Well, more specifically, were the sex pistols the most.... ehhh, prescient punk band? Punk being such a volatile postmodern animal, so inclined to killing its forebearers, that its ultimate mark of authenticity and success has got to be prescience.

the ramones, the damned, the clash even, did not come close spelling out the future like the pistols. consider the following: when you listen to "the ramones leave home," for instance -- not to mention the first clash, damned, dead boys, comateens, vibrators, etc etc -- you are aware that the album is conspicuously a 70's album. its fast alright, but its got no urge to violate. theirs was essentially an amiable vision. the damned and the clash even at their dirtiest were always on a whole different echelon from the pistols. they were inherently rock bands, not punk bands. The Clash, at least on vinyl, were not telling people to tear everything down. When you put on 'never mind...' it sounds too ferocious to fall in the same decade as Yes and James Taylor.

The first sex pistols album was like a new rock covenant. the Sex Pistols hated everything. they were THE BEST. screw the clash, husker du or whatever other dickfags you worship. the sex pistols were the best.

well thats the idea anyway. maybe its stupid to reevaluate the sex pistols, but i was bored.

i suppose they did set the precedent for all the other image-based cookie cutter punk bands we've got to deal with today. HOORAH!

nah husker du and dead kennedys are easily better.

and bad brains. just fact

Bollocks! Sex Pistols = thee most exciting and history making Rock n Roll bands ever.

You ain't no punk you punk!

Just because 'Sex Pistols' is plural doesn't mean it constitutes more than one band.

I've never listened to Husker Du, but I can say with all confidence that the Dead Kennedys are a more interesting punk band than the Pistols. You can argue until you're blue in the face who came first, or about who wrote what 'better' song or 'more influential' album, but it's all just hot air.

To say that the Pistols are or were great because they made history is really irrelevant. It seems to me that 'bigger' bands, or more popular bands, are more often 'bigger' or 'better' only in the sense of how much more boring and used up they are in comparison to everything else. I'd much rather listen to just about anything before listening to the Pistols, and I've always really liked most of their stuff.

Punk bands I would argue are more 'exciting' and more interesting than the Sex Pistols include: Minor Threat, X, Television, Wire, the Fall, MC5 (on at least one song), the Clash, the Buzzcocks, the Circle Jerks, Fear, Stiff Little Fingers, Unwound, and just about every other punk, pop-punk, and post-punk band I listen to (to say nothing of all the rock and roll bands out there since Hipster included the Pistols in that category, not in punk).

"I can say with all confidence that the Dead Kennedys are a more interesting punk band than the Pistols."

"To say that the Pistols are or were great because they made history is really irrelevant."

"I'd much rather listen to just about anything before listening to the Pistols, and I've always really liked most of their stuff." (??????????????????????)


You either get it for you don't.

Two issues only matter for me regarding the Sex Pistols:

1. John Lydon, easily the most whipsmart, stylish, acidic and downright electric frontman Britain ever produced from it slimey bowels.

2. Steve Jone's guitar sound.

Dead Kennedy's were just a footnote at best.

By the way I'm old enough to have lived in Britain before the Sex Pistols hit and believe me EVERYONE else followed them & it was a grey sad and artistically dead country, stuck in a post sixties rut and I mean every aspect of it.

The Pistols put their lives on the line to do something, anything to change things and force people to question everything. John Lydon is lucky to be alive in fact all of the Pistols were attacked physically, they were viewed as a huge threat to the establishment both here and in the States.

I can't speak for Americans but the Pistols changed everything in the UK for the good & that is their ultimate legacy. Best? Who cares, why does everything have to be a competition?

They are hero's in the UK no matter what they do post Pistol's.

John Lydon is a pure flame & a national treasure.

No.

Yes

I would have to say the same.

This was during the whole Punk vs. Mod era, and Sex Pistols came out with the image of what a punk is... and apparently everybody bought it.