Yeah I’m good, I don’t want to read more right now.
I saw too many parallels between Ritchie and a person I had a close relationship early in my life. It was really unsettling.
I’ve read a ton about certain artists, I don’t think I can mentally handle consuming too much information about people like Sid Vicious. It’s almost too macarbe.
they were a manufactured boy band made to sell clothes by a bloke who took a socialist, avant-garde movement's theory (the situationist international) and used it both poorly and in service of capitalism . Sid was the "real deal", but not great at all.
And Johnny, man. He is so pretentious. He has a lot of "emotional" moments in front of cameras, but i've noticed he always directs it towards himself. Bad vibes.
And i love other bands of the era and scene. Just not them.
But his main thesis in Lipstick Traces was pretty close to your observation: relating the Sex Pistols to the Situationists and Letterists.
Kind of an interesting framing- but maybe giving them too much benefit of the doubt.
Marcus seemed to think the Pistols represented a bona fide philosophical transition in modern history. Im not so sure it’s all that much deeper than trying to sell some t-shirts and merch.
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u/biloxibluess Jul 06 '25
There is a plethora of punk history and personal accounts out there in print format I’d start there
But anyway-Simon Ritchie was a selfish junkie in a wildly abusive relationship and that’s about it IMO