Who will be talking about the Pistol's snub in a decade or so?
Oh, I think anyone who's still talking about the Pistols and/or the Hall, which should be plenty. Think about it, since it's inception, alot of people have expressed the opinion that a rock hall of fame is a bizarre notion, a way to institutionalize and legitimize teenage rebellion, anger, lust, etc. Domesticating a lion. Everyone talks, but the Pistols were the first to actually reject it. Until now,
everybody has wanted to get in, every year the inductees get a front page headline in the music press. When McCartney got in as a solo, his daughter wore a shirt proclaiming, "It's about f*ing time" or something to that effect. The Pistols are the first to openly backhand the whole thing. I think this is a moment that will have some resonance throughout the coming years. It's not as jarring as if it had come out of nowhere and taken everybody by surprise, but it's still significant.
And about the reunion tour, I have no problem with it. I thiink it was a dream come true, and it would have truly
sucked if they all went to their graves having never played before all the people that love their music and never had a chance in hell to see them in their heyday. At the start of the tour, Lydon commented that as soon as something is held up as a sacred cow, not to be tamepered with, to remain perfectly preserved behind glass in a museum, he gets the urge to destroy it. The Pistols of all people shouldn't be some precious icon to be protected and worshipped, let 'em get out there on the boards and blast a crowd to the back wall. You'd rather go see Matlock solo and imagine what it was like? Listen to John's exuberance on the live CD, "Finsbury Park never looked so f*cking good!" They finally got a chance to claim what was owed them; some money for their trouble and the sound of a huge audience that appreciated them. It was a good deal.