seemed that way, but Career Opportunities or Complete Control were great in '77, and remain so today. ]The first album by the Damned [New Rose and everything else from that first LP platter still excels] was a sheer andrenalin-rush, and the first batch of singles [especially] from Manchesters' Buzzcocks is still lush spikey-pop incarnate---dammit, I still play a load of this stuff!
True, I have to be in the mood to listen to the more 'arty', esoteric Siouxsie and the Banshees, but much of their output is perfectly palatable, and there is no doubt that Purseys' Sham 69 is just a bunch of tuneless, sub-football terrace bawling. The zenith---or indeed the nadir, depending on your musical viewpoint------of this glorious DIY/xerox/PVC bin-liner-era rabble was, of course, the notorious SEX PISTOLS: without any doubt the most despised and notorious band anywhere in the World during the latter 70s, right up to their demise in January 1978------and beyond.
Street-sussed ladies' man Steve Jones contributed much of the template with his unique, multi-layered power-chord guitar sound, bassist Glen Matlock done much to shape the bulk of the early tunes, and drummer Paul Cook was an unaffected, rock-solid time-keeper. But there is no mistake that the most effective facet of the Pistols' arsenal arrived in the shape of rabid, cutting front-man Johnny Rotten/ later-to-be-dubbed John Lydon: Rotters was a true one-off, with a caustic, sardonic line in articulate abuse, [directed at the stale old music-industry guard and apathetic population] and disturbing onstage persona, which defined his 'anti-star' status. Lydon was born to front the Pistols and it is unlikely the mix would have worked at all with anyone else.
Banned from playing live almost everywhere throughout '77, and quickly dropped by both EMI and A & M record labels, the group attained widespread status as Public Enemy Number One, with the red-top newspaper headlines reporting the chaotic undertakings with much vim and vigor. Matlock got the boot for admitting to admiring the Beatles, and was replaced on bass by the soon-to-be-iconic Sid Vicious: Sid looked the part, but that was about it. Archive footage and live sound recordings attest he was a rudimentary bassist at best, and reportedly his only audible legacy on their only real album Never Mind the Bollocks is some rifting bobbing virtually listenable on Bodies.
His penchant for self-abuse---and later for heroin after hooking up with girlfriend Nancy Spungeon------- retarded the groups' progress, the groups' songwriting went out the window the instant Matlock left, and a disastrous winter tour of America------manager Malcolm McLaren booked the band into snowbound Redneck venues, presumably to instill friction and headlines------resulted in the group imploding after a lacklustre gig in San Francisco in very early 1978.
The unHoly Saga was not over yet though: after relocating to New York with Spungeon, Vicious possibly [it is still not cut-and-dried] stabbed girlfriend Nancy to death in the Chelsea Hotel in October of that year. The press, of course, had a field day with this, dubbing the macabre event a 'punk killing', somewhat along the lines of the Charles Manson atrocities of a decade earlier: out on bail from Rikers' Island jail, Sid finally expired after recieving an overdose of heroin from his 'well-meaning' mater, who had brought him up as a junkie. She dropped the urn containing his ashes alighting the plane at Heathrow, and Sids' remains reportedly scattered all over the runway.
The ending to the Pistols' tale is morbid and ugly, there is no question of this, even for a fan like me.
The Pistols' story has loomed large in my life, although I never religiously followed the events around the reformations from 1996 onwards: a bit too 'Pantomime Punk' for my tastes but great to have some better-quality recordings of the group live in comparison to the abysmal tapes of the '76-'78 incarnation: Lydons' voice has evolved into a far more noticably higher pitch over the intervening years. His other musical endeavor PIL/Public Image Limited are Okay but I doubt if I would collect their entire output. The Pistols hit a definite chord with me, though: their uncompromizing attitude permanently changed the outlook of the music Industry, and instilled a culture for 'telling it like it is'.
