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sid vicious playng ability?

Personally I don't think sid vicious could play very well,and he only recorded 1 song "bodies" with the pistols on bass.Live shows on youtube I cant really tell.The sound quality and picture quality aren't great but from what I read is that he couldn't play well at all.does anyone have any infor,opinions,or facts about this?

Do you have any information or sources regarding the recording of "Bodies?" Because although the band might have indulged Sid with a couple hours in the recording studio, I would be surprised to learn that his contribution made it to the mix. More likely, Steve Jones cut the bass part after Sid went home, a la Mick Jones recutting many of Paul Simonon's bass tracks (a well-documented open secret). I mean, think about it: "Bodies" has a great fat roiling bass line. It is simple, yes, but it it fat and has a beefy tone - unlikely that Sid pulled that off, not even by comping it together a line at a time.
 
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I was jw.I love hearing new things and peoples inputs.In my opinion which is a fact is that Sid Vicious SUCKED!! I just think his image was cool,His image that's IT.As a person he was what you tell your children not to become
 
I was jw.I love hearing new things and peoples inputs.In my opinion which is a fact is that Sid Vicious SUCKED!! I just think his image was cool,His image that's IT.As a person he was what you tell your children not to become

Well, to be perfectly honest, I have to date told my children not to become people at all. If you don't follow me, see the lyrics for the aforementioned "Bodies" for a big clue.
 
Not at all, I'm quite the fan of Barrett among others, just putting out what John said but I can see Sid being a great

Yeah, where did this poster say "reggae players suck"?
Yes, McLaren also acknowledged that if he had come across Sid before Johnny Rotten, that Sid would have been the one recruited to be the lead singer. Sid was described as the perfect image for punk, and that's the extent of what he was - image. Perhaps the way to get him into the band should have been to punt Rotten and keep Matlock. I'm sure it would have ended the same way though, with Sid dead.

As for Adam Clayton, the guy has far more talent than anyone gives him credit for, not sure how its even appropriate to mention him in the same breath as Sid Vicious. Has anyone ever listened to early U2 and the great melodic post-punk basslines that Adam played? Good stuff. I wish he would have kept that stuff up a little more.


Great post, great point about McLaren (definitely the "Fifth Beatle" despite Rotten's dismissal of his contribution), and a massive plus one on the early U2 records. The first couple of U2 albums were recorded, to paraphrase the band themselves, "Before they could play their instruments," and the invention is spectacular. "New Year's Day" for example is a great pop record, urgent, exciting, explosive.
 
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I'm 100% Punk rocker.I love punk I think its the greatest music god created.But its not just about image.There is talented musicians and great musicianship,and great songs.I think the image is just posers.It's not about what you look like.Its not about the mohawks,leather jackets,colored hair,biker boots, tattoos. Its all about attitude. Greg Geffen in bad religion wears a nike t shirt and sweat pants on stage and he's ALL PUNK. ITs about saying shag you,standing up for yourself and what you believe in.About rebelling against poopie.THATS the image of punk. So when people add that image with the music it creates a wonderful thing. SId sucked at bass,sucked at vocals, but he did what he wanted.His image was pure punk.i hate the posers that think punk is something totally different. Johny Cash was a PUNK ROCKER! enough said
 
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I have 2 bootlegs on vinyl - one from the 100 Club w/ Matlock and their last show at the Cow Palace. There is NO comparison. Matlock could really play. The band was tight and the recording holds it's own even today while the Palace show is a mess of unplugged bass, falling off the shoulder bass and drunken stupor flailing bass.
Can't effin' wait for his 5k signature model to come out.........

Matlock also co-wrote all the Pistols' songs, and sang great harmony as well as being a pocket player.
And Rotten resented the hell out of him, mocked him as a Monkee wannabee and engineered his ouster with manager McClaren.
Matlock was the Pete Best of the Pistols, and with his firing the band began their downward spiral. They only wrote two or three more
songs after Matlock left, the atrocious "Belsen Was A Gas" being representative of the rot.

The show at the Cow Palace was the last of the short US tour, and Sid indeed sucks at this gig -- and yet it is by far the tightest playing he offered up on the outing. A recording of an earlier show in Texas is marred by the atonal bass thrashing -- some kind roadie finally, mercifully turns off Sid's amp altogether, an indisputable improvement.

