"I need you out here," Russ Meyer told me on the phone in 1977. It was 6 a.m. He could not conceive that I might still be asleep. "Have you ever heard of the Sex Pistols?"
"No," I said.
"They're a rock band from England. They got a lot of publicity for saying 'fuck' on TV. Now they have some money and want me to direct their movie."
"The Sex Pistols?" I said.
"Their manager is a guy named Malcolm McLaren. He called me from London. He said their singers were big fans of 'Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.' They go to see it every weekend they're in London. It's playing at the Electric Cinema on Portobello Road."No director except possibly for Stanley Kubrick was better informed than Russ about where his movies were playing. Kubrick used to call specific theaters to complain about light intensity. Russ used to call to complain about theft.
"Their lead singers are named Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious. They demanded the same team that made 'Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.' We can go wild on this. I've got a couple of big-titted London girls already in mind.""They liked it that much?"
"Rotten says it's true to life."
Malcolm McLaren announced his imminent arrival from London, and I flew out to Los Angeles for a briefing. I stayed as always at the Sunset Marquis, half a block down from Sunset on Alta Loma, a semi-residential hotel which had provided homes over the years for such as Tiny Tim, Van Heflin, Elaine May, Roy Scheider and Jim Belushi. It is now an A-list hotel. In those days, you dialed room service and a voice answered, "Greenblatt's Deli."
Malcolm McLaren appeared with Russ in my room at the Marquis. He was a ginger-haired, wiry man in his 30s, who wore a "Destroy" T-shirt and leather pants equipped with buckles and straps. These were, I learned, the infamous Bondage Pants he introduced at SEX, the celebrated Kings Road boutique he ran with his romantic partner Vivienne Westwood. The T-shirt was also hers. The pants offered the ultimate on bondage convenience. When the mood struck, you didn't have to rummage about for belts and braces; all your needs were built in. On his feet he wore what Russ approvingly noted were Brothel Creepers.
After pleasantries ("We're going to make a fucking great movie," McLaren told us), we got into Russ's bright red Cadillac to visit a house a few blocks uphill from Sunset. This was, as I recall, the office of a record producer somehow associated with McLaren, and typical of the area, where many houses look like homes but few are. This one contained a large videotape machine, uncommon in the days before home video, and McLaren showed us video tapes of the notorious BBC appearance during which, the Daily Mirror reported, they used "the filthiest language ever heard on British television." Then he played us Sex Pistols albums at full blast.
Meyer, dressed as frequently in military khaki slacks, an open-neck dress shirt, a blazer and sturdy penny loafers, sat next to McLaren on a black leather sofa and listened studiously to "No Future," "God Save the Queen (She Ain't No Human Being)," "Anarchy in the U.K.," "Pretty Vacant" and other songs. Occasionally he would nod his head attentively. When the album had played, he said, "So these records are big in England?""Fucking huge," said McLaren. He told us what sort of a film he had in mind. His ideas didn't involve a plot or a story line. As I recall, his only concern was that it star the Sex Pistols. Russ proposed "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls" meets "A Hard Day's Night."
Meyer said we would headquarter in my room at the Sunset Marquis. I don't remember why we didn't use his house up on Arrowhead over the hill behind the Hollywood Sign. It was another apparent residence which contained office furniture, editing equipment, prints and souvenirs, plus one king-sized bed and what he referred to as "an industrial-strength kitchen." The only other time I heard him use this term was in "industrial strength bra." Perhaps, I learn from a Meyer bio by Jimmy McDonough, we met at the Marquis because McLaren and Meyer could not be left alone in the same room for long without fierce arguments. McLaren thought of Meyer as a fascist. Meyer thought of McLaren as a source for money to make an RM film. In any event, we drove up to the house on Arrowhead and brought down an office chair and a card table, which Meyer planted with satisfaction in front of the TV, explaining, "You won't be watching TV."I've mentioned before that, for Russ, typing was synonymous with writing. If he didn't hear the typewriter, no writing was being done.When I was writing "Beneath the Valley of the Ultra Vixens" for him, he located me in his living room (all office furniture) and listened from his upstairs office. When my typewriter fell silent, he'd call down, "What's the matter?"
A meeting was set the next day involving McLaren, Meyer, and a Dutch director named Rene Daalder, who had enjoyed a hit with "Massacre at Central High" (1976). Daalder has since had great success in the areas of virtual reality and special effects and directed several films. In those days he considered Meyer a mentor, and had flown at his behest to England to work on screenplay ideas with McLaren. Apparently he had been pulled out of Meyers orbit into McLaren's, and had returned with a screenplay which Meyer tossed into his big kitchen wastebasket. That's when Russ called me.
We began with the title "Anarchy in the U.K." Daalder contributed to some earlier scenes in the story. In England, long unemployment lines represent an economic collapse, and there is resentment against the upper classes. The Sex Pistols represent the voice of rebellion, and conceive of a scheme to bring down Britain with anarchy. The details of their scheme I will leave to future scholars of the screenplay. I wrote one scene which I particularly liked, involving Johnny Rotten encountering a storefront Church of Scientography, and being persuaded to be "clocked" on something called an H-Meter. This was a device hooked to a steering wheel and an accelerator, which somehow...EXT. SOHO STORE FRONT
This is the London headquarters of the Church of Scientography. Johnny Rotten looks in. A sign on the window reads: HAVE YOU BEEN CLOCKED?
A young, fresh-faced GIRL, with the light of true zeal burning in her eyes, comes out onto the sidewalk as Johnny Rotten looks in a lackluster way at the window.
GIRL
Are you coming in, then?JOHNNY ROTTEN
No I'm not.GIRL
Why not then?
Are you afraid?JOHNNY ROTIJEN
Afraid?
Not bloody likely.GIRL
The H-Meter doesn't lie.JOHNNY ROTTEN
The what ?He scowls at her, unable to make out her game.
GIRL
The H-Meter. Haven't you ever been c1ocked ?JOHNNY ROTTEN
I had a bloody hard time of it last night.GIRL
I can just look at you and see you're living over the limit.JOHNNY ROTTEN
That's the fucking truth.GIRL
Come in, then.Baffled, he follows her. In the gloom, he makes out a gigantic poster, upon which a man wearing a racing helmet, goggles, a white gown and long, wavy hair, is surrounded by beams of light projected from the top of a pyramid.
JOHNNY ROTTEN
What's all this, then?GIRL
Just sit down here.
He sees an automobile seat, facing a steering wheel, a gas pedal, and a speedometer.JOHNNY ROTTEN
I've got my provisional license -- and I haven't got a car anyway.
GIRL
The H-Meter has nothing to do with driving.JOHNNY ROTTEN
What the fuck is it then?GIRL
This is the Church of Scientometry. And this is the H-Meter, named after our leader, the Holy Man from Italy, Guru Vaser-Rati.JOHNNY ROTTEN
I've heard of him somewhere.GIRL
Just grasp the steering wheel, which picks up the electrical vibrations from your hands, and when I ask you questions, push down hard on the accelerator for "yes," and on the brake for "no.:
JOHNNY ROTTEN
What if I don't know the answer?
GIRL That's about 36 miles per hour.
McLaren fed us with ideas. He particularly specified a scene showing Sid Vicious in bed with his mother as they shot heroin. Russ was dubious."Do you think Sid will go for that?"
"Why wouldn't he? It's all based on fact."
"It should be obvious why it would piss him off."
"Nah. The more shocking, the better. That's what the boys stand for. Just put it in, and we'll run it past Sid in London, see what he says."
Day after day, I pounded at the typewriter as Meyer and McLaren went out on business meetings at 20th Century-Fox and then returned, Meyer expecting many more pages, McLaren unconcerned, as if screenplay wrote themselves. In the evenings, Russ and I dined in restaurants serving large forms of meat, while we outlined the next day's material on yellow legal pads. This had also been our method on BVD. We rarely knew more than a day ahead what would happen next.Finally I arrived at the end:
AN OVERHEAD SHOT
shows his prone body on the floor in the spotlight. The first and only person to move is Johnny Rotten. He walks slowly forward to the dead body. Looks down at it. Turns it over with the toe of his boot, so that the dead face gazes sightlessly skyward. Speaks so softly not everyone can hear.
JOHNNY ROTTEN
(down at the body)
Will success spoil Johnny Rotten?
(pause)
No. He will waste, spoil, smash, blow up and destroy success!Another pause. The room is hushed. Johnny Rotten looks slowly up and directly into the camera.
JOHNNY ROTTEN
Did yer ever have the feeling yer being watched?FADE TO BLACK
This was in July of 1977. Shortly after, Meyer and McLaren flew to London. Meyer insisted on the aisle seat: "If we go down, McLaren will get his bondage straps tangled up with the chair and I'll be trapped,."
I flew to London for screenplay meetings. Russ had rented lodgings on Cheyne Walk in Chelsea, close by the scenes of McLaren's triumphs on King's Road. I stayed not far away on Sloane Street, at the Cadogan Hotel, scene of Oscar Wilde's downfall.Casting was already underway. Marianne Faithful had been signed for the tricky role of Sid Vicious's mother. For the role of P.J. Proby, a British rock star, we had P.J. Proby himself, who was from Texas but was better known in England, and who had played Elvis on stage. For another key role, one afternoon Russ held an audition for Jon Finch, a respected actor who had played the title role in Polanski's "Macbeth" (1971). I reflected that day on the actor's life, auditioning for roles clearly unsuited for him simply because to be out of a job is the actor's nightmare.
We had meetings with both Vicious and Rotten. I don't remember ever meeting the other two Sex Pistols, Paul Cook and Steve Jones. McLaren implied that their roles in the band were limited to actually performing the music, since Sid and Johnny had their hands full insulting the audience and inspiring eruptions of manic hostility. I later actually met Jones years later at a party at our house in Michigan, of all places, and liked him.The meeting with Vicious was fraught. McLaren had come round for it in person. Sid seemed a nice enough bloke, decorated with safety pins and so on, but calm and interested. No acting out. McLaren handed him the script.
"Here's the scene we want you to read, Sid."
INT. NIGHT. BEDROOM
The shades are drawn. Propped up against the pillows of the bed, Sid's MOTHER is just in the act of shooting up. As Sid Vicious appears in the doorway, she pulls the needle from her arm. He leans against the door, regarding her. She releases the rubber tube from around her arm.
SID VICIOUS (not unkindly)
Still on the shit, mum?She looks up and sees him. We sense this is not the first time he's seen her shooting up.
MOTHER
(a surprised greeting)
Sid!
(pause)
How are you, then?
SID VICIOUS
All right... I came for my things, mum.MOTHER
Your things?
(brightens)
You got a job, then?SID VICIOUS
Not a chance!
His Mother nods to confirm that of course there was not a chance. She sits upright on the side of the bed.MOTHER
I thought Tony told you not to come 'round here any more.VICIOUS
Bugger Tony. It's your house too - isn't it?MOTHER
He pays the rent... come on then, sit down.She pats the bed next to her. He sits.
VICIOUS
I didn't come 'round because I wanted to. I need money, mum. I'm starving.His mother isn't giving him her total attention.
VICIOUS
(continuing)
I'm starving, mum...He puts an arm around her. She looks at the hand on her arm, lets it stay. Her dialogue implies more than it says.
MOTHER
What if Tony walks in?SID VICIOUS
He won't come walking in here . He's down at the pub with his mates.MOTHER
I don't want you to get hurt, Sid. You'd better get out in case Tony comes.He pulls her closer to him, and kisses her on the cheek.
VICIOUS
What's the matter, mum?She is deep into the rush of the heroin.
MOTHER
He could come walking in here any time now...Effortlessly, Sid Vicious pushes his mother back on the bed and moves to cover her with half his body. He kisses her on the neck and lips.
SID VICIOUS
I told you -- he's at the pub with his mates, getting sloshed.MOTHER
But he doesn't have the money to get sloshed, Sid. He'll be backSID VICIOUS
Come on, mum. Give us a kiss.She does. And then she puts her free arm around him, and they begin the preliminaries of love making.
The scene continues in some detail before Tony does indeed burst in. It was a scene owning something to the scene in "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls" when Randy Black, the heavyweight champion, bursts in on sweet Petronella Danforth in the arms of clean-cut Emerson Thorne.
Sid Vicious studied it. Russ, Malcolm and I studied him. He read carefully, smoking. Finally he closed the screenplay.
"I don't think me Mum will like the part about the heroin."
On another night, Russ and I took Johnny Rotten out to dinner. Russ by now had privately confided that McLaren was full of shit and the Pistols would never have made it in the Army. He was undaunted. "Ebert," he said, because he often began sentences with the name of the person he was addressing, "we're going to the mountaintop again." This was always understood between us as referring to the triumph of "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls."
He said the Sex Pistols would be the occasion of "a real R.M. film," and he had agents scouting the land for beautiful actresses with improbable bosoms. He had never been concerned before about plausibility in a screenplay, and he wasn't going to start now. If the Sex Pistols never encountered a woman requiring less than a DD cup, even in their audiences, that was fine with him. He appreciated the fact that the Sex Pistols songs would provide the occasion of another sex, drugs and rock and roll picture like BVD.For dinner, I suggested Beauchamp Place, then not as trendy as now, a street not far from Harrods's that was chockablock with restaurants. In the black cab Meyer informed Rotten: "You look like you haven't eaten in a week."
