Rating: 
Summary: Confessions Of A Two-Faced,Lying, Fake!
Review: Just so there are no misunderstandings, Let's understand that I have always LOVED Hardcore Brit-Punk and grew up listening to the same. Some of the happiest moments of my youth have been spent listening to early 80s U.K. punk bands like Crass, the Exploited, U.K. Subs, Disorder, Chaotic Dischord and the like (Pistols influenced bands every one!) In my gratitude, I will always respect the Sex Pistols (musically) for founding that genre no matter how reluctantly they might have done so. However I was indignantly disillusioned after reading this book which, if anything, only reveals that the former Mr. Rotten is every bit as hypocritical and egomaniacal as his ex-manager and adversary, Malcolm Mclaren! The book is as disappointing as a PIL album and as ridiculous as tabloid trash! It makes a sickening mockery of Lydon's self-image as a "completely honest human being". What A Load of PRETENTIOUS RUBBISH!! Like a cowardly,turncoat,wuss, John Rotten, once one of the most powerful figureheads of the Punk scene, sells out everything he once claimed to stand for!! He denies that there was ever a Punk movement at all and he denies that the Pistols were once its Leaders! The book's early chapters of his childhood, family life, and adolescence are moderately entertaining if you are already dying of boredom, but Lydon's so-called account of the Punk movement (which he denies having started) merely proves the old saying which goes, "The biggest liar is one who INSISTS he's telling the truth."
In the years since the Pistols, Lydon has repeatedly downgraded Punk Rock, and denied his own role in its foundation, as if, having gazed into the Abyss, he backed away from it in liverless fear! John Lydon is no longer a punk, of course. He's rich and lives in a posh suburb of Marina del Rey, California.In this book, he is blatantly rewriting his own history to tone down his once rebellious image so that his yuppie neighbors will invite him to more cocktail parties!! Lydon's appetite for the pop star treatment is now common knowledge!
He seems to be saying,"I'm so sorry I offended the status quo! Please forgive me! I was never REALLY ROTTEN!"
When you read his retelling (and rewriting)of the Sex Pistols U.S. tour, It becomes easy to understand what I mean! Lydon is now a reformed nihilist making contemptible apologies for his former nihilism and begging the Bourgoise for its forgiveness!
When reading this book, one can scarcely believe it was written by the acid-tongued mouthpiece of the Sex Pistols! Rather, it sounds like the whining of a social-climbing FAKE!! Or worse, a journalist!!
John Lydon's alter ego, "John Rotten", is every bit as dead and buried as Sid Vicious himself! He, at long last, has become one of the Yuppie Rock Stars he once despised! His FAT, BLOATED EGO bears this out!!!
He has become so greedy for money and respectability that he has even tarnished the memory of his late best friend, Jon "Sid Vicious" Beverly, by recently reuniting the Sex Pistols with their poncey nice boy original bassist Glen Matlock, whom Lydon himself once described (accurately, it seems), as a "mummy's boy"! I guess it takes one to know one. During this sacriligious reunion, I was asked by some friends to attend one of the gigs. Not only did I decline, but I had more fun sitting at home alone!
But I digress. Back to the Present. I understand that people change as they grow older. We all do!
But only the most egomaniacal hypocrites would deny the past glories that made them great! Lydon has a right to rewrite his past, but he has no right to shove his third rate version of reality down the throats of true Punk fans!!
As a deluded "fantasist", I always thought Punk meant different things to different people! Apparently I was wrong! I must unquestionably accept that Lydon's version of the "truth" is the ONLY TRUTH, otherwise, I am no more than just another deluded fan! Silly Me!! I resented this book! My instinctive reaction was, "He CAN'T be SERIOUS!"
Buy this book if you must, but at least have the prescence of mind to realize this is only a doctrinaire rewriting of history,
by someone with a swollen head who only wants better PR!(not to mention more money!)
However, If you're looking for a book about the History of Punk, THIS ISN"T IT!! Poor John! You're pitiful, media-friendly, "new image" as MR. Millenial Conformity isn't fooling me or anyone else who ever believed in the Sex Pistols and Punk Rock. Tsk. tsk.
Rating:
Summary: annoying
Review: Let's start by pointing out that I know very little about the current punk scene, let alone the origins of punk in the 70's. I hate the Sex Pistols, but for some reason I found the whole scene interesting so I bought this book. Who better to tell me about the punk scene than one of the founders?
I know nothing about punk or this band and I could tell he was totally skewering the truth. Every scene he paints himself in such a superior light to everybody else. He makes it seem like he's the only person in the world who isn't an idiot. He tries to find ways to discredit other superior bands around the same time (Ramones, Clash). He claims he didn't like what the Ramones "stood for". What the hell is he talking about?
The book also has parts interspersed in which another person will give a paragraph or two talking about the current subject. Basically they all say something like "other people were doing this in the punk scene, but the Sex Pistols started it/were better". Why don't they say something interesting?
All in all, a book filled with exaggerations and truth bending despite Lydon's disclaimer that the book doesn't have any BS.
Rating: 
Summary: I love you for hating me, baby.