Today, the once-shocking and reviled phenomenon of Punk Rock looks quaint and indeed has been absorbed wholeheartedly into mainstream culture: every ordinary Joe today seems to sport a Mohican Haircut: I remember the days when a Mohican Punk cut, or having sky-blue hair, used to turn many heads: today all this is just routine incarnate.
Oh, how times change..........
ABOUT THIS DRAWING:
I know the Pistols story very well indeed, so I never even bothered with google images or anything in order to draw Sid Vicious or Johnny Rotten: dunno if the likenesses are spot-on or not, but these guys just looked the part in their respective roles within the group.
The backdrop with the ripped-up Union Jack was also dreamed up by me without looking at Jamie Reids' infamous graphics: yes it is more authentic and obviously more accurate to look this stuff up on Google Images, but me, I always admired those artists who drew everything direct from their imaginations. Copying from photos or other graffix always impressed me MUCH less------a cynical route, akin to cheating!
More caricatures on here at some point, but as I say it has never been my top priority as a Toonsmith.
I do not follow politics or current events nearly enough to take up caricaturing seriously......nor am I a good enough, or interested enough, in this field to draw strangers in the street willing to pay for this service.......
I am no Andy Warhol fan, but his observation about 'everyone in the future being famous for 14 or soforth minutes' was absolutely spot-on: the only thing is, every Tom, Dick or Harriet can now become 'famous' through the recent Internet technologies.......it is not exactly Presley/ Sinatra/ Beatles /Mohammed Ali - level fame we are witnessing anymore, though.......it is often cheap and talentless stuff, in a lot of cases, as witnessed on dodgy 21st-Century TV.
Still, in my earlier years, certain folks gained access to the Media-waves and gained a lot of my attention: music-wise, the pop music World of the 60s was the quality apex, but I was far too young to really appreciate it------I grew up in the 1970s and Early 80s, this was 'my time' as regarding current Musical Trends. The early 70s were fab, with the melodic-but-tastelessly-attired Glam Rock: great stuff!-----------the mid-70s saw a definite dip in quality with sub-pop like the Rubettes , Leo Sayer and Brotherhood of Man dominating the airwaves----however, come late 1976, a brand-new, back-to-basics 're-invention' of Rock and Roll exploded onto the scene, in the spikey shape of PUNK ROCK.
A real shell-shock to the system, this was, at the time: this was genuinely uncharted territory, to the point it was interpreted as sinister and alien to many punters and innocent bystanders. It took me a few months to pick up on it but come time I embraced it--there was a raw excitement in there, without a doubt. You had to percy-vere with it, of course: were the Stranglers just a bunch of old opportunist f*r*s [some of their stuff is still great, I reckon], or were the Clash just streetwise sloganeerists ?------[well, sometimes it seemed that way, but Career Opportunities or Complete Control were great in '77, and remain so today. ]The first album by the Damned [New Rose and everything else from that first LP platter still excels] was a sheer andrenalin-rush, and the first batch of singles [especially] from Manchesters' Buzzcocks is still lush spikey-pop incarnate---dammit, I still play a load of this stuff!
True, I have to be in the mood to listen to the more 'arty', esoteric Siouxsie and the Banshees, but much of their output is perfectly palatable, and there is no doubt that Purseys' Sham 69 is just a bunch of tuneless, sub-football terrace bawling. The zenith---or indeed the nadir, depending on your musical viewpoint------of this glorious DIY/xerox/PVC bin-liner-era rabble was, of course, the notorious SEX PISTOLS: without any doubt the most despised and notorious band anywhere in the World during the latter 70s, right up to their demise in January 1978------and beyond.
