Johnny Rotten trading cards (1977)

Source

Before & After: John Lydon with Tom Snyder

Before: 1980

After: 1997

Movie of the Week: The Filth and The Fury (2000)

What Rotten Played On Capital Radio in July ’77

About ten days ago, writer Barney Hoskyns posted the playlist from Johnny Rotten's Capital Radio appearance (July 15, 1977, on the Tommy Vance show) over at Rock's Back Pages, and linked to my old post about the show. Just for the hell of it, here's a Spotify playlist of MOST of the music selected by Mr. Lydon/Rotten from that day. I was able to find 19 of the 24 tracks from the track listing.


If you'd like to hear or download the original broadcast, jump into the wayback machine.

Movie of the Week - Corrupt (1983)

Starring John Lydon, and Harvey Keitel, and titled at various times Cop Killer, The Order of Death, or most commonly Corrupt. Hat tip to Dangerous Minds.

What the NY Times said in its review on January 19, 1984: "Mr. Lydon, who has just the right insinuating, runty quality for Leo, makes a strong impression, and in a better film would make an even stronger one. Mr. Faenza has given ''Corrupt'' some momentum and tension, but there's absolutely nothing to hold it together. It's set in New York, but its angst and intensity feel Italian. The whole thing might just as well be taking place on the moon." Read the whole thing here.

Shot by: Dennis Morris

John Lydon by Dennis Morris, 1978. Visit Dennis' website: www.dennismorris.com

Movie of the Week - The Great Rock & Roll Swindle

Friday Ephemera - John Lydon's all time reggae favorites

John Lydon-penned response to a fan listing all of his favorite reggae artists - the man knows his stuff, and the PiL stationary was a nice touch. Click the images for a closer look. And revisit this old post to see & hear just how wide & surprising his musical taste was.

via Dangerous Minds

Sex Pistols final show, San Francisco, Jan 14, 1978

Via Dangerous Minds

Gunter Grove 1978

Check out photographer Pierre Benain's shots of John Lydon and friends, hanging out at his place in Gunter Grove, London, in the summer of 1978.

In Brief - Items of Interest

Dangerous Minds reminds us of the great BBC doc about Rough Trade Records, "Do It Yourself: The Story of Rough Trade Records." Some of you may remember me posting about this last year.

Dangerous Minds also points the way to "Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Leonard Cohen" - a Canadian film from 1965.



Alan McGee discusses the new album from Dan Treacy and the Television Personalities, and his legacy in light of MGMT's "Tribute To Dan Treacy" on their new album.

Take a poll at the Guardian - Should Iggy start keeping his shirt on?

EV Grieve reports on whats become of the Avenue A storefront that used to house Etherea Records...and it's good news.


The Aquariam Drunkard reminds us about a longtime fave compilation series, Lux & Ivy's Favorites. And while you're over at the WFMU blog, don't forget "Seven Minutes In Deadwood."

Caught By the River remembers Roger Eagle, gone 11 years this week.



The blog over at Rocks Back Pages comes up with a list of 25 songs mentioning the Ramones.

PiL will be filming an upcoming Brooklyn show as part of a new documentary on the band.

And finally, Pampelmoose digs up a couple of very nice videos:

The Who perform "5:15" on ToTP 1973:


Fleet Foxes:

The Johnny Rotten Show

Tommy Vance: So if you could start again, would you do it exactly the same way?

Johnny Rotten: Well, yeah. It's not as laid out as that, I mean we just did it, it was spontaneous. Everything we did was straight away. I think that's the only way you should do anything. It's the way you understand it, because it's honest. When you plan out your future it's not such fun.

Leave it to Dangerous Minds to beat me to the punch, I somehow missed this post from them in my RSS feed yesterday. A friend of mine sent me the same link to these recordings of a young Johnny Rotten guesting on Tommy Vance's show on Capital Radio in London on July 15, 1977. It may have been July 16.

What we get is a little over two hours of interesting talk & incredible musical selections from a young man who, at the time, was under what must have been quite some pressure - the Pistols were arguably at the peak of their notoriety, they had the white hot heat of the media spotlight on them, and as you'll hear, were the victims of random violence. Fascinating stuff. And in light of Malcolm McLaren's death, it seems like a good time to revisit this bit of "audio ephemera."

Part One (1:10:36):


Part two (0:53:34):


TRACK LISTING
01. Tim Buckley - Sweet Surrender
02. The Creation - Life Is Just Beginning
03. David Bowie - Rebel Rebel
04. Unknown Irish Folk Music / Jig
05. Augustus Pablo - King Tubby Meets The Rockers Uptown
06. Gary Glitter - Doing Alright With The Boys
07. Fred Locks - Walls
08. Vivian Jackson (Yabby You) and the Prophets - Fire in a Kingston
09. Culture - I'm Not Ashamed
10. Dr Alimantado & The Rebels - Born For A Purpose
11. Bobby Byrd - Back From The Dead
12. Neil Young - Revolution Blues
13. Lou Reed - Men Of Good Fortune
14. Kevin Coyne - Eastbourne Ladies
15. Peter Hammill - The Institute Of Mental Health, Burning
16. Peter Hammill - Nobody's Business
17. Makka Bees - Nation Fiddler / Fire!
18. Captain Beefheart - The Blimp
19. Nico - Janitor Of Lunacy
20. Ken Boothe - Is It Because I'm Black
21. John Cale - Legs Larry At Television Centre
22. Third Ear Band - Fleance
23. Can - Halleluhwah
24. Peter Tosh - Legalise It
(For more track info, and a full interview transcription, visit Fodderstompf)




(NME story clips courtesy of Van der Graaf Generator. Click the pix for a closer look.)