"That fucker McLaren doesn't pay us anything. He gives us an allowance of five quid a week. I'm living in a dosshouse."
We alighted in front of a selection of Thai, Italian, Persian, Chinese, Moroccan and French restaurants.
"Ebert, what have you gotten us into?" Meyer asked with alarm. "John needs a big piece of meat."
We found a grill house in a basement supplied with dark, cavelike booths. To my surprise, no one recognized Johnny Rotten except our waitress, who confided "I'll keep it quiet." She offered to recite the daily chef's selections. Russ firmly cut her off: "We'll have three of the Trencherman's Specials." Russ entertained a fancy that the Trencherman's Special was as standard in every decent restaurant as a glass of water and a basket of bread.
"I don't think we have that on the menu," the waitress said, looking to Johnny for support. He looked as if he stayed above such details. We compromised with the three largest steaks the chef could find in his kitchen."Will you be having jacket potatoes with those?"
"Baked will be fine, my dear."
Meyer opened up by informing Johnny Rotten that with his stovepipe arms he wouldn't have survived one day in the army.
"What do I want with the fucking army?" Rotten said.
"You listen to me, you little shit. We won the Battle of Britain for you!"
I reflected that America had not been involved in the Battle of Britain, and that John Lydon (his real name) was Irish, and therefore from a non-participant nation. I kept these details to myself.
After dinner, we drove Johnny in a cab to where he lived, in an anonymous street in Notting Hill. "Fucking McLaren," he said. "That was the first decent meal I've had in a month." Meyer gave him five pounds and we waited outside a convenience store for him to buy lager and canned pork and beans. "Fucking great," Johnny said.
In all the years I knew him, I never heard Russ Meyer say the word "fucking." Perhaps he had too devout a respect for the concept. He preferred such synonyms as "wail," "pound," "pummel," "belabor" and "conjoin," always pronounced with enthusiasm.
I flew home. Russ called to say they had a budget from Fox. I had suggested the title be improved to "Who Killed Bambi," and this was embraced. The first day of filming involved the shooting of a deer by a singer P.J. Proby managed--"the greatest rock star in the world," referred got only as "M.J."
EXT. THE QUEEN'S GAME PRESERVE - DAY
A Rolls Royce careens through the narrow lanes, narrowly missing trees on either side before it skids to a halt near a clearing. On its doors, gilt initials are carefully lettered: M.J.CAMERA ESTABLISHES M.J., surrounded by his luxurious automobile.
A CHAUFFEUR, seven feet tall, leaps out and opens the door for M.J., the world's greatest rock star, who emerges expensively dressed in youthful-looking but very expensive hunting clothing, cut as a cross between hunting gear and contemporary fashion. Over his shoulder there's a quiver filled with steel-tipped hunting arrows. He carries a hunting bow as he moves stealthily into the woods.
CUT TO:
EXT. FOREST PRESERVE - M.J.'S POVA deer flashes through a clearing.
SMASH CUT TO:
M.J.
One of M.J.'s arrows stops it cold in its tracks. He nods with quiet satisfaction. It's important here that we see him as youthful, strong and virile -- and not yet aware that he is a member of the previous generation.
This was, as nearly as I know, the only scene ever filmed for "Who Killed Bambi." There is more than one account of what went wrong. McLaren claimed 20th Century-Fox read the screenplay and pulled the plug. This seems unlikely because the studio would not have green-lighted the film without reading the script. Meyer called me to say McLaren had made false promises of financing and was broke. Electricians and others had walked off after not being paid. Meyer himself demanded each week's salary be deposited every Monday morning.On Wikipedia, I find: "This is however challenged as being incorrect according to Julian Bray, who supplied location services to Malcolm McLaren's Matrixbest company ...Bray recalls that respected Production Manager Joyce Heirley asked if Julian's location catering crew and film location services unit would provide a range of location services on a special train consisting of vintage carriages hired from Lord McAlpine's Carnforth railway collection including a LMS 1930's dining car and a Southern Railway..."
It may be true that Heirley asked Bray about this, but to my knowledge no train scenes were ever shot. Russ's own footage can be briefly glimpsed in "The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle" (1980), directed by Julien Temple. This film essentially starred McLaren. Vicious, Cook and Jones appeared, but Rotten had bailed out of the band after a tumultuous American tour. "Swindle" has been described as a "continuation" of the Meyer project, but the two are completely different, except for the few seconds of Russ's footage.
The best account of the debacle appears in Jimmy McDonough's unauthorized biography, Big Bosoms and Square Jaws: The Biography of Russ Meyer, King of the Sex Films. He writes nothing about any train scenes, and believes the film's fate was sealed when Princess Grace, a member of the Fox board, said, "We don't want to make another Meyer X film." This was harsh because, as Fox has never acknowledged, "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls" returned enormous profits at a crucial low point in Fox's fortunes, and is to this day one of the two or three most-often revived films of 1970.
Temple was so unwise as to tell the British press that Meyer had personally shot a deer with a pistol on that first day. Meyer sued for libel in England, the last country where you ever want to be sued for libel. "I don't give a shit about damages," he told me. "I want to clear my name. I don't go around shooting deers with pistols." Temple purchased a full-page ad in Screen International to apologize.
All parties seem to agree that the Sex Pistols grew to despise McLaren, even more so after he depicted them in "The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle" as no-talent frauds elevated to stardom by his own promotional genius. That was cruel, because Rotten and Vicious were authentic originals who struck a enormously influential note that continues to reverberate today. They may not have been gifted guitar soloists, but as performers they were phenomena. In less than two years, they fought constantly, insulted the press, spit on their fans, were banned from TV, were fired by one record company 24 hours after being signed, released only one album, pushed safety pins through their noses and ear lobes to more or less invent the modern style of body piercing, broke up during a tour of the United States, and saw Sid Vicious accused of murdering his girlfriend and dying of a drug overdose.
In 2000, Julien Temple returned with another film, "The Filth and the Fury," this time telling the Sex Pistols story from their own point of view and trashing McLaren. The surviving members appear backlit, perhaps to spare us the sight of their middle-pages faces. Incredibly, McLaren agreed to appear in his own defense, speaking from within a rubber bondage mask.I wrote from the film's Sundance premiere: "The Sex Pistols never had a period that could be described as actual success. Even touring England at the height of their fame, they had to be booked into clubs under false names. They were hated by the establishment, shut down by the police and pilloried by the press ("The Filth and the Fury" takes its title from a banner headline that once occupied a full front page of the Daily Mirror). That was bad enough. Worse was that their own fans sometimes attacked them, lashed into a frenzy by the front line of Rotten and Vicious, who were sometimes performers, sometimes bear-baiters.
"Rotten was the victim of a razor attack while walking the streets of London; McLaren not only failed to provide security, he wouldn't pay taxi fares. Vicious was his own worst enemy, and if there was one thing that united the other three band members and McLaren, it was hatred for Sid's girlfriend, Nancy Spungen, who they felt was instrumental in his drug addiction. 'Poor sod,' John Lydon says of his dead bandmate."To see this film's footage from the '70s is to see the beginning of much of pop and fashion iconography for the next two decades. After the premiere of 'The Filth and the Fury' at Sundance, I ran into Temple, who observed, 'In the scenes where they're being interviewed on television, they look normal. It's the interviewers who look like freaks.' Normal, no. But in torn black T-shirts and punk haircuts, they look contemporary, unlike the dated, polyestered, wide-lapeled and blow-dried creatures interviewing them.
"England survived the Sex Pistols, and they mostly survived England, although Lydon still feels it is unsafe for him to return there. [He and the other survivors, did concerts and tours as recently as 2008.] Cook and Jones lead settled lives. McLaren still has bright ideas. Vivienne Westwood has emerged as one of Britain's most successful designers, and poses for photographs in which she bears a perfect resemblance to Mrs. Thatcher. [She is now Dame Vivien Westwood.] And as for Sid, my notes from the movie say that while the Pistols were signing a record deal in front of Buckingham Palace and insulting the queen, Sid's father was a Grenadier Guard on duty in front of the palace. Surely I heard that wrong?"
Malcolm McLaren died of cancer on April 8, 2010, in a Swiss clinic. He will be buried in London's fabled Highgate Cemetery, resting with Karl Marx, George Eliot, Christina Rossetti, Radcliffe Hall, Douglas Adams, Sir Ralph Richardson, and other congenial companions. He is survived by the son he had with Westwood, Joseph Corré. The apple fell close to the tree. Corré is co-founder of Agent Provocateur, which began as a small Soho shop selling provocative lingerie and now has 30 stores in 14 countries. The German artist Marie-Amourfou was so inspired by the Agent Provocateur catalogue that she created the painting below. I wish Russ had lived to see it.
')
That script, just from the snippets, sounds absolutely amazing. I sincerely hope it winds up getting published.
Also, if I ever wind up going back in time, I plan on making "We can go wild on this. I've got a couple of big-titted London girls already in mind" my senior quote.
I love these autobiographical entries. I think this, and the article on watching Rocky II with Muhammad Ali, are models on how engaging a piece like this can be.
On another topic, it's fascinating to read reflections from someone who is in a position to comment on The Sex Pistols at their height but who was, at the time, neither an ardent admirer nor a committed opponent of them.
Authenticity. That's what the Sex Pistols had. For better or worse, they all marched the beat of openly mad drummers and the sound of it captivated me in '76; I was just 12 years old.
I hated polyester. Fabric shouldn't melt like a plastic. I still went through it though like a phase; hell, who didn't go see "Saturday Night Fever" or hear "disco Duck" on the radio. But the minute I heard God Save The Queen and Anarchy it was like being saved from soul-crushing mediocrity...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeP220xx7Bs
Sex Pistols: Anarchy in the UK Studio Version
http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=JQkActP-isE
It was arguably Malcom McLaren who was the first to see the value in offending people. There was money to made from the righteous indignation of those easily shocked and looking to be; the more obscene, the better. And to that extent as a manager, he was often brilliant.
He could also be a selfish shyte focused on self-promotion and making money off artists - whom he reportedly used and discarded just as easily. It's been said he arrived in NY after Sid's suicide more so to cash-in on the publicity that anything else.
He was a businessman.
But without him, Sid and the lads would likely have come and gone without crossing the pond or making much of an impression. Ironically, they were famous because they didn't give a shyte. And McLaren did, and why the rest of us were able to.
I don't usually get excited about the people Roger's met. Such encounters can make for interesting tidbits but beyond that, it's usually not anything to hyperventilate over. Not for me.
This however, is the exception to that.
You met Sid Vicious. And shared a story about it.
http://www.icanhasmotivation.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/yoursire.jpg
Smile.
THANK YOU THANK YOU for writing this account. When I heard about Malcolm McLaren's untimely demise on Thursday, I was hoping and praying that you would contribute something to the conversation from your short involvement in his and the Sex Pistols' history. You have provided tremendous illumination into this period.
To give every devil his due, after the demise of the Pistols, McLaren turned out to be a most interesting artist of his own. He helped produce the film version of FAST FOOD NATION directed by Richard Linklater, and produced some excellent albums. I hastily wrote about his best one, DUCK ROCK, on the day of his death for my blog:
http://projectorhasbeendrinking.blogspot.com/2010/04/i-know-you-can-change-weather.html
It's sad that such a talented man had to be so reckless at the same time - imagine how the world would be different if WHO KILLED BAMBI were finished, and Vicious not succumbed to heroin addiction, and the Pistols had continued to annoy the establishment for a few more albums...
Ebert: McLaren also ran for mayor of London. Westwood, and Lydon to a smaller extent, influenced the way more people dressed than any French designer.
I think the problem was that there was never enough money. Although he was stingy with the Pistols, I have the impression the band never actually grossed in anywhere near the realm of equally famous bands.
Not sure if you saw this Roger, but here's a clip from the Incredibly Strange Film Show special on Russ that goes into Who Killed Bambi? a little bit, including a few seconds of footage.
Allegedly there's some more footage in a 2004 UK documentary, starring Sting of all people as a gay gangster!
Gah, forgot the link!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xi6kRBq9WeY
Outstanding piece!
I remember seeing John Lydon's follow-up band, Public Image Limited, on "American Bandstand."
It was an amazing performance! During the song, he got all of the Bandstand dancers, who had been sitting on risers, to come out to where the band was performing. Then, after emptying the risers of everybody else, Lydon went to the risers himself and sat down alone. By the end of the song, he had completely traded places with the audience!
Thanks, Mr. Ebert!
BVD Forever!!!!!
I wonder if Lydon's famous last words at the Sex Pistols' final show in San Fransisco ("Did you ever get the feeling you've been cheated) were an ironic reworking of your scripts' final line.
Ebert: I wrote it before that concert, but only Lydon could tell you if he read it.
Splitting hairs maybe, but the infamous "filth and the fury" tv appearance wasn't on the BBC, it was on ITV's London-only affiliate station Thames TV.
Wow Roger....Just....wow....
Have you ever considered taking this entry and making it into a short documentary subject? It would probably maker a great special feature if the Criterion Collection ever re-releases "Sid and Nancy." You could probably even get some actors to do the snippets of screenplay that you presented here. I would love to see it.
If this is only one part of your life, then you seriously need to write an autobiography.
