Welcome back to Music Hum, peeps! This is my sporadic series about vintage music. Check out the previous post here.
Today’s post is dedicated to Siouxsie Sioux, the queen of punk rock. If the word”punk” brings to mind big black hair, gobs of black eyeliner, fishnets and black leather/rubber bondage gear … well, you should know it was Siouxsie Sioux (pronounced “Suzy Soo”…by me at least!) who created that look.
Siouxsie’s iconic look
Siouxsie’s nip slip makes Johnny feel less rotten.Click here for photo source
You might know John Lydon by his old name: Johnny Rotten, which was what he was called when he was a member of the Sex Pistols. Siouxsie started out as a part of a group of kids called the Bromley Contingent who hung out with the band. The Pistols have gotten a bad rap over the years. Critics complain that the band was manufactured by manager Malcolm McLaren. The Pistols even wore clothes from the shop McLaren owned with designing galpal Vivienne Westwood. I think some people enjoy accusing everyone else of being a poseur more than they enjoy actual music. The only thing that will satisfy them is a band that spontaneously gets together and plays one never-recorded song to an audience of zero.
The band’s only studio albumWhether you think the Pistols are the fathers of punk or great big fakes, there’s no doubt that they inspired a lot of music including Joy Division and the entire Manchester music scene; one of my favorite groups, X-Ray Spex; and Siouxsie. Billy Idol was another member of the Bromley Contingent, as was Steve Severin, who became one of the Banshees. The Clash‘s first gig was opening for the Pistols.
I remember 1982 like it was yesterday, but I remember nothing about yesterday!Speaking of Westwood and punk fashion, I have to address punk’s fascination with “Nazi chic.” For some of us this is old news (as Siouxsie just said in a Radar interview, “Can you imagine answering the same banal questions for 30 years? … Read the fucking book.”) but in that case, this whole post is remedial, so stop reading! Anyway, Westwood designed clothes incorporating Nazi swastikas, her (Jewish) boyfriend McLaren sold Nazi replica doodads, and Siouxsie and the other punks enthusiastically wore this stuff. It wasn’t political so much as it was a big epater les bourgeois moment. In English, the kids wanted to piss off The Man, and more specifically, any grandparents who droned on about the Blitz and how you kids have it so easy nowadays and turn off that loud music for God’s sake I can’t hear myself think!
As Siouxsie said in a 1999 interview with Attitude magazine (source: Wikipedia), “When I was growing up, it was always (adopts old codger voice) ‘The youth of today… I fought the Second World War so bums like you can loaf around on the Social security,’ so it was a way of antagonising that generation.” She also noted that people like her just weren’t as educated about Holocaust as they later became.
There is more information about punk and Nazi symbolism at these links:
- Punk77: Punk and the Swastika and The Swastika and desire to shock
- KQED: Vivienne Westwood: 36 Years in Fashion
- Stillstandingpunkrock.com: Punk Fashion
Here are is one on American punk:
- Jewcy: Blitzkrieg Stop
I have no problem accepting this part of punk history, just like I have no problem accepting the reality of Anglo-Saxon poisoners, 16th century beheaders and the tasteful 14th century execution of Hugh le Despenser. Do I think the Nazi swastika would be a cool fashion statement now? No! It makes a violent and ignorant statement. (And yes, I know there are other meanings for swastikas. The context makes it clear if the usage is intended to be Hindu, Buddhist, anti-Semitic, racist or just shocking.) Politics and culture in 2007 are different in every way from 1977, meaning “that act is no longer cute,” as well-known philosopher Paris Hilton said about a different topic. On top of being hateful, it wouldn’t even be original. What kind of loser is proudly anti-Semitic, racist, homophobic and/or sexist AND a copycat? It’s like you’re already Disgusting McInsecure, mayor of Patheticville, and you buy a summer house on Can’tThinkForMyself Island.
Now, this is a fashion statement I can support.Photo from Radar
The banal questions that Siouxsie gets usually include something about Bill Grundy. Well, she may be tired of this story, but I’m not! Back in 1976, Grundy hosted a TV talk show and the Pistols and the Bromley Contingent were guests. Grundy grew a little flirtatious with sexy Ms. Sioux. Pistols guitarist Steve Jones leaped to her defense in a bizarrely old-fashioned outburst of chivalry that included the words, “You dirty fucker” spoken on live TV (click here for the complete transcript). Adjusting for inflation, in today’s terms this would be like Janet Jackson’s boob and Britney Spears’s waxed chimichanga jointly crashing a presidential debate … and CURSING! Yep, 31 years ago, this was as bad as a naked boob and chimichanga cursing in front of Law & Order presidential pseudo-candidate Fred Thompson. Les bourgeois were totally epater’d, Bill Grundy’s career was destroyed, and the Sex Pistols became famous. Another happy ending.