Street-sussed ladies' man Steve Jones contributed much of the template with his unique, multi-layered power-chord guitar sound, bassist Glen Matlock done much to shape the bulk of the early tunes, and drummer Paul Cook was an unaffected, rock-solid time-keeper. But there is no mistake that the most effective facet of the Pistols' arsenal arrived in the shape of rabid, cutting front-man Johnny Rotten/ later-to-be-dubbed John Lydon: Rotters was a true one-off, with a caustic, sardonic line in articulate abuse, [directed at the stale old music-industry guard and apathetic population] and disturbing onstage persona, which defined his 'anti-star' status. Lydon was born to front the Pistols and it is unlikely the mix would have worked at all with anyone else.
Banned from playing live almost everywhere throughout '77, and quickly dropped by both EMI and A & M record labels, the group attained widespread status as Public Enemy Number One, with the red-top newspaper headlines reporting the chaotic undertakings with much vim and vigor. Matlock got the boot for admitting to admiring the Beatles, and was replaced on bass by the soon-to-be-iconic Sid Vicious: Sid looked the part, but that was about it. Archive footage and live sound recordings attest he was a rudimentary bassist at best, and reportedly his only audible legacy on their only real album Never Mind the Bollocks is some rifting bobbing virtually listenable on Bodies.
His penchant for self-abuse---and later for heroin after hooking up with girlfriend Nancy Spungeon------- retarded the groups' progress, the groups' songwriting went out the window the instant Matlock left, and a disastrous winter tour of America------manager Malcolm McLaren booked the band into snowbound Redneck venues, presumably to instill friction and headlines------resulted in the group imploding after a lacklustre gig in San Francisco in very early 1978.
The unHoly Saga was not over yet though: after relocating to New York with Spungeon, Vicious possibly [it is still not cut-and-dried] stabbed girlfriend Nancy to death in the Chelsea Hotel in October of that year. The press, of course, had a field day with this, dubbing the macabre event a 'punk killing', somewhat along the lines of the Charles Manson atrocities of a decade earlier: out on bail from Rikers' Island jail, Sid finally expired after recieving an overdose of heroin from his 'well-meaning' mater, who had brought him up as a junkie. She dropped the urn containing his ashes alighting the plane at Heathrow, and Sids' remains reportedly scattered all over the runway.
The ending to the Pistols' tale is morbid and ugly, there is no question of this, even for a fan like me.
The Pistols' story has loomed large in my life, although I never religiously followed the events around the reformations from 1996 onwards: a bit too 'Pantomime Punk' for my tastes but great to have some better-quality recordings of the group live in comparison to the abysmal tapes of the '76-'78 incarnation: Lydons' voice has evolved into a far more noticably higher pitch over the intervening years. His other musical endeavor PIL/Public Image Limited are Okay but I doubt if I would collect their entire output. The Pistols hit a definite chord with me, though: their uncompromizing attitude permanently changed the outlook of the music Industry, and instilled a culture for 'telling it like it is'.
Today, the once-shocking and reviled phenomenon of Punk Rock looks quaint and indeed has been absorbed wholeheartedly into mainstream culture: every ordinary Joe today seems to sport a Mohican Haircut: I remember the days when a Mohican Punk cut, or having sky-blue hair, used to turn many heads: today all this is just routine incarnate.
Oh, how times change..........
ABOUT THIS DRAWING:
I know the Pistols story very well indeed, so I never even bothered with google images or anything in order to draw Sid Vicious or Johnny Rotten: dunno if the likenesses are spot-on or not, but these guys just looked the part in their respective roles within the group.
The backdrop with the ripped-up Union Jack was also dreamed up by me without looking at Jamie Reids' infamous graphics: yes it is more authentic and obviously more accurate to look this stuff up on Google Images, but me, I always admired those artists who drew everything direct from their imaginations. Copying from photos or other graffix always impressed me MUCH less------a cynical route, akin to cheating!
More caricatures on here at some point, but as I say it has never been my top priority as a Toonsmith.
I do not follow politics or current events nearly enough to take up caricaturing seriously......nor am I a good enough, or interested enough, in this field to draw strangers in the street willing to pay for this service.......
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