A ‘Pistol’ Shot Rings Out Half a Century Later

Any number of rock’n’roll documentaries come through the transom during a given month. Most of them are, if not desultory, then more of the same. Do we really need another tale of sex and drugs and blah, blah, blah told by senior citizens who have come out the other side somewhat wizened for wear? It depends on one’s taste.Recent films about the Lunachicks and Billy Idol are by no means bad, but they are, as the kids now say, niche. Ilya Chaiken’s “Pretty Ugly” and Jonas Åkerlund’s “Billy Idol Should Be Dead” will please fans of the artists. The rest of us, should we find ourselves ensconced in the theater, will look at our watches, be tempted to tend to our phones, and exit unconverted.Bear in mind, then, that any thoughts this critic might have about “I Was a Teenage Sex Pistol,” a film by Nick Mead and Andre Melis, are colored by personal prejudice. Each of us has our cultural lodestars in life. Yours might be August Wilson; that woman, “The Decameron”; the guy sitting next to her, Kitty Wells. Primary among mine is the 1977 LP, “Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols.” After hearing it, the world was a changed place.Your humble correspondent is, in so many words, a boomer for whom adolescent discoveries still resonate, though they have, of necessity, changed in tenor. Watching footage of the Sex Pistols playing on a boat in front of the Houses of Parliament as a rebuff to the Queen’s Jubilee is chagrinning some 50 years after the fact. John Lydon might agree: The man who caterwauled his way through the scabrous “God Save the Queen” back when his surname was “Rotten,” was reverential upon Queen Elizabeth’s passing. “Send her victorious,” he wrote. She ain’t no human being, indeed.The prickly Mr. Lydon can be seen in documentary footage during the run of “I Was a Teenage Sex Pistol,” but he wasn’t directly interviewed by the filmmakers. Whether Mr. Lydon was approached by them, I don’t know, but it’s a good bet that he would’ve turned down the invitation. The titular figure in question is among Mr. Lydon’s many bete noirs, the band’s original bassist, Glen Matlock. Glen Matlock. Via Wikimedia CommonsDepending on whose story you buy, Mr. Matlock was either sacked from the Sex Pistols or quit of his own volition. Scuttlebutt at the time was that he was a fan of the Beatles. No self-respecting punks could put up with that kind of tosh, now could they? Messrs. Mead and Melis’s documentary is based on Mr. Matlock’s memoir of the same name, and counts the ex-Sex Pistol as a producer. Now approaching 70-years of age, Mr. Matlock seems a chummy sort with a story to tell, wrongs to right, jabs to take, and mournful words about his ill-fated replacement, John Simon Ritchie, otherwise known as Sid Vicious. A veritable who’s who of punk rock is on hand to testify to Mr. Matlock’s contributions and talent, including Blondie’s Debbie Harry, former bandmates Steve Jones, Paul Cook, and, exhibiting a prominent black eye and a buoyant sense of humor, Cheetah Chrome of the surprisingly immortal Dead Boys.Mr. Matlock was a key contributor in writing many of the Sex Pistols’ signature songs, bringing to each of them a sense of melody and structure. As for the dissolution of the group that happened after his leaving, the factors are many and a lot of them predictable: Ego, drugs, and too much, too soon. Since then, Mr. Matlock has made a go of it as a working musician, re-teaming with his old comrades for the self-stated cause of filthy lucre, and playing alongside folks like Iggy Pop, Blondie and his own band, The Philistines. Readers for whom the phrase “blind acceptance is a sign/ Of stupid fools who stand in line” is an abiding philosophical credo will want to invest their time and money accordingly.

A ‘Pistol’ Shot Rings Out Half a Century Later

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