As in, NOW!!
Sorry as I am that "Who Killed Bambi" never got made, the notion that Grace Kelly spiked a Russ Meyer/Sex Pistols collaboration provides its own strange satisfaction. There may be no bigger tent than show business, but damn if it isn't one tent.
Thankyou for this wonderful post, Roger. I know next to nothing of the Sex Pistols, but as portraits (or thumbnail sketches, I suppose) go, this was a moving and fascinating one.
On an associated note: a friend of mine runs a pretty swell film blog, and in a recent post defending 3-D he suggested that it's "a bit weird" for you to be criticising low-brow (i.e. gimmicky 3-D cinema) when you were the screenwriter of the notoriously low-brow BVD. I thought it was an interesting point--do you think there's an irony in that?
Ebert: One is a film, the other is a format.
Lowbrow? Surely your friend cannot be referring to the film selected by a Village Voice poll of critics as one of the best 100 films of the century?
If by any chance you're interested in following it up, the full article (which is excellent) is here.
Roger, the last line of dialogue in your screenplay - Johnny Rotten's "Did yer ever have the feeling yer being watched?" - is intriguing. I wonder if John Lydon was consciously (or subconsciously) channeling it when he uttered his infamous words "Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?" to the audience at the end of the Sex Pistols' 14 January 1978 show at San Francisco, the last gig the band played before they essentially split up. Life imitating fiction?
In any case, it's terrific to read something new about a subject that's been thoroughly examined over the decades in several films and more than a few books (Jon Savage's "England's Dreaming: Sex Pistols and Punk Rock" [1991] and John Lydon's "Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs" [1994] are probably the two best books on the Sex Pistols, and Joel McIver's "The Making of The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle" [2005] does a pretty good job of covering the troubled history of McLaren's 1980 mockumentary).
Fabulous piece.
Is there any part of pop culture you HAVEN'T been a part of, Roger? *LOL*
Mr. Ebert,
Holy sh**. That seems to be the only suitable way to express what I am thinking right now. I knew you had a long, varied and meandering career, but goodness you have suprised me yet again. There are a few thoughts and questions that this entry has provoked from me, so here they are:
First, I just love discovering history lessons I never would have learned about in school. Make no mistake, this is history. You stood on the nexus of the birth of the punk movement, and the collapse of mainstream pornography. This is a significant event, and you played a direct part in it. The failure of "Who Killed Bambi" helped destroy the punk movement, which ironically made the movement even more influential in forming modern rock and roll. The failed project also caused the last major studio that produced pornography to cut its ties with the genre. This is probably one of the factors in driving pornography out of theatres and onto video. I'm not kidding Mr. Ebert, in popular culture this is an important event. If Paul Thomas Anderson ever makes a sequel to "Boogie Nights" you might be one of the characters. I wonder who would play you and Russ Meyer?
Speaking of Russ Meyer, your friendship with him must have been much stronger than I realized. If I am not mistaken you had taken your place among the most prominent movie critics in America by 1977. I know it was a different time, but it seems to me writing a pornographic screenplay would be a big risk. It could have derailed your career. In other words, why did you agree to write the screenplay for "Who Killed Bambi"? Was it your friendship with Meyer or something else?
Ebert: I don't believe the film would have been pornographic. R-rated, yes.
I hope that Roger's remembering correctly and Malcolm did say that the band loved Russ Meyer's work. Because (A) that is so very Malcolm and (B) it is totally untrue. John may have heard of Russ Meyer but Sid and the others definitely did not have a clue.
It was Malcolm who was a student of the great man, along with others in the Sex Pistols/McLaren circle such as John Tibieri, Caroline Coon and myself. We all went to see 'Ultravixens' the day it premiered in heavily censored form in a cinema on Picadilly. That was December 76 and even than he was saying that Meyer was going to direct a movie about the group. This was before the Grundy TV episode - they weren't even famous yet!
My favourite image of 1977 was watching a confused looking Russ walking through The Vortex punk nightclub in his jacket, loafers and big cigar, truly a stranger in a very strange land.
Ebert: You would know better than I. I quarrel with one detail; I don't recall seeing Russ ever smoke a cigar. Confused, he must have been.
Roger -- Any tale that involved Meyer, McLaren, Lydon, and Ritchie [Sid's real name] has to be funny, fanciful, and far-fetched.
Not your recollection; that is, I'm sure, spot on. But the utterances of every other character involved.
You display a quaint and charming imprecision about the real-life characters and roles of "the boys" in the Pistols, and I can't say I'm surprised -- you, of necessity, approached them as phenomena, and the Pistols as phenomenon and subject. This makes the story even better -- they're real people, but they're real people who only briefly come within your orbit [or Meyers's orbit?], and thus aren't icons (as they are and were to me).
I think of McLaren as an unrepentant lout and jackass -- and he most assuredly was.
But my world turned on the efforts of that jackass. But for him, I doubt I would have heard the Pistols -- and my life would be the worse for it.
Ebert: I had only a glancing relationship with their world, but it made for an unforgettable chapter in my life.
I love you Ebert. Ive always loved movies as a lad and when I discovered you and Gene I learned why I liked them and how to think about them. Thank you for your service to us all.
Amazing article, Roger. I never cared for the Sex Pistols much myself, but no one can deny their influence on popular culture. It's ironic, however, that the same establishment that was so critical of them 20 years ago has created an homogenized appeal based on the look of individuality that they ushered in (ie, Hot Topic).
Just out of curiosity, did you ever get the impression that they had an awareness that they were burning out even as they were hitting their zenith?
AMAZING !!! BRILLIANT !!! PIECE ROGER !!!
"McLaren thought of Meyer as a fascist. Meyer thought of McLaren as a source for money to make an RM film."
The relationship between McLaren and Meyer is fascinating. McLaren clearly saw himself as a subversive, and yet, he was the more exploitative capitalist, and I can't imagine why, with his treatment of the band, he would see Meyer as a fascist. Meyer, from what I understand, was an opportunist, much like McLaren, but perhaps a more honest one, because he was professional, and he was transparent about his devotion to his own artistic vision.
I'd love to hear more about these two fiercely independent personalities, and about what their relationship revealed about each of them.
Hi Roger, a quick question for you. You mention that McClaren played Sex Pistols songs for you... you mention the titles "No Future" and "God Save the Queen." These are in fact the same song. The song was titled "No Future" on the bootleg called Spunk, which was a collection of demos the Pistols recorded before recording the proper album "Never Mind the Bollocks." Do you remember if the songs he played for you were the raw, poorly produced Spunk tapes or the Bollocks album? I ask because more than a few people have suggested that the Spunk album was secretly put together by McClaren as a protest against the slicker quality of the Bollocks album.
After hearing about McLaren's death, I spent a couple hours surfing the web trying to find a copy of the WKB? screenplay, hoping against hope that someone had posted it in PDF format or some such at some point. No such luck, although it looks like there are a couple of copies available for auction for a ton of money.
You need to get this screenplay published, along with the whole story of its creation and how it all fell apart in the end. It'd make a great book.
When Sid Vicious sings 'My Way' at the end of Goodfellas, it all seems so natural.
What a great life you've had Mr Ebert. I loved reading this piece so much. Please submit it to a British newspaper (maybe the Guardian) so it can be read as widely as possible.
(They had a piece yesterday about Germaine Greer and her affair with Fellini)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/11/germaine-greer-affair-federico-fellini
I, personally, would buy the hell out of a book collecting the scripts for this and "BVD."
Long and uninviting read.
Your stories just don't quit!! You are writing a memoir - correct? I can hardly wait to read it!!
I have been waiting for this post and was not disappointed. I was thrilled to read about your experiences with Meyer, McClaren, the Pistols and writing the "Bambi" script! And as usual it is huge fun to hear your thoughts as you observe and interact with these characters.
"I reflected that America had not been involved in the Battle of Britain, and that John Lydon (his real name) was Irish, and therefore from a non-participant nation. I kept these details to myself."
Reading your first sighting of the Westwood "bondage pants" made me smile.
I came across the Pistols after their demise in 1979 via my college roomie and her gang of punk friends. Here I was, a young sheltered black girl from Ohio, but always a rock lover, always a fan of the rebel and a semi-Anglophile. The Pistols appealed to me greatly as did the Ramones, the Wires, the early Clash... Punk was not the only music genre I liked but it was one of the most fun.
I even recorded with a Chicago Based Band that played Punk influenced music - Urge Overkill.
My bewildered conservative black friends would ask: "Why do you like this music?"
"I just get it. It sounds good and you can dance to it!"
"You call that dancing?!"
Latest, personal best Pistols related story: My young college student neighbors were blasting dance music at 4AM. I retaliate. I play "Never Mind the Bollocks" at full blast and - I quote you: "that shut 'em up!"
And I felt 18 again, outside my cultural box and right at home with those other misfits from abroad and feeling very naughty.
God save the Queen!
Roger: Have you ever heard of the "Afro Punk Movement?" There is a black writer-director who made a film about young black kids and adults who are punk music lovers exclusively and their functioning amongst a hugely nonwhite culture of Punk music lovers, musicians and the Punk lifestyle. It is entitled "Afropunk" (natch) http://www.afropunk.com/page/afropunk-the-movie
Ebert: I knew you did that because I read your Twitter.
Dear Roger;
Medicine may have borrowed you some time but no one can say you haven't lived a full life! Your readers reap the reward.
Nice to see your still on the top of your game, always followed you as an example of good taste hope you dont mind if I mention our link here. We are the "New kids in town" but not for long. The Film Independent welcomes you to become a part of our network Roger we wish you the best of health.
This is our first series airing this month.
You may want to keep an eye on these films;
Sincerely David
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1GGUmi-nek
If "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls" is anything like the scenes described in what could've turned out to be a defining film of the Sex Pistols era, I know I'll love it.
Some of the scenes seem so daring and shocking. They kind of reminded me of "A Clockwork Orange", a film I did not like but consider one of the most powerful ever made.
Your life seems more and more interesting as more of it becomes uncovered through your blog entries. This piece says more about the people involved in the project than most tribute articles out there.
I can't help but wonder, is the screenplay of "Who Killed Bambi" anywhere to be found online? I'm sure I'm not the only one interested in reading it in its entirety.
I hope I find a DVD store that sells BVD in Urbana. It seemed to be put of stock in every HMV store I visited when I was in London.
Roger,
that was one of the most fascinating reads I've come across in a long time. Sure, that could be said of anything you post in your blog, but this one wasn't so much a commentary about things, as it was more about a time I've never had the experience to know. I was just as intrigued by the filmmaking process between you and Russ as I was about Sid's response to the script... just wow.
And I loved the clash of cultures between Russ and Rotten, with you giving commentary like a sportscaster on the sidelines - classic. But I have to ask, that picture of you and Russ - was that during the listening session of the Anarchy In The U.K. album? If it was, you looked unimpressed, with a slight "why-am-I-here?" look.
And finally, do you still have the entire script on hand? Any chance we could read the whole thing for ourselves? You seemed to capture the dialogue for Rotten and Sid perfectly. I had no problem imagining them saying those lines in real life. Was it hard imagining what they would say when you wrote it? Or did you find no problem at all thinking, "yeah, I can see Rotten saying this at this point of the scene"?
Sorry for asking so many questions. I know you don't take the time to answer many on your blog, else you'd be typing in here forever. Just be glad I don't meet you in person. I fear I'd be asking so many questions of you, I'd drain your brain dry of its essence.
A couple of notes:
-Just to let you know- your response to "By Yosh on April 12, 2010 7:46 AM" the link at the end is just an underlined word. The pointer goes nowhere.
-Also, among the later few paragraphs of your blog, you put quotes around a few of them, and it was rather distracting. I kept backtracking to see who was saying what, only to find it was just you narrating the story, not sharing a quote. It's the paragraphs that begin after the picture of you with Rotten.
Thanks again.
And as always, God Bless you Roger.
John
I was 13 in 1977, and the Sex Pistols seemed genuinely scary to me. And that on top of never having heard a single note of their music. In 1981, at 17, a girlfriend had a small batch of albums belonging to an ex-boyfriend, and I pinched Never Mind The Bollocks and Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited. I was afraid to play Bollocks without earphones because of of a lyric about a girl having an abortion in the song 'Bodies'. I treated the album the same way I treated my 1 or 2 Playboy magazines - well hidden and guilt laden (Catholic boy here).
Hearing "God Save The Queen" still thrills, the rest not so much. Dylan and I are still dating though.
There was a second scene filmed for this movie! One in which Sid Vicious (I believe) gets beaten up by a gang of street thugs lead by STING!
I've been looking into this movie for years. Is there any chance you could publish a draft on your page?
Ebert: I'm thinking of it.
Amazing story. Thanks for retelling it for us. One minor point: I remember reading that Temple used footage from an old interview with McLaren (in the bondage mask) for "The Filth and the Fury," and didn't interview him for that documentary specifically. That was one criticism of the documentary when it came out, as I recall: McLaren wasn't really given a chance to defend himself.
"In 1990, Julien Temple returned with another film, "The Filth and the Fury"
small nitpick...this came out in 2000.
Roger, when I think of everything you've seen and done in your career, I'm simply blown away. I love your ability to lift the veil and show us life behind the scenes with stories like this. Thank you for sharing this with us.