Review: Looks like Mr. Lydon's got no illusions about anything, including and particularly himself. This book is that rarest of events, an autobiography that rings honest and true every time his voice is heard. (If you want self-delusion, turn to the pages including, say, Malcom McLaren.) Lydon traces his steps with great powers of recall, occasional tenderness, and discredit where discredit is due. His "guest voices" include his wife, his father, Billy Idol, Chrissie Hynde, Steve Jones, and childhood friends: those who saw and did it all with him, and whatever they have to say, Lydon lets it be. Through all these voices you get a street-level view of what the Sex Pistols accomplished, and a glimpse of what they could have become. And apropos of that last, where do the angry go, John, when they hunger now?
Rating: 
Summary: WHAT A BOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: Me being a teenager from a small town in iowa "punk rock" is something that is all over the place because it's the cool thing to listen to or your cool if your a "punk" ... But im the only one around where i live that actually listens to real punk and i now know some of the history behind one of the greatist punk rock bands out there !
This is a great book and i would recomend it to all!!! I'm not going to go into detail on anything that was said in this book because you all need to find out for yourselves !!! Take it from a TRUE punk, buy ths book!!!
Rating:
Summary: Rotten as he wants to be
Review: No Irish... was the best biorgraphy I have ever read, and quitepossibly the greatest book I have ever read. Although it helped thatI had priar knowledge about the Punk era in England and that I am a big fan of the Pistols and Punk rock, I think my position is well held. Rotten puts all of the incorrect runors about the punk movement and the Pistols to rest as well as bringing untold stories to light. The only thing I was disappointed in was that Lydon did not go into more detail about the deaths of the late Sid Vicous and... Nancy Spungen. oi.
Rating:
Summary: Necessary Biography
Review: Reading Lydon's book is such a sigh of relief! It's not too long, not too short, and in no way dry or boring---John Lydon writes the way he acts: no sugar-coating, no fluff. I found this book to be a quick, easy read because of his witty, conversationalist style of writing as well as the interesting subject matter (basically his life before, during, and after the Sex Pistols). Mainstream society seemed to disregard the fact that the punk movement was comprised of /people/, and some very intelligent ones at that; Lydon's book puts the humanity back into understanding the movement. He proves, definitively, what an incredible person he is and what an incredible life he's had. I agree with a previous reviewer's comment that more photos would have really added to this book, but regardless, it is still a necessary item for those interested in the British punk scene of the late 70s. You get an insider's look at what went on in the Sex Pistols behind the media trash as well as a view into the mind of a punk genius. Lydon's book is a welcome relief from the mediocre punk documentaries of late.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best "punk" books ever written!
Review: Straight from the horse's mouth... sure he has an axe to grind... but wouldn't you, too, if you were him? The best part of this book is how it reminds us that the original punks were *just plain people*, not the cred-obsessed, exclusionary dweebs that try to write the rules of cool these days. GREAT book - required reading!!
Rating:
Summary: rock historians....a must read
Review: Student's of rock history of every age....order this book today. A fun, rocky, gutsy, scary read. Surprise...Johnny Rotten is a sweetheart, heartbreaker, mischief maker and sage. And whether he knows it or not, no stanger to a few guardian angels. For those survivors who in the pain of adolecence gave this cruel, cruel world the finger and are thankful to be ok today. This is also your story. Elvis, Beatles and the Pistols. Important company indeed.
Rating:
Summary: The Pistols seen through the piercing stare of Johnny Rotten
Review: The constant criticism of this book is what is perceived as Rottens one sided ego about the events that created the Sex Pistols and the movement that would become punk in mid 70's England. What these critics fail to realize is that the book is from his point of view which he has had to become very defiant over due to all of the mis-information that has been reported over the years. This book represents his chance to set the facts straight and you can feel the underlying frustration that obviously drove him to write this book as you read the pages. Rotten explains in plain facts the atmosphere in England in the Mid 70's and the conditions that would combust into what the press would end up dubbing "punk rock". Reading this book allows outsiders to really understand what was going on beyond the masses of mohawks and leather jackets that would later cast the movement in a generic style void of it's original creativity. The book is hard to put down and provides a ton of laughs to go along with the vivid picture of life for the young working class Brits frustrated with a system too willing to wallow in drudgery and maintain status quo. Many at the time thought that Rotten was trying to insight anarchy when he was only trying wake the sleeping masses up to come alive and create change for the better in a time when England needed it most. A great companion with this book is the documentary "The Filth and the Fury".
Rating:
Summary: About a movement more than about the music
Review: The reviewer who compared the Sex Pistols to the Clash missed the entire point of the Sex Pistols. I love the Clash as much as anyone, and I listen to "London Calling" more often than "Never Mind the Bollocks." The Clash were undoubtedly a greater band.
But the Sex Pistols were not just a band--they were a literary movement. John Lydon created a new aesthetic that people have not yet begun to understand, one that will be as important as modernism, the beat movement, and the post modernism. The modernists were about post-industrial disillusion, the beats about freedom, and the post-modernists about chaos. All three movements were created by artists who took themselves too seriously. The punks were about recognizing the ridiculous nature of the human condition and not taking yourself too seriously. Lydon embodies this punk aesthetic better than any other figure. The message he embodies, one this brilliant book cpatures perfectly, is one that a person hung up on "who was the better band" should heed: get over yourself.
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