Sex Pistols
Anarchy in the U.K.

THE REVIEW

1)

And he who makes things happen said: take two hooligans, a kid with a pop instinct, a designer with guts, a street preacher, a chaos guru…

2)

This morning, for instance, I took a pill for the current ailment and just now I used the cream for my back pain. If you add the jumpy heart, the ankles that crack, and the anxiety that comes and goes to these two little things, what emerges is a terrible psychophysical picture. Yet everything is fine, dreams travel at a thousand miles an hour, and judging by the smiles tucked into my pockets, it seems I'm getting more charming.

All of this to say that, being far away from youthful years and the absolute zero that often derives from those years, it amuses me a bit to write a review on the birth of punk. Wouldn't it be better if I focused on timeless folk or those quirky tunes much more akin to my soul?

Oh yes, perhaps it would be better. Except that nervous music still excites me like never before. Like, I can still play a punk song and jump around like an idiot. But, it's not just this... there is something more…

A lot more.

3)

I saw punks for the first time on a train, on my way to Parma for an Iggy Pop concert. Back then, we youngsters, just having moved from progressive to a slightly more exciting music, were fixated on the quadriumvirate of Morrison, Bowie, Reed, Pop.

So yes, I saw punks for the first time while heading by train to Parma. And one of them, quite blonde and quite plump, even said to me "nice curls" and I won't deny that it was exciting. The concert, of course, was fantastic. As I recall, it was the first after many years without live music due to the political chaos of the seventies.

So yes, I saw punks while heading by train to Parma and before that only on TV like Indians and cowboys.

We were then provincial lads, still caught by an Italian Communist Party imprinting and so, at first glance, seeing them in magazines or on TV, it seemed inappropriate to dress like that. Moreover, having only partly overcome the myth of musical technique, that mess seemed to us the opposite of music. And in a certain sense, it was.

In short, all this to say that, at the time, we were not ready for the Sex Pistols. A pity, since they were, despite their short lifespan, the best rock band of all time.

4)

And why the best rock band of all time? Well, legend has it that their sudden arrival gave the impression that you could rethink every single gesture of our daily life., not exactly a small thing.

Not to mention the music, a lean and ungainly rock'n'roll at the service of a shrieking voice that said screw you. Then you know, things don't change, but that's something you learn later.

5)

The sneer, the laughter, the power of the words...it was all too much...to the point where the next step was to abandon rock for art and settle for a limited public image...all good from an aesthetic point of view, even better... but that idea that you could rethink everything? Oh sure, you still could, but each in their own room.

6)

Then again, I talked about a legend, it didn't really happen.

7)

And anyway, that Iggy Pop concert dates back to May 1979...