A tremendous story, what an exciting crew to be part of for a while. My favorite part: Russ Meyer, yelling down at you to complain whenever you stopped typing.
But seriously, R-rated? The scene with Sid Vicious and his mom in bed would put it into x-rated territory for sure...
You're an inspiration. Genuinely. You prove you can be a decent human being and still have a fund of amazing stories and have had a vast amount of fun in all sorts of ways. The film itself sounds fantastic, as though it would have been the perfect snapshot of an era, one I rather wish I had been born into.
On a seperate note what do you think of the 'I love you, Philip Morris' debacle?
Let me see if I’ve got this straight. You have a guy go into his mother’s bedroom, and she has just shot up heroin. Then while the woman is drugged up, he fucks her. And you believe this movie is going to receive an R rating. Hmm. Interesting.
Then when Fox’s Princess Grace refuses to finance your motherfucking movie, she’s the bad guy. Hmmm.
Ebert: Neither Meyer nor me thought for one second that scene would ever appear in the movie. It was required by McLaren.
Alan Jones: Friend and manager of McLaren's boutique 'Sex' on London's Kings Road pays tribute to music industry icon Malcolm McLaren:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myhEp-ra9z0
I love the honesty to be heard in this interview. Better to remember someone as themselves, warts and all, than to be a hypocrite and paint them as something else after death. At the same time, he gave McLaren credit where credit was due.
Meanwhile, I remember seeing Roger's script "Who Killed Bambi" for sale last year. I went looking and found another copy of the script up for auction - signed by Roger himself.
Sex Pistols - Paul Cook's personal copy of the 'Who Killed Bambi?' film script signed by Roger Ebert
LOT 6170/3
Paul Cook's personal copy of the "Who Killed Bambi?" film script signed on the inside Who Killed Bambi? indeed! Roger Ebert, the writer of the screenplay.
Estimate : £300 - £400
http://www.cooperowen.co.uk/index.php?lot=2175-02
That's like $600 Canadian! Holy "beep!" :)
Gee, you should check around the house Roger, see if you've got any more copies lying around.
Smile.
Ebert: Yeah, that's my signature, all right.
http://twitpic.com/1f8pm8
Brilliant post, good sir. I've long had a "what if?" obsession with Who Killed Bambi? and the details surrounding it, and with it having been sparked again in the wake of McLaren's passing, this was a delightful read.
To add to the back-and-forth in the comments here, your line "Did yer ever have the feeling yer being watched?" has been used in variations by Rotten/Lydon twice including that final Pistols performance at Winterland in '78. On the occasion of the Queen's Jubilee (June 6, 1977), documentary cameras aboard the chartered yacht which sailed the Thames as the Pistols played live captured Lydon somberly posing the question "Ever get the feeling you've been trapped?" (this footage is included in The Great Rock 'N' Roll Swindle). I don't know the time frame of when events happened in that year, but either Lydon did read your script and was affected by that closing scene, or you were both picking up on something floating about in the aether.
Robert,
You're the public intellectual America needs. Thanks.
-John.
Did you have any inkling at the time that you'd be talking about those individuals to a rapt audience 30 years later?
Mr Ebert:
"If by any chance you're interested in following it up, the full article (which is excellent) is here."
The link for the article doesn't seem to work.
Cheers!
Dear Roger,
Here in LA we were all lucky to have Steve Jones host a radio show for a few years (on the now defunct Indie 103.1). Jones, sober for years now, was always a bright, shambling voice sharing a real passion for music. A very likable cat. He may not have been a "gifted guitar soloist" when he started out, but he's done session work with the likes of Bob Dylan, Herbie Hancock, and Brian Eno. Johhny Lydon will be performing with his band, Public Image Limited, at Coachella this weekend. I will be front and center.
Whatever can be said about Malcom McLaren, he certainly played some small part in helping to change the music world. R.I.P. and thanks.
The big question is where can I get my hands on that screenplay? It sounds freakin' awesome.
'But in torn black T-shirts and punk haircuts, they look contemporary, unlike the dated, polyestered, wide-lapeled and blow-dried creatures interviewing them.'
GREAT observation.
Great writing Roger. Thank you so much for writing fuck when you mean fuck and not f*** or something similar.
Greetings to you Roger and to every two-legged creatures on Earth.
I think if the movie had been made, it'd remain a cinematic bizarre notoriety. Is there anything more interesting than that? I also think that if you've worked with someone like Tarantino .... I don't know, you knew Russ better than everyone of us.
Note: I recently wrote an article "My God, Mysels". In the end, I quoted the last paragraph of your amazing "How to Believe in God?". So in a way, I'm your ghost McLaren for promoting your work, but I'm less adept and more inept.
Thank you for your persistent embrace to your personal life, and what a life you HAVE.
LOL!!! Sincerely. I am laughing out loud, at the notion that the pistols were punk.
They were the end of punk.
The pistols, for pretty much all of those that would be subscribing to a Roger Ebert perspective on life(!), will be, at very most, an interesting historical artifact, similar to one of those books one "should" read.
Punk was never, ever, ever meant to go mainstream, nor even nation-wide, nor even be, you know, moderately popular. It wasnt about tshirts, bondage pants. It was about anti-establishment, in the Brando "what have you got?" sense, that exposed hippidum for the middle-class white kid away from home delusion it was. It was about squatting and squatter's rights, complete self-suffiency - making ones own clothes, own food, own way. Zero "market forces" allowed. iow, punk was not just a sound, it was an ethic - politically and economically focused and active. Of course, it was doomed. But, no, it never took off for hollywood.
Nope. pistols werent punk, though they may have sounded so for some of us. neither were the clash (though i love their music).
I'm also wondering if you ever considered writing a biographical novel. I think that you'd make a second Vincent Canby in term of gaining The Pulitzer for fiction as a film critic. It'd be an intimate sister to the other; it's sparkling in your bookshelf with idiosyncracy.
I can't listen to their music: too many consonants, not enough vowels; it's like listening to a incessant slur. Of course, I'm biased towards subsets of GAE, so my linguistic opining should be taken with a grain of salt.
Interesting linguistic tangent [maybe?]:
Urbana, IL is located in the "Saint Louis Corridor", which is a linguistically dynamic region located on an imaginary line connecting Chicago, IL and Saint Louis, MO:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Cities_Vowel_Shift
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midland_American_English#St._Louis_and_vicinity
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cot-caught_merger#Cot-caught_merger
The story is a great read, but that painting by Marie Amourfou is brilliant. Thanks for posting it.
I interviewed McLaren in 1981 for "Boston Rock" magazine when he was promoting a band called Bow Wow Wow. He blamed Sid's mother for his death (he implied she supplied him with a lot of his heroin), so the movie scene you wrote probably cut really close to home. He also said that if Sid hadn't died that F.Lee Bailey would have defended him at his murder trial and was convinced that Bailey would've gotten him acquitted. His plan had been to hire a new bass player, make Sid the lead singer, and have the Pistols playing Las Vegas (speaking of 'going wild with big-titted girls'!).
I only got to ask about a dozen questions, but McLaren talked for well over an hour. I found him to be a bright, articulate, and witty person. Although they never sold a lot of records, the Pistols blew apart the bloated carcass of 70s rock'n'roll and really redefined the template for bands that continues to this day.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, and I hope you'll publish the full screenplay someday. I've always wanted to read it.
The Sex Pistols were (are? whatever) an amazing band, and Never Mind the Bollocks is definitely one of my desert island albums. I was bummed by the news of McLaren's death, even though he was arguably a villain. Besides The Sex Pistols he was also responsible for the New York Dolls, which as far as I'm concerned are every bit as excellent and influential. There's no denying that for a few years there he had his finger on the pulse, but ultimately it seems that everyone wound hating him. Certainly the Dolls didn't get along with him and ultimately fired him. The Sex Pistols should have jettisoned him as soon as they'd made a name for themselves, and then, perhaps, things would have been quite different. I'm impressed also, Roger, that you've met so many cool people and I REALLY wish this movie had been made - it would have been a classic.
I have no problem with the Sex Pistols but I have zero tolerance for people who commit arson.
Roger, you wrote: "In 1990, Julien Temple returned with another film, "The Filth and the Fury," this time telling the Sex Pistols story from their own point of view and trashing McLaren. The surviving members appear backlit, perhaps to spare us the sight of their middle-pages faces. Incredibly, McLaren agreed to appear in his own defense, speaking from within a rubber bondage mask."
I believe there was no new footage of McLaren in "The Filth and the Fury" - the rubber bondage mask footage was shot by Julien Temple for "The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle," two decades prior (also, "The Filth and the Fury" was released in 2000, not 1990).
Also, the "Rashomon"-like recollections of "Who Killed Bambi?" are quite interesting - in his book, John Lydon claims that from the start he was against the idea of Russ Meyer directing the Sex Pistols movie (in his book and in interviews, Lydon has said that Graham Chapman of Monty Python was his choice to direct, which obviously never worked out). Charles M. Young wrote an account of your dinner with Meyer, Lydon and McLaren for Rolling Stone Magazine (http://beatpatrol.wordpress.com/2009/06/04/charles-m-young-rock-is-sick-and-living-in-london-a-report-on-the-sex-pistols-1977/)
Ebert: Fascinating. Contemporary, and doubtless more accurate than my own. I don't remember the others being there, but that's memory for you. Fish?
Leave it to me to know somebody who knew somebody, without having any particular reason to have met that somebody or the somebody who knew that somebody. I may have been born with only 5 degrees of separation, whereas everybody else is born with 6. There are two such people in this essay, Rodge.
A loser who'd played guitar on some forgotten disco song, why, he lived upstairs from Sid and Nancy at the Chelsea Hotel and gawked when the cops came to collect their bodies. When he wasn't re-telling that story, he was complaining bitterly about the guy he knew who wrote and performed "Yummy Yummy Yummy," made a fortune and moved on to creating a highly successful advertising company. "Yummy Yummy Yummy" wasn't music, Jake the Loser continued to complain, thirty years afterward. But he was proud to have been connected to Sid and Nancy by their bouncing around in the floor below him.
The other, a lady who had long locked herself up in her Manhattan apartment, playing with a laptop computer someone gave her, flirting with men into Dominance/submission, making electronic pictures and avoiding the landlord, who wanted her out after years of rent control. She was good friends with Princess Grace.
Princess Grace visited her every year at the New Stork Club, which she and her much older husband ran. Grace annually had had enough of the hoity-toity and would sit in the kitchen cussing like a sailor, chugging a beer and munching on a great big submarine sandwich. I suppose she then returned to the hoity-toity from whence to make judgments about rock'n'roll skin flicks.
I think I can see this kinship. Relative to where you are, you wander down the back alleyways to see what's there. I do the same. The most edifying events are not always found on the front page of one's life.
Your tale leaves me feeling melancholy. Did you mean that? It hit me how long ago 1977 was, and how senior I already felt to the whole scene... are Teenage Jesus and the Jerks still playing somewhere too?
A band I was in still does, along with a few others, and it does not fill me with hope and joy. It fills me with the sensation of being trapped in Peter Pan's underwear, which haven't been changed since 1967.
The Sex Pistols were the part of my young political awakening. I first heard Anarchy in the UK in about 1979, and although I wasn't certain what exactly it was telling me, I knew it was different than anything I'd heard before that point. I determined to find out what the heck anarchy meant, and if that's what it sounded like then I was pretty sure I was all for it.
You don't mention, Roger, how you responded to the music when you first heard it, and I'd love to hear that. Just the reaction it elicited from you, on an emotional or music-loving level would be insightful.
Regardless of your views of the Sex Pistols music, though, did you hear anything by Lydon after he formed Public Image Ltd? I have one song to suggest if you've never heard his post-punk music - "Rise", a surprisingly different sound for Lydon, written as a song about Apartheid South Africa and quite a different commentary (in terms of hinting at a more direct and violently righteous to rise up against Apartheid) than some of the other popular music of the time about this issue.
Public Image Ltd: "Rise"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPj-8_wOZcA
Some fans of the Sex Pistols weren't fans of Lydon's later work, but what it lacked in the same youthful raw vigor, it more than made up for in writing and maturity of approach. "Rise" isn't really like most of PiL's other work, but I personally enjoyed their music quite a lot.
Roger, what a life you've lived! Many great chapters and stories. Great post.
I was coming of age in 1977, musically and cinematically, and Russ Meyer was a part of it.
I was a cinema usher in my Junior year. Our cinema had a reciprocal agreement with the Peoria theaters and I could get free tickets there for myself. A co-worker a year older than me drove to Peoria and got free tickets for Russ Meyer's Up! - which was pretty daring of us. The hormones were raging.
I notice that you are pictured in Russ Meyer's Wikipedia entry, and that you are credited as the screenwriter of Up! as well. You'll have to write an entry about that picture as well. Any special memories of it?
Ebert: For "Up," I only wrote the dialogue of the Greek Chorus, played by Kitten Natividad. Most of it was a pastiche of lines by the poet H.D.
Original title: "Up the Valley of the Beyond."
How cool is your life?
This is an amazing story. So well told. I love the conversations...
"You listen to me, you little shit. We won the Battle of Britain for you!"
You need to write your autobiography, stat. Also, this could be a movie in itself. One or the other, hopefully both.
