Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs

For an auto-biography this is pretty good. Having seen Lydon at least on TV quite a number of times he can be a very engaging and amusing speaker when he wants to be--of course you have to like sarcasm and seeing the odd sacred cow being blown up and about but each to his own. It has been some time since I've read this but I found his anecdotal tales to be quite interesting. Growing up in South London--the very closeness of his family--his love for the Arsenal football team (or being an American should I say soccer)--the vacations back to Ireland where his Irish grandfather winces at his cockney accent. His dad (a crane operator) taking him out to work at his various job sites. And then we have the music--the beginnings of the Punk Rock show more scene--the Sex Pistols--the stories behind the songs. I don't know if Lydon had someone help him with the prose but it's well told anyway and having a number of his friends and contemporaries commenting on sections of it--sometimes chiding him for getting things wrong (at least they don't always see things the same--sometimes not at all the same) helps give the book a little extra polish and credibility. I liked it quite a lot. show less

First off, I have to admit that Lydon is right at the top of the list of people who have influenced me and who I hold in the highest regard.

This book is entertaining, intelligent, and honest. Lydon is a guy who can laugh at himself. He is also a good storyteller; he has the classic Celtic style courtesy of his Irish roots.

So many artists from this era are dead and gone, if only one could survive to be the official voice of the first punk wave, I am glad it is John Lydon.

Funny how a very small thing can influence a person many years later.....I am pushing 50 and still refuse to vacation in the Caribbean because of "Holidays in the Sun"......I don't want to holiday in other people's misery. (the fact that I am not a fan of sun, sand and show more surf might also have something to do with it)

I would be interested in reading anything else he might publish, and hope he writes another book sometime soon. show less

I was never a great fan of punk but John Lydon's reputation precedes him so I thought it imperative to read Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs. Lydon has worked hard in the years since the end of the Sex Pistols distancing himself from his Johnny Rotten persona and Rotten is a major plank of that.

Lydon sees Rotten as a mix of pantomime character and Shakesperare's vision of Richard III. Lydon also makes much of his Irish ancestry and the prejudice against the Irish, as well as his visits to the Caribbean to sign reggae musicians. I note that he also thinks very highly of himself, which is natural for someone of his accomplishments I guess.

With news that Lydon voted for Trump in 2020, one is tempted to read into statements made in show more Rotten evidence of his slide into MAGAism; perhaps his working-class background that he is at pains to establish in Rotten made him vote Trump. Or perhaps his negativity and hatred for just about everything that does it ... show less

Mr. Lydon proves he is the funniest man in music and probably the worst friend you could possibly have, as no one escapes his savage wit. Chatty and somewhat rambling it is still an essential read from an essential person in an essential era.

Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs is not a history of John Lydon's musical career, yet it's not precisely a standard autobiography, either. The book represents a category unto itself, and even a longtime fan (like me) could not honestly call it anything but auto-hagiography. It jumps all over the place, seldom touching on the music of the Sex Pistols or Public Image Limited but filling chapter after chapter with self-congratulatory hogwash. (Malcolm McLaren didn't "get it," you see. Vivienne Westwood didn't get it, either. Glen Matlock? Didn't get it. There are all kinds of legitimate complaints that could be lodged against McLaren, of course--chiefly that he was a narcissistic airhead who had no business managing a bunch of kids who show more had been thrust into the UK's ruthless media spotlight--but what he didn't get is never elucidated. The reader is assured that Lydon got it, though; he says so over and over again.)

Most of Lydon's pleasant memories of his formative years, and his brief time in the Pistols, seem to revolve around fashion; music always runs a distant second. The single most interesting chapter consists of a rather sketchy breakdown of how every Sex Pistols song was written, with commentary by Lydon and Pistols drummer Paul Cook. Frustratingly, the book offers few hints of what a gifted lyricist Lydon is (see "God Save the Queen" by the Pistols or "Cruel" by PiL), or of his lyrical inspiration. I'll say this for Keith and Kent Zimmerman, though: they didn't get in the way. The voice in Rotten is authentically Lydon's, and has the same unmistakable grating quality that's evident in all of the interviews I've heard with the guy. Like it or lump it, this is the real Rotten...or is consistent with his public persona, at least.

Contains many rare photos from Lydon's personal collection, including pics of the first Sex Pistols rehearsal, their debut performance, etc. The text occasionally is entertaining, but more often than not it's an uphill slog. For obsessive fans only. show less

I really like how most of this book is formatted. Lydon's autobiographical recollections are interspersed with sometimes contradictions from family, friends, and others on the scene. However the end of the book is a bit of drudgery with all the lawsuit affidavites and then a digressive chapter of social commentary from Lydon.

"I have no time for lies and fantasy, and neither should you. Enjoy or die..." --John LydonPunk has been romanticized and embalmed in various media. An English class revolt that became a worldwide fashion statement, punk's idols were the Sex Pistols, and its sneering hero was Johnny Rotten.Seventeen years later, John Lydon looks back at himself, the Sex Pistols, and the "no future" disaffection of the time. Much more than just a music book, Rotten is an oral history of punk: angry, witty, honest, poignant, crackling with energy. Malcolm McLaren, Sid Vicious, Chrissie Hynde, Billy Idol, London and England in the late 1970s, the Pistols' creation and collapse...all are here, in perhaps the best book ever written about music and youth show more culture, by one of its most notorious figures. show less