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sid vicious playng ability?

#41
bassrich said:
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
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Do You have a link to the video with Glen playing Bodies? I can't find one which dates from the 70's, and I'm surprised to hear that there's an "official" one of an album track which would never have got any airplay, due to subject matter and language.

As for Sid "rewriting the bass line", the bass on the record is Steve Jones.
 
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#45
Smoove-Groove said:
Didn't one of the road crew play bass back stage while Sid faked it? Thought I'd heard that somewhere.
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That happened often, depending on how out of it he was on a given night.
The decision wasn't based so much on how well they thought he'd be able to play, rather on if he was so high he wouldn't be able to tell he wasn't the one playing.
 
#46
lz4005 said:
That happened often, depending on how out of it he was on a given night.
The decision wasn't based so much on how well they thought he'd be able to play, rather on if he was so high he wouldn't be able to tell he wasn't the one playing.
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I believe this is an apocryphal story. Can anyone provide any documentation about an off-stage bassist? Doubt it.

As I said earlier, and as another poster confirmed, Sid was given a live bass and left to his own devices, result be damned.
Steve and Paul were champs to battle through his din and hold it together.
 
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#47
lz4005 said:
That happened often, depending on how out of it he was on a given night.
The decision wasn't based so much on how well they thought he'd be able to play, rather on if he was so high he wouldn't be able to tell he wasn't the one playing.
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Steve Jones has talked about the times on the US tour where they turned off Sid's amp (I think he said it happened twice), but I've not heard any of them talking about a hidden bass player.

They were used to chaos on stage, just see any video of them playing and not missing a beat when the bottles etc were flying. Steve and Paul were very capable musicians even then, and playing with no bass wouldn't have fazed them.
Paul's timing was always very good, he and Steve were very locked in together, as Steve basically played rhythm guitar. and a bass player who couldn't react to the mayhem he couldn't see would probably have been as bad as letting Sid play.
 
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#48
Discussing his musical ability is totally missing the point, IMO.

He didn't have any, nor was it important that he did. Musical ability did not matter in the context of what they, especially McLaren, were trying to do. In fact, Matlock had too much ability to be in that band, so they fired him.

McLaren viewed that band as a conceptual art project, and not a musical project. One that banks profits while challenging the notion that stardom has anything to do with ability. Mclaren really thought he was the second coming of Warhol in this respect.

The whole thing was about creating controversy, which is why/how they became famous, but was also something that Lydon became very disillusioned with in the end.

Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?

 
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#49
That was exactly the point- he wasn't supposed to be very good!
None of them were- this was meant to be a kick-in the pants to the over polished excess radio-rock music had taken. Look at LedZep- with 23 different guitar tracks on one song by this point!
Does any one really think they reproduced the records live like that with Page playing one guitar?
Same goes for Van Halen.
From the live videos I have scene, Sid played about how I would expect, not horrible and not great.
 
#52
Imaginary Pony said:
Sid had a disaster due to smack!
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One night I was out drinking in NYC in the late 80's and ended up at a table with Rockets Redglare, the drug dealer who delivered Dilaudid to
Sid and Nancy's room at the Chelsea on the night of her murder,. He is the last man to have seen her alive other than Sid.
Among Rocket's more noble efforts whilst on earth was an excellent turn as an actor in Jim Jarmusch's film "Down By Law," which I had recently seen when I met Rockets in my drunken stupor. Being that I was a fan of the film as well
as a drunken loudmouth, I hectored Rockets about his acting to the point where I really annoyed the shag out of him -- he told me as much. I was young enough to think that this was a punk rock achievement of sorts for me.
Now I read on Wiki that Rockets is considered by some "Sid Scholars" to be the real murderer of Nancy Spungen? Kinda glad I didn't piss the guy off TOO much!
 
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#54
Sid was probably a crap player. I am surprised you are surprised. Was Sid ever touted as a great bassist? Not that I am aware of.

The same can be said for the musicians in many big bands and this is not meant to be a cynical comment. For only certain types of music is technical brilliance genuinely a requirement.
 
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#55
Imaginary Pony said:
I met Roberto Benigni, who was also in Down By Law. He was/is a nice guy.

I also met Sid and Nancy (I used to hang out at the Electric Ballroom in Camden). I thought he was an idiot and she was very creepy.
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What did Sid do specifically to display his idiocy?
Everyone seems to agree on Nancy's creepiness.
I shook Steve Jones's hand in 1999 when he backed up his friend Michael Des Barres at a club gig. But that doesn't count, because it
happened in Hollywood, a place where everyone in entertainment is eventually reborn as a reconstituted version of themselves. Which is
no slight on Steve personally, just dissing my home town, which is presumably permissible.
 
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#56
As a footnote to my post above -- I recently read a post by a blogger, I think on this very site, wherein they recounted running into Johnny
Rotten at the dollar store, where he was shopping for a broom. This in the Southern California marina community where Rotten keeps the boat he spends much of his time sailing up and down the California coast.
It would be interesting (as well as incongruous) to meet Lydon at the dollar store in Southern California, and t would be a typical experience here,
and in no way on par with shaking the man's hand at the 100 Club, pre-gig, back in the day.
 
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#58
bolophonic said:
Anyone who talks smack about Adam Clayton is a buffoon. Sid Vicious, on the other hand.... man, what a disaster.
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There are always those specific names that pop up in any discussion about terrible bass players. You can count on Adam Clayton, Michael Anthony, Pete Wentz and Mike Dirnt...all of whom have signature basses available by the way, being mentioned as the luckiest players in music or some such. I can't speak to the last two as I don't know their music, but have seen their names mentioned in this context. I will say that I never understood the derision aimed at Adam Clayton or Michael Anthony. I would kill to have half of the careers they've had. Those guys have played in front of more people on typical gig than I ever have or can hope to. I wish I sucked like them.
 
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#60
They could very well be described as the original boy band. Talentless, mundane, and with a big corporate backing, the pistols were picked not by their musical abilities, but a certain look that was geared to boost record sales. Sid could have learned to play , but that's what session musicians are for. Yes, they were paying him to spit, drool and destroy, and I would guess his amp was set at zero. Strange that they are hailed as pioneers of the genre as I would pick the adverts, sham, cocksparrer, or the damned as much more genuine, and influential . I like Lydon though.... Yes if wal mart had been invented, the sex pistols would have had a section right next to duck dynasty and wwf
 

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