I only know who Malcolm McLaren is through his brief involvement with Russ Meyer. I'm proud of whatever it is that says about me.
Maybe I dream about your writing, but I feel fairly certain I've read much of this blog post's content before, possibly a year or two ago. It's just as fascinating now as it was then/in my dream.
Cheers!
"Quadrophenia" (1979) is where Sting had a part, and John Lydon (Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols) screen-tested for the role of Jimmy. However the distributors of the film refused to insure him for the part and he was replaced by Phil Daniels.
Universal first released the film on DVD in 1999 with an 8-minute montage featurette. It used the VHS print, resulting in a much lower-quality video than expected.
Following this in the US was a special edition by Rhino, which included a remastered but matted wide screen transfer, a commentary, several interviews, galleries, and a quiz. However, it was a shorter cut of the film, with several minutes of footage missing.
On August 7 2006, Universal improved upon their original DVD with a Region 2 two-disc special edition.
The film was digitally remastered and included a brand new commentary by Franc Roddam, Phil Daniels and Leslie Ash.
Disc 2 features an hour-long documentary and a featurette with Roddam discussing the locations. Unlike their previous DVD, it was the complete, longer version. But like the US DVD, it was a matted wide screen version rather than the original full screen. - wiki
I cared about 3 bands while growing-up:
Sex Pistols
The Police
U2
Smile.
Note: I saw "The Police" play their last gig in Vancouver before they broke up. It was awesome. :)
Roger--
You could write a series on the Great Unmade Movies.
Yes, there are frustrating examples of lost or destroyed novels and poems, musical scores and paintings, but the expensive and collaborative process of the movies leaves it a form particularly filled with tantalizing legends of lost works--scripts, scraps of footage and other reports of unmade or unfinished films (and then there's the the lost early works). Some seem potential masterpieces, others notable, ah, cinematic events--like WKB. It's a maddening but fascinating topic.
Roger, for Pete's sake, publish this script!
That movie really would have been their "Hard Day's Night". Why it didn't happen is oh so typical. The ending scene is perfect and appeals to Sex Pistols fans as much as fans of graphic novels about The Joker. I like your overall approach to writing this, showing the anarchy growing out of extreme class divisions and stifling social norms. That Sid Vicious mother scene would have been the wildest thing found in any musical and it's only outdone by his real life reaction to it. That story about where Sid's father was during the signing... speaks all sorts of tragedy or (depending on one's philosophical POV) just plain crazy volumes.
In a way, the reasons why this movie never got made -- from a mistaken exec to the band's self-destruction (as a result of the Vicious situation and years of the manager neglecting his group) -- are fitting enough. But disappointing nonetheless. Thanks for posting this blog as a memorial.
Is there any likeness between Steve Coogan's lead in "24 Hour Party People" and McLaren? The McLaren described here sounds more villainous.
Scott wrote:
"LOL!!! Sincerely. I am laughing out loud, at the notion that the pistols were punk. They were the end of punk."
I get what you're saying, but I think McLaren was the end of the Punk. He killed it with a barrage of self-serving marketing schemes.
The Sex Pistols were two things at once:
The guys in the band - and then management.
I think they were real and McLaren wasn't; again, he was a businessman. He marketed "boys behaving badly" to an easily shocked Britain in the mid 70's.
As for Sid... he was one of life's exceptional f'ups; in that you still liked the guy despite himself. :)
An excellent article Mr Ebert.
You mention how only one scene was shot however I recall another which has a appeared in a few documentaries that featured Sting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjIXLYyqVnM
Ebert: You inspired this Twitter Page:
http://j.mp/cL2WDH
Mr Ebert,
I respect you immensely. Forget that. I love you. But...
You thought it would be cool to include the killing of a deer in the movie? I know worse things have happened in movies regarding animals but not by you. I really hope you have regretted that decision.
Although I don't know many things about The Sex Pistols, I enjoyed your sharing your memories once again. But I just couldn't not comment on that.
Ebert: Believe me, the man who kills the deer pays dearly for it.
That's pretty awesome!
"And then she puts her free arm around him, and they begin the preliminaries of love making. "
That's pretty disgusting. :P
"pushed safety pins through their noses and ear lobes to more or less invent the modern style of body piercing"
They never did that, members of their audience did, but not them.
And Sid took the place of the real bass player when Johnny wanted someone who would side with him. He was hardly a musician at all, the roadies would turn off his bass amp most nights and he would just shamble around the stage. There are a lot of myths about him, but that is all they are, just myths. He was just another hanger on who got a lot of press.
I can't help think that there are parallels with Orson Welles career. Agent provocateurs whose most notorious work happened early in their careers, and then spent the rest of their career trying to live up to the early promise. Trying and failing in their twilight years to kickstart their projects but failing due to lack of financial support.
I'm sure McLaren was full of b.s. and wasn't the nicest of people by all accounts, but can't help but feel that the world is a little duller without people like him.
You are right; my my would Russ have liked that!
The image of R.M. saying to Rotten "you listen to me, you little shit...we won the battle of Britain for you" is so so priceless...thank you Roger for this fine telling...
I will second or third all of these comments asking for publication...Roger, from what I read I would love to read the script...perhaps just put it out here on the net...actually, the whole journal entry if expanded into a short little book with the script as well...would be wonderful and I would certainly pay cash for chaos! Just wonderful insights into behind the scenes via a band I was a fan of since I was 13 and dumb kid from Missouri and who changed my life to use a cliche but a very real and true one in this case...and I am now 45...so please, can we read?
Marie Haws,
I get what you're saying. However, it sounds suspiciously similar to what was said about Elvis, about The Beatles, about any person or group that came before the pistols, who started out on the vibes of the authentic, of the socially or culturally revolutionary, only to wind up incorporated under expanding contracts, wide (read watered-dwn) exposure, and, on the way to a very confused and pointless purpose, designer tshirts.
As I said, there is an ethic involved, this spirit... was Elvis rock n roll? No, he marked the death of rock n roll - the bleaching of rock n roll that was otherwise too dangerous and dark in the hands of Little Richard, Chuck Berry, or Jerry Lee Lewis. Were the Beatles rock n roll? No. But they distanced themselves from Elvis, because they didnt see him as relevant anymore. What's next? THe pistols (while they distance themselves from the beatles)? Then the clash? U2? (hehe, ok seriously) Nirvana? None of em.
The spirit itself - is not, and never will be, a popular one. You dont plug into it hanging around in suburbs, listening to the radio while you drive your daddy's car. You don't "get" punk while blasting it from your $20000/year tuition dormitory, while you plan to either hit Ft Laud for spring break with your other middle-income pals or bug dad for spending money.
By then, rock n roll, or punk, or whatever it gets called next, is long gone, though there are plenty willing and capable of duplicating the sound and others equally able to package the sound to middle-income kids with disposable income to burn on a couple of years of being away from the parents before they start the whole job hunt.
In fact, my theory is that those that are genuinely rock n roll, or punk, or anti-establishment - genuinely - are more like afflicted. They do not seem to have a choice. Iow, it isn;t a style, nor is it for affect. Generally. I think you have be from nowhere, and going nowhere, in order to be punk. And you sing about it on the way.
You mentioned earlier in the comments that you contributed the Greek chorus dialogue for "Up!" Perhaps you could also talk about your contributions to "Beneath the Valley of the Ultravixens" (my favourite Russ Meyer film)? Various sources credit you as writing that film under a pseudonymn. Did you write the entire screenplay or just some passages of dialogue?
Ebert: More or less the whole thing, with some RM additions like the weird blood of different colors, which I didn't think worked.
Marie Haws,
I know what i wrote may sound snobbish or elitist - ie similar to the somewhat racist notion that only black people can play authentic blues, or that there is official blues (ie black artists) and unofficial blues (everyone else). To me, that seems similar to the idea then that only Europeans, or white Europeans, can play Mozart or Bach.
My simple point though had to do with the difference between imitation and authenticity in a broader social and economic context. Iow, a white kid from middle or upper income suburbia may have the talent and inclination to play a pretty mean, spot on even, country-blues ala Robert Johnson. But for him to then turn around and reach a much broader audience than those folks did will require a much watering down of the original, in some way, or it just won't get out.
And the original audience that could intimately identify with the themes of the music will recognize that it has been appropriated and is no longer representative. One main reason being simply because the venues will not be accessible, nor the crowd the same. Like becoming a spectacle at your own house party.
More to the point of the pistols and punks: when a sound is that raw, that extreme, that unmanageable, literally spitting on anyone that would be a :fan:, glorying in noise for its own sake - anti-musicianship - then it is only watered down for marketability that much sooner. Middle-income kids generally do not have to go to that extreme to bug their parents. Iow, I question the relate-ability. But perhaps sometimes it happens, I wouldnt say it is impossible.
And you see where punk went with bands like Social Distortion (some of which I like). Punk was long gone by then.
It sounded like that movie would have been great. If you have the entire script, is there any way you can put it online?
Excellent article. I know it wasn't the direct subject, but I enjoy reading whatever I come across about Russ Meyer; what an interesting filmmaker. My favorite of his would have to be the one you wrote!
Excerpt from "I'm 50, I'm fat, And I'm back."
telegraph.co.uk, June 2008
Malcolm McLaren: 'The most evil man alive.'
Nancy Spungen: 'Nancy was a pain in the arse, all over me. So I fobbed her off on Sid. From that moment, that was the end of both of them.'
Sex: 'There was so much sex around in the Seventies, it got boring.
Self-mutilation: 'There are scars all up my arm. I stopped it(burning myself with cigarettes) when I got up to the top of my arm.'
Britain: 'A bland menagerie of pomp and idiocy. America's a pretty f---ed up place, but it's amazing to come back here and see it done worse.'
The Queen's Honours List: 'They're bound to offer me a knighthood. They can stuff it-those institutions are the devil incarnate.'
Here's to Sir Johnny Rotten.
Scott, can't at all agree with your assessment here:
"Punk was never, ever, ever meant to go mainstream, nor even nation-wide, nor even be, you know, moderately popular. It wasnt about tshirts, bondage pants. It was about anti-establishment, in the Brando 'what have you got?' sense, that exposed hippidum for the middle-class white kid away from home delusion it was. It was about squatting and squatter's rights, complete self-suffiency - making ones own clothes, own food, own way. Zero "market forces" allowed. iow, punk was not just a sound, it was an ethic - politically and economically focused and active."
The fact that a lot of people listened to it has nothing at all to do with whether or not the thing was or wasn't punk. By that definition, music could be punk when created and suddenly not punk if it drew a big enough audience. The Sex Pistols weren't exactly getting rich off their popularity, either. I'd say one of the more punk elements is not a concern with remaining unpopular or widespread, but a rather a LACK of concern per se with such things.
I've always felt that when fans of a band suddenly abandon the group because they "sold out" simply by becoming popular, that those sentiments suggest that the initial fandom was faux in the first place. If punk only embraced or saw itself reflected in things based on such notions, and not due to the nature of the thing itself, then it's no more legitimate than any other fad. The point was about not conforming as a mindless exercise in becoming a part, and I'd dare say that there's just as much conformity in jumping into a group and having to follow a strict set of "club rules" for what does or doesn't make one "legit" or provide street cred.
It wasn't simply anti-establishment for the sake of being so, that and other aspects arose explicitly as a response to a sense of commodification of the individual in consumerism, society, and the nation-state. That's why there was this sense that capitalism, corporatism, and post-"post-WWII" identification of the nation-state as fascistic, the idea that so-called democracies had embraced core elements of fascism that made the individual subservient to the needs and welfare of the market and state. It was therefore a reaction to very real class dynamics and realities.
Punk borrowed much from anarchism, but had an entirely new layer of projecting it outward, grafting on a flavor of certain artistic, cultural,lifestyle and sensibilities. "Lifestyle-politics" in fact arose from punk culture, which in fact merely amplified lifestyle politics that was already in an embryonic stage within the hippie movement.
That's why I think it's an overstatement and simplification to say it was some kind of "exposing" of hippidom as a "delusion" of middle class white kids etc. Look at some of the specific supposed defining natures of punk you list, and they in fact were pretty core elements of the body of hippidom aside from the around-the-edges "bandwagon" hippies. Making their own clothes, own food, own way? Squatting? Zero market forces? That was all part of the hippie movement.
That the movement began to attract those more interested in only the look and drugs etc, and was co-opted in a shallow version of itself by certain of market forces, is the story of basically anything that gains any significant degree of popularity in society. That happened to punk as well, of course, and just about anything else I can think of -- Che is on t-shirts sold at department stores in the USA, for goodness' sake. Does it mean he wasn't a revolutionary after all, or a Marxist? Hardly.
I think the thing is defined by itself, it either is or isn't what it purports to be. And if the thing/movement ceases to exist simply because it is popularized or no longer the sole stomping ground of a small clique that prefers to remain a small clique, that means their sense of "individuality" is in fact defined by those around them and not an entirely personal sense, doesn't it? Just because market-driven versions attempt to appear and watered-down versions may circulate, it doesn't mean the thing didn't exist or doesn't still exist among those examples that retain the original truth of what it was. I think the Sex Pistols embodied most elements of punk, as much as any one person here or there off the streets did. They ended up exploited and used by the market, and sure the end result was something far afield of the punk movement itself, but the band members and their music are not inherently to blame for that.