Think you’ll get away without more reading suggestions? Ha!
- Radar Online’s fantastic new interview with Siouxsie. Great photos.
- The Independent’s 2004 “Mrs Punk” story on Westwood, McLaren and the whole scene is fascinating.
- The BBC’s story on the new album.
- UntiedUndone.com has a good page of articles, but the whole site is amazing. Another great photo source, a discography and an unbelievable list of gigs. If the cops ever say to Siouxsie, “Where were you on the night of July 21, 1977,” she can look it up!
And, as Siouxsie says, “Read the fucking book!” If she tells you to read the fucking book, you better read the fucking book. It’s not her problem it’s out of print. Here it is:
This is The Other Book.
Don’t forget Johnny Rotten’s book.
Can’t read? Check out the videos on YouTube, but start with this 1976 interview of a blonde, gum-chewing Siouxsie. I tip my beret to the person who posted this.
the sex pistols really rockssss
great post!!!!!!!!!!!!!
a kisss
I love their style ! And few years ago I listened a lot of this music 🙂
God, she is hypnotic in that old interview. The girl speaking first reminds me of one of the youngins from the 7-up series (who ultimately became a librarian). I had never delved much into punk, but of course I own Please Kill Me (and read most of it too!) like any good little girl who wants to be taken seriously whilst hanging out with male music snobs.
Brilliant post, Wendy!
I was fascinated by that old interview…I was scared if I searched around for more, I’d never get to sleep!
You are really funny – i laughed throughout this whole post – and yes the Paris quote is really apt: “That’s no longer cute,” ha!
i love siouxsie+banshees despite all the swastika fascination
apparently mcqueen was recently taken in by the symbol in some collection of his – don’t really know what to make of it – and of course there was bowie
Funny, I was going to add “unbelievably desperate for attention” to my list of things the swastika stands for today, and if McQueen is up to something, that would surely qualify. I mean, the punks were desperate for attention but there’s even more shock value today. Plus the punks were mostly rebellious kids…except for Malcolm. Actually I can see similarities between a McLaren and a McQueen brand of naughtiness.
Nazi chic = scary. However, her boots are bitchin’ in that one pic.
Mothra reccomends “The Filth and The Fury” but realizes his new friend Wendy probably knows more about the movie than he and is ashamed to say that the movie may have been mentioned in Wendy’s fine post without his realizing it because he doesn’t always read things very carefully.
The Filth and the Fury is indeed a good movie to recommend. Also recommended is the Great Rock and Roll Swindle. For a fictionalized treatment there is the excellent Sid and Nancy (with a particularly beautiful scene featuring falling garbage). And getting back to books, I Don’t Want to Live This Life, about Sid’s girlfriend Nancy, by her mother, is truly fascinating. I always found it odd that that Deborah Spungen’s takeaway from her family’s awful experience was to become an activist for parents of murdered children. Everyone has their own personal view of their own life, and that’s fine. But her retelling of her daughter’s infancy and early life SCREAMS autism or a similar condition. That’s my professional opinion as a highly qualified jeweler, of course. Back then, autism wasn’t diagnosed as frequently as it is now, but a long shot, and whenever (male) doctors did diagnose a problem like that, they tended to blame “cold mothers.” Idiotic, isn’t that! Through the whole book, I was thinking if only someone had recognized Nancy’s condition and dealt with it as sensibly as is done now, maybe she could have been helped. Maybe not. At any rate, the missed opportunities to help Nancy (due largely to the ignorance and sexism of the medical establishment) are what jumped out at me. Her murder seemed really like the sad but unsurprising end to such a tortured life.
As weird as it might sound Punk, and specially the Sex Pistols, have a place in my heart, because the first CD I bought was “Live, at Winterland” 1978 by the Sex Pistols. It’s true they were a marketing product, but also The Beatles, and so what?
And although they were terrible musicians, nobody can deny they changed the music history.
Back on Siouxsie…I find amazing she’s still singing. I knew she did a duo with Morrissey called “Interlude” in 1994, but I didn’t know about this new solo career.
Great post, I love, love love Siouxsie and the British Punk girls of the 70s. I used to tried to copy Jordan’s make up in my teens (with disatrous results, obviously)
I have always been a BIG BIG fan of Siouxsie’s style.
I think she was beyond the “punk look”, having her very own style.
Regarding the Nazi-Chic… I wonder if the infamous designer of the even more infamous Zara Nazi-bag was feeling Siouxsie that day …