As for the possibility Sid would have evolved into a fine reggae bassist -- there is no reason to believe Rotten was being anything more than kind at the time he made this statement. And as Rotten is a massive and lifelong reggae fan, there is no case to be made that he was offering Sid a backhanded compliment, because Rotten knows how godhead bass is in reggae. Rather, I think Rotten is offering a backhanded insult to his subsequent collaborator,
Jah Wobble, who was also a friend with Sid -- the three of them, Rotten, Sid and Wobble, are all actually named John -- "the three Johns," as Rotten puts it, and thus the nicknames. In any case, after the Pistols imploded, Rotten started the band PiL and added Wobble as the bass player, despite the fact that Wobble had not played a note. The first few PiL gigs found Wobble playing in a chair because he hadn't yet mastered playing standing up. But unlike Sid, Wobble soon developed into a world class player - he proved to be a true natural, and, arguably, even a "great." I think this fact annoyed the deeply egotistical Lydon, who always hated sharing the limelight with other greats (like McLaren).
 
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Do you have any information or sources regarding the recording of "Bodies?" Because although the band might have indulged Sid with a couple hours in the recording studio, I would be surprised to learn that his contribution made it to the mix. More likely, Steve Jones cut the bass part after Sid went home, a la Mick Jones recutting many of Paul Simonon's bass tracks (a well-documented open secret). I mean, think about it: "Bodies" has a great fat roiling bass line. It is simple, yes, but it it fat and has a beefy tone - unlikely that Sid pulled that off, not even by comping it together a line at a time.
The official vid has matlock playing I know Sid wrote Belsen that is the only song I heard of him having anything to do with besides live playing
 
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There is something about this man ...I truly dislike!!!!....What a douche bag!!!.

Have you had the pleasure of watching the full length documentary from which that clip is extracted? It puts Lars's behavior in context -- in the
documentary he comes off as quite reasonable and likable -- but even if you are determined to hate Lars, you still might enjoy "Some Kind of Monster," which is more incredible and hilarious than Spinal Tap, because it is true. Find it on youtube.
 
Have you had the pleasure of watching the full length documentary from which that clip is extracted? It puts Lars's behavior in context -- in the
documentary he comes off as quite reasonable and likable -- but even if you are determined to hate Lars, you still might enjoy "Some Kind of Monster," which is more incredible and hilarious than Spinal Tap, because it is true. Find it on youtube.

Yes...I have watched the documentary...and Im really surprised there wasn't any fist fights...quite the dysfunctional family!!!...Im not even a Metallica fan!
 
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Yes...I have watched the documentary...and Im really surprised there wasn't any fist fights...quite the dysfunctional family!!!...Im not even a Metallica fan!

Yeah, Metallica is not really my genre, either, but I thought the movie was mind-bendingly funny. Basically, for anyone who hasn't seen it, the documentary finds the band crumbling under alcoholism and they bring in a soppy psychoanalyst to mediate. The band play by the shrink's
rules until they can stomach no more, all the while being filmed by a documentary crew. Cringe-worthy hilarity ensues. But also something brave about making a record, and how you gotta risk embarrassing yourself by revealing your guts if you are going to create 'something out of nothing.' And what are the sound sculptures we make, if not that?
 
The official vid has matlock playing I know Sid wrote Belsen that is the only song I heard of him having anything to do with besides live playing
Are you sure about the "official vid" being Matlock?
Vicious is credited with writing on "Bodies" "Holidays In The Sun" and "Belsen Was a Gas". The Last one was written when he was with The Flowers Of Romance.
 
Vicious is credited with writing on "Bodies" "Holidays In The Sun" and "Belsen Was a Gas". The Last one was written when he was with The Flowers Of Romance.

Ah, didn't realize "Belsen" was written so early on. Lydon touted it as "new" to the press on the US tour and it was captured live on tape at the Cow Palace, which is the only existent version with Johnny singing (and a pretty powerful instrumental performance, despite the gauche lyric). In that case, the only song written by the band post-album and post-Matlock would be Rotten's "Religion," which ended up on the PiL debut.
You may KNOW the song "Religion," but I bet you'll have trouble singing it -- because it is a lousy tune. Matlock was not only a solid bass player, he was
the Sex Pistol's primary tunesmith. Rotten has a tin ear by comparison. Again, the Pistols really shot themselves in the foot when they fired Matlock.

And the irony, OP, is that Matlock was fired because he just didn't fit the image.
 
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Are you sure about the "official vid" being Matlock?
Vicious is credited with writing on "Bodies" "Holidays In The Sun" and "Belsen Was a Gas". The Last one was written when he was with The Flowers Of Romance.
I saw him playing don't see why he would play it if he didn't write it unless Sid rewrote the bass line for the album hard to say with Malcom running things though

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I know matlocks basslines were more complex
 
Just to button the th-- the Pistols shot themselves in the foot when they kicked bassist Matlock out of the band
I'm curious about this: Is the whole Sid Vicious thing part of the "bass is easy, anyone can do it" myth?

Or is the myth what caused them to think they could get away with a phony bassist who happened to look cool?

As your rhetorical question implies, the Pistols did indeed continue the perpetuation of the "bass is easy" myth.
The Clash likewise guilty in the same time period for handing bass duties to the handsome but musically challenged young Paul Simonon.