I agree: this would have been a hell of a movie. This post makes me want to seek out Beyond the Valley of the Dolls all of a sudden. :-)
The Sex Pistols certainly weren't the most musical of punk musicians (though, of course, that wasn't the point), but they personified the attitude. The Ramones had the sound, the Sex Pistols had the attitude, and the Clash had the musical chops. As for when punk died, many think it died with London Calling, an album that redefined punk and made it mainstream, thereby destroying its cult-like status (hell of a great album, though).
And, not to make anyone reading this feel older than they already do, but I was two years away from being born in 1977.
"Beyond the Valley of the Dolls meets A Hard Day's Night"
What an inspired fucking idea. The excerpts were highly intriguing. It's a damn shame this didn't end of happening.
Hah, "belabor"... I have to start using that one myself.
I really liked this post on McLaren, Meyers and the Sex Pistols. I don't think I met McLaren, but back around 1991 when I was driving a taxi in Detroit I talked quite a bit with one of my fares one day who said he was the manager of PIL (a band I very much like). I was wearing my Apple Sids jacket (a Pontiac/Detroit club I was in named in part after Sid Vicious), and at the end of the ride as a tip the guy put me on a list to see John Lydon (PIL) at the Fox Theater.
I've seen a lot of concerts, but his performance is one of my favorites. John Lydon practically exploded with intelligence and irreverance. I admire that guy and enjoyed hearing about him in this blog (and lament that McLaren treated him so poorly).
Scott said: "LOL!!! Sincerely. I am laughing out loud, at the notion that the pistols were punk"
**smiles** You remind me of my best friend Bill Riot in the late 80's and early 90's. Bill was a drummer in Skraps (a hard core punk band), and he definitely did not think the the Sex Pistols were punk rock. Whenever Bill would see a guy standing there with a mohawk he'd look at the guy and say, "What are you, punk rock?" The guy would say, "What do you think?" And Bill would say, "I think not." And then always the guy would charge Bill, and Bill would knock him out, hehe. In hind sight that's what Detroit core was.
But I never saw it the same way as Bill. I think individuality is in the head, and you can't recognize a poseur by how they look, not whether they're tough and mean or not.
I don't know about the Sex Pistols as a band because they broke up before I ever heard them, but I've seen John Lydon in action, and he's as punk rock as anyone I've ever seen after years in the Detroit Core scene. John Lydon's the real deal.
Did the experience with the deer (who DID kill it, if not Meyer?) somewhat influence your own views on the killing of animals for the sake of cinema? In the past, you've defended Lars von Trier's decision to kill off a donkey during the making of Manderlay and you've also defended Chan-Wook Park's decision to have four octopi eaten alive during the production of Oldboy. Your reasoning has always been that a person shouldn't be bothered by animals being killed onscreen if they are willing to accept the killing of animals at all in the real world (i.e. they don't practice as a vegetarian). I'm just wondering if your experiences on Who Killed Bambi? influenced your opinions regarding such issues.
Ebert: As far as I know, despite that photo, no deer was actually killed for the movie.
Mr. Ebert,
I have been meaning to write to you for about 10 years now. I am delighted to find your blog and to know that there's a strong chance you will actually read this. I just wanted to tell you how much your writing has influenced me. In high school, I fell deeply in love with the cinema! I quickly got myself a job at the local Carmike theater, a job I still say was the best I ever had, and decided to major in filmmaking at the University of Alabama. My parents thought I was crazy - to them, movies were silly - and I constantly felt misunderstood, like I was alone in my appreciation for what directors were trying to tell/show us. Then I found your reviews!! When I read your review of Magnolia, I felt for the first time that I was not alone! You loved all the things I loved about all of my favorite films, and it felt wonderful to know there was someone out there in the world who wouldn't think I was crazy. Thank you for the comfort, entertainment, and thought-provoking-reading you have provided me all these years. My husband and I talk about you often and are wishing you well! On a separate note, I am always touched when you mention your wife in your reviews. It's wonderful, the relationship the two of you have. And lastly - Avatar. This movie opened up a whole doorway for me, spiritually. Why is it that people have already stopped talking about it? To me, it moves mountains! (Hallelujah Mountains, haha).
Punk rock sucked balls. This article was a wild, entertaining and nicely-turned read! Thank you!
The Sex Pistols were interesting.
I read an article years ago in Rolling Stone about an incident where the Sex Pistols were giving an interview at a Texas radio station. And some local tough guys decided to go down to the station and beat the lads up. Apparently they believed that because the Brits were scrawny, that they would be an easy target. They found out otherwise, when those alley cats beat the living daylights out of them. Ha!
I saw Johnny Rotten on Politically Incorrect once. He surprised me. Whether he was this way all along or had grown into the person I saw, I don’t know, but he was a very intelligent, articulate man with his act together.
I’ve only heard three SP songs. “My way,” which is pretty good, “Anarchy in the UK,” which I’ve forgotten, and “Pretty Vacant.” I heard the last song only because it was played during an interview with Pete Townshend, who admired it.
The Who are my favorite band, hands down. They, somehow, managed to be a Punk band, Studio Wizards—and when they were at their best—the greatest live band on the planet. Pete’s music connected with me in a way that was a revelation, opening doors that I didn’t realize existed. I attribute it to The Who being a combination of profound (lyrical and musical) incitefulness, extraordinary and unexpectedly inventive use of word formations in the lyrics; and their Punk attitude. Pete was a genuinely violent man when someone interfered with his music. (Pete’s someone I love, but wouldn’t necessarily want to meet.) Keith Moon really was a crazy genius. When he died, the Who died with him, even if they called themselves that after his passing.
It’s a pity, but as a member of the greatest band of all time wrote, “All things must pass.”
Another great piece. Keep up the great work sir.
"The image of R.M. saying to Rotten "you listen to me, you little shit...we won the battle of Britain for you" is so so priceless"
British people are so used to Americans telling us this it probably washed over him.
I was rather alarmed when I saw the “was” on the Morgan Freeman article. Seems rumors of his demise have been greatly exaggerated. Thankfully, the was can be changed into an “is.”
I must say, the art and graphic design work on the Member’s logo is pretty damn good! The choice of typeface and the placing of the text in sympathy with the arc of the tree trunk and the balance and alignment achieved with the text’s placement on the rope is particularly excellent. It’s a masterly job. Bravo.
Mr. Ebert,
This is off-topic, but I thought this would be the quickest avenue to reach you.
During Ebertfest the University of Illinois Archives will display an exhibition on the career of the screenwriter and playwright Samson Raphaelson. Among the featured items will be correspondence with Ernst Lubitsch about Trouble in Paradise and The Shop Around the Corner; a full-page ad from Variety announcing that R.K.O. had signed Raphaelson to a contract (1929); and a fantastic letter from Walter Reisch to Raphaelson detailing the last days of Lubitsch's life and how his death affected the Hollywood community. We will also display a funny exchange between Raphaelson and Groucho Marx.
I thought you might be interested in the exhibition -- that is, if you have any free time during Ebertfest weekend. If you do have time, the exhibition will open on Wednesday afternoon. It closes a month later.
Thanks for your time, and I apologize for making a comment unrelated to your post. (I really enjoyed the post, by the way. I never imagined you would have Sex Pistols stories.)
Interesting life.
What do you think of Scorsese shooting in 3D? http://www.hitfix.com/articles/2010-4-14-scorsese-attempting-3-d-with-hugo-cabret
During the 1970's, what Russ Meyer had to offer cinematically was so freighteningly honest, it had to be condemned: the genuine love of real women. ..seems a real disgrace where people making 20th Century Fox decisions have no idea of even the basic fundamentals.
R. M. drove Edith Head (born 1897! sht!!) out of business, she was the go-to gal for Hollywood costume falsies.
Peolpe buy tickets to see realsies!, come on you studio squares.
Doesn’t look like you’re expecting much of a turnout at Ebertfest.
One really true-to-life observation in the illustration is the seating arrangement. The girl is in one row, and sure enough some guy who has six rows and five columns of seats available to him picks one that is just close enough to annoyingly obscure part of her view of the screen.
Somebody was tired when they wrote this sentence: Ebertfest 2010 T-shirts on now on sale. Myself, I favor “on sale now.”
Wow.
What a lesson in history. ;)
To be fair, I was alive in the 70's, just not old enough to know anything about the Sex Pistols. I first heard of McLaren as manager of Adam and the Ants.
Sad and interesting story, though.
Fascinating, Roger! My interest level in punk is zero...so I've decided you're such a tremendous writer you can make anything interesting to anybody.
The article is very bizarre. Its obvious that there was a huge disconnect between McLaren and the band. Was it possible to derive a script that captured what the band was about or that era?
The few reported meetings feature infighting and Mclaren feeding ideas on the script. They seemingly lead to Syd's incestuous scenes with his mother injecting heroin together. This gives credence to Lydon's claims that McLaren encouraged Syd's heroin abuse to exploit the bands notoriety during the American tour, yet the band was never "about" heroin or any kind of drug abuse, drunkenness perhaps.
Similarly with Scientology - if there are symbols deserving of iconoclasm in British society back then, a quick listen to the lyrics reveals the monarchy, censorship, British establishment and with the Clash - the USA ("Im so bored with the USA"). How on earth did Scientology get into this?
"Is there any likeness between Steve Coogan's lead in '24 Hour Party People' and McLaren? The McLaren described here sounds more villainous."
Coogan was playing a note-perfect version of Factory Records chief Tony Wilson, whose business practices were considerably less exploitative than McLaren's. Certainly he received less abuse and fewer legal actions from the artists who recorded for him than McLaren did over the years. (Wilson, incidentally, does commentary on the DVD of that film, alternately arguing and agreeing with the interpretation. He was a larger-than-life figure, and the film succeeds in capturing that quality. Cancer claimed him a couple of years ago.)
As for Who Killed Bambi, I'm delighted to see portions of the script in this post and I second (third? fourth?) the requests to put the entire script up on the web. I almost want to see an animated version produced, though it would pale next to a completed real Russ Meyer production.
Wow, thank you so much for sharing with us! As someone with a big interest in punk rock and a huge and long time fan of your work, I was very pleased to read all about your connection to the Sex Pistols. An amazing story.
If I can ask, what do you make of the claim that flashy worldly American groupie Nancy was reponsible for getting a naive little English lad like Sid hooked on drugs and was to blame for his downfall? To me, it's total BS. He was a member of the most notorious and famous punk rock band in England of the 1970s. He was *swimming* in drugs long before he met her. And if he wasn't, he certainly would have- if he had or hadn't ever met her.
Off-topic, but Roger, could you please talk some sense into your friend Martin Scorsese? I just heard about his plans to use 3D, when I always expected him to be averse to such a fad. I know lots of great directors have experimented with it (Hitchcock, etc) but it pains me to see the best living filmmaker following such a pointless trend.
This is silly, but have you considered revising WKB as "a making of" mockumentary? A McLaren character could get accidentally tied up in a B and D suit and not be able to get out of it. A Meyers character could audition busty women and falsely proclaim about the Battle of Britain. An Ebert character could be seen typing in the background of dozens of scenes. 'Sid' would more than just kiss his 'mother'.
Good Roger, Bad Roger?
Will the real Roger Ebert please stand up? Leads the assualt on my answer to Job (someone with the prettiest smile on earth, and my greatest creation in all of the universe), defends and praises a man who wears a shirt with Saint Peter crucified upside down, who also poses in a picture depicting himself as being hanged. Oh-- and he also murdered his girlfriend and died from a drug overdose.
And is so unhip that he finds a movie about a comic strip character "morally reprehensible," while being the same person who writes scenes involving incest and drug usage by the aforementioned girlfriend killer and death by drug overdose jackass, Sid Viscious.
And what is "perhaps to spare us the sight of their middle-pages faces." Is that supposed to be middle-aged faces.
For this, I condemn you to eternal damnation in the flaming bowels of hell. If you think sulfur and egg farts are bad you can't begin to imagine the stench of flaming bowels. (However, because you have such a great way with words, I will reduce the eternal damnation, to time off for otherwise good behavior.)
Scott writes:
"Punk was never, ever, ever meant to go mainstream, nor even nation-wide, nor even be, you know, moderately popular. ... punk was not just a sound, it was an ethic - politically and economically focused and active."
Well, this is entirely revisionist history. I can only speak to attitudes within the Boston punk scene c. 1976-7, where I was one of perhaps four rock critics covering the nascent scene (for The Harvard Independent). But Boston probably had the third most active scene in the country after NYC and Cleveland, which can be traced back to the Velvet Underground having been more popular there than in their hometown and to The Modern Lovers' unsuccessful attempt to invent punk (as we later knew it) a few years previously.
Punk was absolutely intended to supplant and destroy tired contemporary rock 'n' roll (and disco) in precisely the manner that the British Invasion had supplanted the Brill Building sound in 1964. It was pretty much universally believed that rock grew stale and overcomplicated every ten years or so and that if you went back to the roots in an updated fashion, the whole world would embrace the new fresh sound. The reason why the Ramones didn't assert "We Want the Airwaves" until their sixth album is because everyone assumed they would get them with their first. Or second. Or third ... We all thought that "Blitzkrieg Bop" would be played between innings at the ballpark, and we we right; we just didn't foresee that it would take twenty years to happen.
(Note that we didn't necessarily think that the Sex Pistols would be massively popular. It's important to remember that punk started as an American phenomenon. I can vividly remember hearing "Anarchy in the U.K." for the first time in the dorm room of my rock critic peer from B.U., and how we all marveled at the existence of a record that could be filed proudly next to Iggy and the Stooge's "Search and Destroy" but was sung with a thick British accent. Think of Barbara Billingsley speaking fluent jive in Airplane -- it was that kind of novelty.)
It's true that there was an ethic and an attitude attached to punk but above all it was a musical style that was invented because contemporary musical styles were unsatisfying. Our mistake was in thinking that everyone else was as already tired of hair metal and prog and as unmoved by disco as we were.
That punk couldn't and shouldn't be widely popular was entirely a post hoc rationalization and defense mechanism. But it was by no means universal; some of us spent fifteen years wondering how we could be right and everyone else wrong.
The great irony is that when the world finally caught up to us, the artist who finally engineered the long-delayed resuscitation of pop music believed in the impossibility of punk's popularity and trusted it to shield him from a fame he never wanted and knew he couldn't handle. You cannot make any sense of Kurt Cobain's story without an understanding of punk's manifest destiny and the strange and puzzling gap between its birth and ascendancy.
Mark Hughes,
You may a few points that are debatable. However, i n response to your suggestion that punk was perhaps "incubated" within hippie events - that punk is an offshoot and natural progression of the hippie ethic and "culture" --
I think you are overlooking a vital ingredient that the two did not share - specifically, economics. Hippiedom was chiefly composed of white middle america, within a specific age bracket. iow, these were kids that came from somewhere and were going somewhere, and who decided to make a detour on the way. For example, leaving one's hometown and migrating across the continent to join a "___ - in" was largely made popular due to the fact that kids did not have much to worry about in way of employment. Whereever they wound up, if the will was there, they could get a pretty decent paying job. They came from a background, since birth, with that expectation.
THus, hippies, generally, had a much different experience than punks who, as I said, generally came from nowhere and knew they were going nowhere. Punk was not simply a fashion, packaged with its own dance-tunes to play at house parties while your parents were away.
Generally, to your other points, there is a disconnect. And whether or not it is possible, I am sure that the vast majority, if exposed to what punk really was, would think pretty much it was total shite. Why? Because - that was the intent! Ebert's article is not at all exaggerating when the pistols gladly recruited Sid on knowledge he had never been introduced to the instrument he would be "playing": punk was about taking something that could not be duplicated, replicated, packaged into anything similar to what the stones were putting out, for example.
But, it changed, very quickly I suggest. What it changed into was not punk. The pistols were part of that change. And note how, as the sound changed, everything attached to the sound changed also. You cannot separate the two, music and roots.
Guillermo Lande,
Yes, that is more representative of punk culture: whomever left standing was the true punk; problem solved.
Individuality may surely reside in one's head (the more so, the more it resides there only!)! :)
Punk was from the streets, not the suburbs (ie hippies), and poor streets at that. They were the snot of society, and their sound sought to celebrate that. To get that sound somehow to the suburbs, in time for college kids to spend dad's spending money on, takes some product manipulation.
I am quite sure that all those that post on Ebert's blog about punk would find 3 minutes in a punk club (circa 1975) at best gruesomely "interesting" (in a very self-conscious way) or, most likely, gruesomely boring.
This is closer to where punk is. And, as punks, they are likely singing about you, not with you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aJdo2PMt1o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG5zCLYZPOk
Here is some more, for your listening pleasure!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzm2cNQQ6mE&feature=PlayList&p=7289C0E66A970005&playnext_from=PL&playnext=1&index=7
This is an admittedly off topic post so no hard feelings if it doesn't make the cut.
I was wondering if you're going to make a Kickass blog post. I ask because I think you bring up some excellent points and I"m eager to discuss the film with someone other then the usual fanboy crowd (and this is coming from someone who likes the movie).
And as I'm doing one off topic question I might as well do another. I've recently fallen in love with the work of GK Chesterson (Making me the only Kickass and Chesterson fan you're going to meet) and I've noted a similarity between you two in wit, style, warmth and if you'll forgive me, even appearance, if not philosophy.
I've been curious ever since if you consider him an influence.
I just wanted to thank you for your review of Kick-Ass, I saw a showing at South By Southwest and felt like I was the only one who felt that way. I'm a 20 year-old comics fan and I found this movie to be absolutely reprehensible. I was seriously worried that I was wrong and missing something, but I genuinely believe that everyone else was just imagining some sort of brilliance that wasn't there. I really couldn't help but be freaked-out when the audience laughed for literally 40-seconds at a man being microwaved (I really hope that that was just at the SXSW showing and not everywhere). I was actually going to go see it again tomorrow with some friends to see if I'd somehow missed "the greatest satire ever", but your review managed to convince me that I'm not insane, and for that I thank you. How that film could be getting multiple perfect-score reviews is beyond me...
P.S. Thanks for this and every other blog entry too, I've loved your writing for a long time, but I think this might be the first time I've commented on any of it. I'd always wondered about Who Killed Bambi [I grew up on punk, and that was one of the few things about it that there seemed to be little information on (for a relatively small scene, it seems wonderfully well-documented)] and I agree with other posters that it would be great to see the script online or in print.
Ebert: "Kick-Ass" is now at 75% on theTomatometer, but 100% of the Chicago meter critics disapproved of it.
Mr. Ebert: This is unrelated to the present post, but I don't know where else to post it....
I just wanted to say THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for saying what you had to say about the movie "Kick-Ass".
Now, I'm quite a tolerant guy, but when I saw the trailer of this movie which presents an 11 year old girl (played by a 13 year old actress) as a "killing machine" (who spouts plenty of crude language as she goes), I was quite troubled. I wondered, "Am I that out-of-touch with the ethos of my time? Am I supposed to think this is OK?" But I certainly wasn't going to change my mind about this one.
I hopped over on Rotten Tomatoes and saw the predominantly positive reviews of this film: surely these people would think I'm taking it much too seriously, that I'm just a clueless square. Before I clicked the "Top Critics" tab, I thought, "I so hope Ebert didn't give this movie a good review."
And sure enough, you said just what needed to be said! Thank you for being an authentic voice even when it might be unpopular.
I hope you are feeling well and are in good spirits....
Berkeley Brett
I say get Terry Gilliam to make the movie--I'll bet he'd love to take a shot (so to speak) at the Pistols. But in memory of Russ Meyer, there should be one ironclad rule: No artificial boobs! (except for McLaren, of course)
I noticed some vehement Twitter backlash brewing about your review of "Kick Ass," so I wanted to get to you now rather than later. I happen to be glad you were brave enough to "go there."
I'm going to have to see "Kick Ass" to know for sure, but I had, oddly enough, the same thought watching the previews for it. I liked the premise, but...when I saw some of the action, I thought, "Wait...this...isn't funny."
I have a similar weird fear of the final installment of the Twilight saga, "Breaking Dawn." I've actually listened to the book--my daughter is a HUGE fan, and I finally broke down and said I couldn't read the books on a dare (godawful), but I could listen, perhaps, in the car. And while I got caught up in the sheer...goofy giddiness of the things, I admit, I was appalled that parents were allowing young girls to READ the last one, let alone waiting to buy them tickets to the film.
I mean...how do you show, to little girls, a vampire biting through the belly of his human bride to help free her of the fetus that threatens to break all her bones and tear her in half if he doesn't rip the thing from her womb? How do you show...to little girls...a vampire attempting to make love to his human bride without trying to hurt her, and therefore--I'm not joking here--biting off big chunks of the headboard of the bed to keep from biting her? The naive "charm" (gag) of the first one gives way to some very "adult" and decidedly macabre--if sometimes unintentionally hilarious--stuff later on. No wonder Pattinson is kinda leery about that last one--or so I hear.
As a school administrator, I'm already dealing with the strange things my middle schoolers think are funny or cool and what they do to each other because of it. Bothers me, a great deal, how desensitized we are...
Ebert: We no longer value the innocence of children at an impressionable age.
I am saddened to hear of Malcolm's death. I didn't know him but used to see him on Charlotte Street quite often. A man of big ideas.
But Roger, I have been reading about your Russ Meyer days and it caused me to remember when I went to the premiere of Beneath the Valley of the Ultravixens. I think it was at the DGA theatre.
I must have been in my late '20's and when Kitten Natividad sat next to me.. well... but sitting on the other side was Junkyard Sal and she was so embarrassed ... she kept shouting OMG ! and stuff like that. She dragged Kitten out of the theater half way. I was so bummed. I am sure Kitten was into me!
Ebert: You sat BETWEEN Kitten and June Mack?
http://twitpic.com/1fxmze
Random thoughts:
Agatha J: The story at the time was that in the 70s Johnny Thunders was the Typhoid Mary of heroin - willing to share his stash with everyone and anyone. Legend has it that it was Thunders who shot up Sid for the first time. May or may not be true.
As far as what "is" or "isn't" punk - punk is an attitude, not a fashion statement. It's (as someone else here pointed out) the Brando "Wild One" mode of rebellion against a corrupt, materialistic society, not a leather jacket and a pre-torn, safety-pinned t-shirt.
Re: The Who - Pete Townsend was always held in high regard by the British punks, not only for his music, but for his integrity. (Townsend was responsible for having The Clash open The Who's 1981 U.S. tour, exposing the band to a lot of Americans who hadn't heard of them before.) Contrast that with the almost universal scorn heaped (deservedly so, in my opinion) on Mick Jagger, who spent the same time period hanging out at Studio 54 with Liza Minnelli.
It would be great to see someone try to film the Who Killed Bambi script now, as a period piece. (Rupert Grint as Johnny Rotten? Charlie Rowe as Sid?)
Till then, I guess we'll always have 'Rock'n'Roll High School'.
I haven't seen Kick-Ass and I'm not really inclined to bother. I have super-hero fatigue.
But your review was interesting to me, because the movie experience you described sounds curiously similar to my feelings toward Watchmen, another 'satire' that forget to be funny.
John Lydon is of Irish decent but was born in Islington which is in England and grew up in England in the United Kingdom. So he isn't from a non-participating nation, only his ancestors (though many did Irishmen did participate in the war nonetheless). He seems to go on about British Butter a lot know for some reason and has morphed into McLaren (look-wise at least)!
Interesting read though, even if I am not a 'Sex Pistols' fan.
Roger,
Curiously enough, a few days ago I ended up watching the movie "Leon: The Professional" again for the first time since the 1990s. After watching it I checked out your review and found that it was less than completely favorable, and for precisely the same reason "Kick Ass" provoked an even more negative reaction; discomfort at using 12 year old girls in scenes of brutal violence. So at least you're consistent.
Of course, on a message board I frequent someone pointed out you gave a good rating to "Let the Right One In", in which a little vampire girl runs across Stockholm dispensing horrific violence aplenty, but I think the difference lies in how the subject is treated, no? "Let the Right One In" was appropriately dark and grim, as suited its subject matter. Not at all like "Kick Ass".
Also, since I now have the treatment of children in scenes of brutal violence on the brain, I would like to recommend that if you ever have the time you give a look to a 12-episode Japanese animated series called "Now and Then, Here and There", preferably the subtitled version. Imagine "Spirited Away" meets "Grave of the Fireflies" in a world that bears more than a passing resemblance to sub-Saharan Africa, including the widespread use of child soldiers played for full tragic effect, and you'll have an idea of what an uplifting series it is. Nevertheless, one of my favorite things to ever come out of Japan.
@Scott: The '70s were a defining decade for music--I remember them well, and how every few months someone was doing something new--or radically altering something old. Punk was part of that, but my problem with punk is that it never wanted to change. It remains the most adolescent pop music form; The Germs reminded me of that: Unhappy 12-year-olds--middle class or underclass--have always thrashed around their rooms making sad and angry sounds. And while we live in a culture that encourages eternal adolescence, the best things that have happened in music have come from those willing to put away childish things.
OK, that's a bit unfair--but if we're going to give punk its due, we'll need to recognize that it comes from two sources: the blues and Jamaican pop--at least in terms of its standing as an underclass musical form. Punk music, though, is a "white" response to those impulses that created the blues and reggae/dub/dancehall. While the punks used music to hollow out everything with a chainsaw, Blind Willie Johnson and King Tubby could not afford nihilism: They had had enough of oppression, and refused to oppress themselves.
I'm not saying one form of music should be "preferred" over another--well, maybe I am. I guess I'm just tired of punk. McLaren is its truest symbol: a swindle that swindles everyone, even the swindler. You're right: punk "was about anti-establishment, in the Brando 'what have you got?' sense"--that is, a commodity, like "Brando" himself--maybe capable of greatness, but a bit too content to stay in his room. Hmm. This makes Garbo punk: She, too, vanted to be alone.
Fantastic article. I love how with all of your essays and reviews I learn as much about you as the film or topic you are writing about. You should publish your memoirs; it would be a fascinating read. I'm also anticipating the third volume of The Great Movies.
I met you once in May of '95 in Logan, Utah and you signed my copy of Roger Ebert's Video Companion and not to my suprise, you were very friendly.
