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Summary: PUNK
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this book! I am a huge fan of Sid (the legend) and the Sex Pistols. This book has sooo many interesting stories and tiny details you may not come across elsewhere. I loved it.
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Summary: great book!
Review: it was just a little too short but other than that it had everything on sid: his childhood how he got into the punk music scene how he got into the sex pistols etc. and its loaded with alot of pictures. I found sid almost facinating. it talkes about his relationship with nancy. everything is covered in this book and with honesty which is always better. it also kind of set an image of sid not just from one point of view but from different points of view. it also presents two sides of sid: the druged out violent punk or the lost little boy. I recomend this book to anyone who likes sid the sex pistols or the punk music scene in general.
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Summary: Impressive, Serious Look At A Sadly Short Stint of Fame
Review: Malcolm Butt writes a compelling biography of heroin casualty and punk rock legend, Sid Vicious. Mr. Butt addresses every aspect of Sid's troubled childhood, pre-heroin adolescence, and short-lived fame. He probes into issues involving Sid's relationships with his mother, fellow drug addict Anne Beverly, and his self-destructive girlfriend, Nancy Spungen with great detail. Includes epilogue describing Anne Beverly's apparent suicide days after the book was completed. A page turner that I could not put down.
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Summary: "Don't let them take you alive."
Review: The British Punk Rock band, the Sex Pistols exploded onto the Punk music scene in London in the 70s. They remain, perhaps, the most infamous Punk band--due to their revolutionary, anarchistic message, their violent, anti-social behaviour, and the fact that their bass player, Sid Vicious was later charged with the murder of his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen at the Chelsea Hotel on October 12, 1978. No band ever went quite so far as the Sex Pistols--they even make Eminem look like some sort of preppie. The Sex Pistols remain, at least to me, one of the most important bands on the Punk music scene. Their musical contributions, were unfortunately, not prolific--but it was what the Sex Pistols said--and how they said it--that made them memorable.England in the early 70s was not exactly an optimistic place to be, and you had to be a teenager living in England to understand the bleakness of the times. The Sex Pistols did not exaggerate when they sang "No Future." They merely expressed the frustration and hopeless of many British teenagers at the time. Britain's teens were ready for the Sex Pistols, and the Sex Pistols were more than ready for the role they soon created. The book, "Sid Vicious," skillfully written by Malcolm Butt, concentrates on the life of Simon Ritchie--AKA Sid Vicious--rather than the entire band. While the first chapter deals briefly with Sid's life prior to the Pistols, the remainder of the book covers Sid--the vicious fan whose meteoric rise to bass player increased the Pistols' notoriety, Sid--the most vicious member of the band, and Sid--his brief post-Pistols life. Butt details the relatively short, violent, and destructive career of the Sex Pistols, and covers the record deals with both EMI and A&M records (both companies terminated their contracts abruptly with the Pistols). A&M records terminated their contract after the Sex Pistols literally "pillaged" their offices, and the Sex Pistols eventually signed with Virgin Records. Butt describes and details the escalating violence that surrounded the band--the violence of the fans, the violence of the Pistols at the various venues (they often demanded to play at bars and clubs and started fights if there was any opposition), Sid's obsession with self-mutilation, and the growing number of violent attacks against the band members. Violence escalated to such a degree that the Sex Pistols eventually took to playing fairly impromptu venues under a variety of assumed names, and the band members--especially Sid Vicious rarely went out in public due to the number of physical attacks that occurred. The Pistols' disastrous American tour took place just prior to the break-up of the band, and Butt speculates whether or not Sid was tossed out or if he indeed left. Butt presents opposing stories of the break-up, and the reader is left to decide which version is 'the truth.' Butt spares no punches as he details Sid's descent into a drug-addicted hell, and I was simply amazed by the stories of the Pistols' North American tour. Sid disintegrated in front of everyone. Two band members actually refused to travel with him, and Sid had to be woken up from his drug binges with a cattle prod every morning. Butt also describes Nancy Spungen's relationship with Sid--Johnny Rotten's rejection of Spungen (she was a notorious groupie), the band's attempted and foiled kidnap attempt, and her rather unfortunate influence over Sid. While Nancy was immensely unpopular with everyone, Butt maintains that Sid and Nancy did share a remarkably close relationship--something that went beyond their mutual Heroin addiction. Butt also explores the mysterious "third person" theory surrounding Nancy's death, and he again leaves the reader to make the decision whether or not the theory seems feasible. This was the best biography I've read in ages. While Butt deals with various versions of the multiple sides of every story with fairness, nonetheless, the book is laced with personal touches--for example, Butt blasts Cliff Richard calling him "Mr Self-Righteous himself" during Cliff's organized rally against the Pistols. Butt also deals with the McLaren's management of the Pistols, questions the venues played by the Pistols during their last tour, and addresses the issues of exploitation. I can heartily recommend this book to anyone--an excellent read, and Butt provides the reader with much food for thought in the final chapter when he very fairly and generously addresses the issue of whether or not anything could have been done to stop Sid in his hideous decline towards an inevitably ugly and premature death at age 21--displacedhuman.
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Summary: More than Eddie Cochran covers.....
Review: This book is awesome. The pictures itself tells the amazing story of Sid's short life. You find out the whole story from begining to his unfortunante end. The story is very moving and I have not seen a better story written about Sid Vicious.
Rating:
Summary: More than Eddie Cochran covers.....
Review: This book is awesome. The pictures itself tells the amazing story of Sid's short life. You find out the whole story from begining to his unfortunante end. The story is very moving and I have not seen a better story written about Sid Vicious.
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Summary: The best Sid book ever written!
Review: This is by far the best Sid Vicious book ever written, and I have read them all. A fast, good read. A great picture on almost every other page, including childhood photos. Also, the best Sex Pistols book is: "12 Days on the Road, the Sex Pistols and America"
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Summary: *punk*
Review: Was everything you heard about Sid Vicious fact or fiction? You can find most of your questions answered in this book.Mr. Butt is a great author who dared explore Sid Vicious's short life.You learn fasintating things. you must read this book if you want to know the truth about sid .He indeed was a briliant person who was died to soon .
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Summary: The Comprehensive Life of a Coathanger
Review: Wow - I wish I had started my recent foray into Sid lore with this book! Butts covers the rich spectrum of Sid's short but eventful life with a juicy array of alternative versions of each fascinating turn. Did Sid's mother knowingly allow him to administer his own fatal dose of heroin, or was it stolen from her pocket in the apartment where they were staying? Did Mick Jagger offer to bail Sid out of jail after Nancy's murder, or was Mick asked and refused? Were Sid and Nancy the worst thing that ever happened to each other, or star-crossed true lovers?
As other reviewers have said, Butt's book is a heady stream of intriguing, gritty details from the seamy world of period punkdom -- a treasure trove of rumors, opinions, eyewitness accounts, unconfirmed reports found in no other available sources. Where else can you find a link between Rockets Redglare, recently deceased East Village underground actor/minor sleaze icon, and Nancy Spungen's death? ...And learn that Nancy's young body was so deteriorated that, in death, it began to decompose in a remarkably short six hours! Unlike most others who write about Sid, Butts refreshingly keeps moralistic commentary about the brief but compelling life to a minimum. But in the last chapter he does include part of John (Rotten)Lydon's oft-quoted tirade and lament that Sid's no-talent, useless personage has now been mythologized, when in actuality he was 'nothing more than a coathanger.' