The one band John Lydon refuses to accept he influenced
Sun 12 January 2025 14:00, UK
Influence is a strange thing. From musical choices to clothing and other aesthetic aspects like a band logo, the effect artists can have on one another is manifold. One man who knows this full well is John Lydon, better known as Johnny Rotten to some in his fanbase. Despite his protestations, he’s a consequential musician whose spirit pulses throughout the arts.
Lydon is best known as the frontman of the Sex Pistols, the vanguard of the first wave of British punk. They fought to take rock music back to its roots, dethroning established rock acts such as Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones and obliterating the prog genre, which they believed typified music’s malaise in the mid-1970s. The quartet succeeded in changing the landscape, and their anarchistic message was perfect for a generation who had grown up in a sclerotic Britain, whose anger about the present and nihilism about the future was embodied by Lydon and his bandmates.
Sex Pistols’ time in the sun was brief, as creative differences, personal spats and drugs started to take their toll. Their arc mirrored that of the first wave at large, as the once pure messaging was now being hijacked by cynics seeking to cash in on the sound and image.
Following a show in San Francisco in January 1978, Lydon left Sex Pistols and swiftly started his own band, Public Image Ltd. While he was forever inextricable from punk, now, he was creatively unburdened from the limitations of his old band and a genre which he believed had become “fascist” in that it had so many rules. Their genre-bending, post-punk pioneering debut, Public Image: First Issue, arrived in December of that year. Since then, Lydon has used the project to explore many different sounds.
While Lydon is inextricable from punk, and when fronting Sex Pistols was synonymous with hating classic rock bands, in the years since, he’s clarified widespread beliefs about his tastes. From Kate Bush’s The Kick Inside to Cliff Richards’s self-titled album, Lydon has an extensive and varied record collection, reflecting the substance of Public Image Ltd’s catalogue.
One of Lydon’s favourite albums is Kraftwerk’s influential 1978 effort, The Man-Machine. Recorded by the German innovators in their Kling Klang Studio, the record is hailed for its sparse vocals and robotic essence and left an indelible mark on 1980s pop music thanks to ‘The Model’ and ‘The Robots’. Years after its arrival, when Lydon finally got to meet a member of Kraftwerk, they told him his own work influenced them, something he refused to believe.
Lydon told Pitchfork in 2016: “I met one of the members of Kraftwerk last year and was very surprised — they weren’t at all how I imagined them from looking at the album covers. They were in what I would call Beach Boys shirts. In an odd, twisted way, they were saying I had an influence on them. I didn’t believe it for a second, but I’ll take it.”
He added: “I loved anything by them. Their cold, emotionless way of presenting a pop song was always entertaining to me, so novel and so deadpan and cynical and kind of heartwarming. So ahead of its time.”
Whether he accepts it or not, John Lydon’s influence stretches far beyond punk music. His attitude and approach continue to permeate the world today, even if he has become something of a caricature.
Related Topics