In Good Health
Dan Mouritsen
Roger, you have had an amazing life. That photo of you and Russ Meyer, priceless. Some of his "R" rated sleaze (the good sleaze, not the bad sleaze) almost seems to have rubbed off on you. Perhaps you already had acquired that porn king look earlier and had kept it in a closet for just such a photo op.
Russ Meyer made a load of movies in the late 60's, early 70's which I paid to see out of my own allowance. The women he found to film had the absolute best bosoms in all of moviedom. Big, soft, and not a hint silicone in most of them. Real women doing what real women do (with someone other than myself....).
Meyer and Roger Corman were heroes of mine when I was in the area of 19 years of age. I was also a huge fan of Malcolm McLaren for some reason but I actually cannot tell you why. I had not thought of him in years until your wonderful blog.
A great piece of history you've gifted us with Mr. Ebert. Thanks again for all the presents you've given your readers.
Scott writes:
"Punk was from the streets, not the suburbs (ie hippies), and poor streets at that. They were the snot of society, and their sound sought to celebrate that... I am quite sure that all those that post on Ebert's blog about punk would find 3 minutes in a punk club (circa 1975) at best gruesomely "interesting" (in a very self-conscious way) or, most likely, gruesomely boring."
Well, this is complete nonsense. "Punk" as you've defined it in your first paragraph (immensely too narrowly) didn't exist in 1975. In 1975 there was a thriving scene in NYC centered around Television, The Patti Smith Group, The Ramones, Talking Heads, and Blondie (compare them collectively to the Sex Pistols musically), a neglected one in Cleveland where the precursor band to Pere Ubu and the Dead Boys were playing, and in infant one in Boston. There was nothing in the UK. "Punk rock" was a record collector's term for what is now called "garage rock" or "protopunk" -- the Sonics, Seeds, Standells, Shadows of Night -- which had transmorgified in the middle of its run to "psychedelic" as documented by the Nuggets anthologies. The name got attached to the new movement when Punk magazine began publishing at the start of 1976, although I'm pretty sure that several rock critics had already pointed out the affinities of the new sound to its precursor. (Interested folks can check out the superb From the Velvets to the Voidoids by Clinton Heylin.)
Everything you've said here about "punk" refers to a small outcrop off the original movement, the UK punk scene, and to a mere handful of bands (and their audiences) out of hundreds of significant ones. UK punk became a parody of itself within a year or two (by the end of 1977, say) and was succeeded by a vibrant post-punk movement (q.v. Simon Reynolds' Rip it Up and Start Again) whose musical diversity reflected that of its American forebear and mirrored a similar contemporary American one (q.v. Michael Azerrad's Our Band Could Be Your Life).
As far as not being able to spend 3 minutes in a punk club, in my case you're not too far, since all you have to is add five zeroes (a very conservative estimate, in fact, at three or four nights a week for ten years).
Jordan Beard on April 15, 2010 1:45 PM
I saw a showing at South By Southwest and felt like I was the only one who . . . found this movie to be absolutely reprehensible. I was seriously worried that I was wrong . . .
Ebert: "Kick-Ass" is now at 75% on theTomatometer, but 100% of the Chicago meter critics disapproved of it.
>>>>>>
Just curious. But what difference does it make whether other people agree with you, and what percentile of them do or don’t? True, if you don’t agree with the herd, it is you who will get your “Ass-Kicked.” However, to paraphrase a famous commercial: being “Kick-Ass”ed carries a heavy price. Knowing what you believe in—Priceless.
Ebert: "Kick-Ass" is now up to 78%.
I love you and Malcolm! He haunts my iPod.
I just can't picture you hanging out together. Great entry.
Ebert: "Kick-Ass" is now up to 78%.
: )
Eric M. Van,
We are obviously discussing very different things. And, while you find my definition extremely narrow, I find your definition extremely uninteresting. If you'd prefer to compare and discuss the merits and weaknesses of our CD or vinyl collections, fine. However, I was trying to create broader links, from punk to politics. And to draw attention to the social and alternative, and rebellion that was vital, though shortlived, within the punk scene in the US, pre-UK. I was less interested in the chord changes.
Nevertheless! The musicality of the pistols had to be the least interesting thing about them. By the time the clash picked up the torch the political perspective had become cliche and out of touch with the audience. If the pistols were the death of punk then the clash were the rotting, unburied corpse, in that sense, though musically they far surpassed anything that had come before them - in either the UK or the US, since 75, likely since 67.
In that sense, I agree that the UK punk known for its iroquois and dog collars was a silly sham with little to nothing to do with punk roots, a mere several years prior. And that sham had direct ties to what the pistols were all about, evil manager or not.
Eric M. Van,
Correction: I thought you compared the pistols to Patti Smith et al, as in lumped together, but I think you meant to contrast them. There I would agree, and the pistols were far less interesting than the bands you mention. But another difference between hippidom and punk, and New York punk and political punk for that matter, is the socialist influence, largely missing from the US experience, but active, to some degree or form, in the UK.
Please don't turn Roger's excellent, detached and different memoir of the Sex Pistols into a thread on punk rock, otherwise I'll be forced to bore you all with my own account. I know, because I was that punk rocker.
Scott-the nice thing about Punk is that niether you or anyone else gets to define it. It, like the avant-garde art communities which inspired it are more of a general, broad category encompassing similarly attributed characterists. Punk occurred and is still occurring in urban, sub-urban, and rural environments. It has had manifestations with decidedly capitalist pursuits, as well as more socialist, anarchist, and isolationist groups, as well as the totally apolitical. All of these have been Punk. The Sex Pistols were not occurring in a vacuum, and the range of influences they had on their music and performance was as broad and open and the influence they have had on the wider culture. They were called Punk by those around them and those who followed, and so they are Punk. If it looks, smells, and tastes like s***, Fifi, well, then it is. Punk as it has come to be is what it is, quite clearly, and is firmly rooted in both the folk and avant-garde traditions of the early and middle 20th century. The earliest days of Punk in America I know you might not think it is, but you should really do a little research before outright contradicting that. While the suburban Southern Cal Punk of American Hardcore had an influence on the urban LA punk of the Germs, they were all listening a wide array of stuff from the Grateful Dead to Stravinsky to Discharge. Meanwhile, some London punk was all about drinking and fighting, some was about changing the world, and some was about continuing the student protests of 1968. After all, those who had been involved in Hippie activities were still in their 20s by the time Punk hit. Both of these movements had a lot of similarities and similar characters. Same with hippies and beats. All this while absorbing and being informed by movies like Clockwork Orange and Sweet Movie, books by authors like J. G. Ballard, etc, etc. Sweet Movie came out in 1975, and is as on the moment and pulse of mid-1970s Punk as many of the other cultural artifacts of that time. I have travelled through and seen many of the punk communities across the US, as well as been in similar communities of musicians and artists in Central and South America, Jamaica, so on and so forth. Also, the Hippie movement you describe was a very small part of the hippie movement, which didn't happen in isolation either. The Punk you describe doesn't exist, and never has.
But anyway, Roger: All I want in this world is Russ Meyer film in IMAX 3D! Oh, hell yeah!
Jeremy In OZ, I dare you.
I never did like The Sex Pistols. Rotten is honest enough, but his music sounds like dying animals. I always thought Siouxsie and the Banshees were by far the best artists to come form that scene.
This was a great read. I had no idea you were involved in any capacity with the British punk spot. You are just too cool for school.
Roger, I was reasonably sure that McLaren's voice is piped in from previous interviews in -The Filth and the Fury-. Are you sure that Temple indeed had him "defend" himself?
Great story about the dinner with Johnny Rotten. I show TFATF to my students for my section on the art history of the 1970s-- for me there is nothing better in terms of performance and critical art in that era.
Contrary to those who think that punk can last forever as a codified style-- as is the implication of the abhorrent "American Idiot" Broadway musical-- the Sex Pistols, along with Joy Division, Wire, the X-Ray Spex, the Buzzcocks, and many other transcendent yet brief groups, illustrated that its uncompromising chaos and outrage could only last a short time; make an impact, and then move on.
Mark obviously knows more about punk than Scott does, so Scott will quit his pointless charade. However, Mark, just to quibble --- ... naw, you win, I agree (except for the roots thing in cali, afterwhich followed the other stuff you mentioned). No, I cannot defend this claim.
Thanks for this great piece on a project that is mostly forgotten. As a true fan of film and music I appreciate learning more about this band whose influence was musical, but went beyond music to speak of a specific generation, place & time. The Temple doc is one of my favorites. I find Rotten brilliant and maddening. And unfortunately I think, in an American Idol, massed produced and packaged media world, that there will never be originals like the Sex Pistols or Russ Meyer again. Your effort to document them and McLaren on film was a noble (if arguably doomed from the outset) effort.
I first met you and Russ Meyer at different times while I ran an old movie palace (Tower Theater) in Fresno, California in the early 1980s. I met you one time during one of the first Telluride Film Festivals. I met Russ Meyer when he came to a special Russ Meyer Film Festival I ran at my theater. My goal was to bring unique filmmakers to my theater to help honor their careers and to also selfishly meet them and learn from them myself. I was an aspiring filmmaker since I was a kid. The Tower Theater gave me the opportunity to meet Frank Capra, Debbie Reynolds, Robert Towne, Budd Friedman, Jim Carrey, John Lee Hooker, and most importantly Russ Meyer. We did a double feature that night with Russ doing a long Q&A during the halftime between films. It was the first time I had seen his film LORNA and it really impressed me how great the photography and editing was. Russ told me about his learning to shoot film as a war cameraman. Russ and a large breasted woman drove to Fresno in his Mercedes. He came a little late that day because he said he was delayed in the hills of San Luis Obisbo where he could not believe how breast-shaped the rolling hills were. They say that Russ was fixated with breasts and I can testify that he seemed that way, but maybe it was all an inside joke to him. My greatest surprise and thrill was when Russ popped open the trunk to his Mercedes and there in the trunk was a full blown 35mm motion picture camera. Russ said he never went anywhere without a camera. I knew that from that moment that here was truly one of the Great American Independent Filmmakers. We spent about a day and a half talking about movies and how he made all those great low budget films. We talked about his days in the War. I really loved his sense of humor. He kept me laughing a lot. I think that the true blue filmmakers of today could learn a lot from the Life and Films of Russ Meyer. I know that someday I wish I could be as independent a filmmaker as Russ Meyer.
Ebert: He was good company.
@Wholigan:
Short reply: Feeling alienated sucks, his review made me feel less alienated.
Long reply: Percentage certainly wouldn't ever change my feelings on a movie, but it just makes me feel better knowing that I'm not all alone in feeling a certain way about a movie, especially one like Kick-Ass. Watching it, I felt a bit disturbed by the way the rest of the audience was enjoying the violence so heavily (I can handle ultra-violence in a film like A Clockwork Orange, which I love, but in Kick-Ass, it disgusted me..)
I knew how I felt about it, but I thought there was some chance that it was just the ultra-obnoxious audience that made my experience worse than it would've been. It's possible for mood and expectations to affect how you feel about a movie, and I was at one point wondering if that's what happened to me during Kick-Ass (I knew I hated the violence and severe lack of comedy, but I still thought there might've been something I was missing.) Reading reviews like Roger's made me feel a lot less alienated about it and was no longer worried that there was something I'd missed the first time watching it. I'm sure you've at some time felt alienated about something then consoled when you found out someone felt the same way...
What a great read -- thank you so much for taking the time to share.
It was extremely interesting for me to read this blog. Thanx for it. I like such topics and anything connected to this matter. I would like to read more on that blog soon. BTW, rather nice design you have at that blog, but how about changing it every few months?
Sara Stone
When I met Russ in the early 90's, he was still pissed at Malcolm and the whole experience left a bitter taste in his mouth. He said a lot of nice things about Ebert. I'm glad I got to meet him and chat with him for a few hours. I'm glad Roger wrote this, I never heard his take on the experience. Seems to jive with what Russ told me.
I miss Russ and his brand of filmmaking :(
It would have been a heck of a movie.
McLaren was pretty good at PR, not too much of a business man, and wanted to have some fun with the elements of his art from a situationist perspective. He also hated what rock 'n roll had become, being a bit of an old rock 'n roller on the quiet.
Punk Rock was a term coined by a journalist. Until he read it in print, Malcolm had never heard of it. He decided to roll with it, rather than deny it, (which was an option at the time). So the post above about punk rock not existing in 1975 is correct. The term was a journalistic fantasy that became a truth of sorts, which must have tickled McLaren.
So if you were writing a film script, and trying to understand the Pistols by asking about punk rock, and reading about punk rock, then that was always going to be more than a little difficult, is my feeling. Because it wasn't about that. It was more about fashion, and Vivienne Westwood's clothes, and hating the sclerotic rock scene of the mid seventies, for instance. May explain why McLaren wasn't interested in the script, in the very interesting account given above. He saw RM as a credible director who would guarantee some kind of effective distribution. Everything else was a side issue. You have to remember the Pistols weren't that big at the time.
Mclaren's reality just needed transcribing- he had a wonderful collection of Johnny Rotten phone interviews which were deadpan hilarious, a theme at the time. After the band were sacked from EMI and then A&M he said "everytime I go into a major record company, some c*** gives me a cheque for fifty thousand quid and tells me to fuck off". Priceless.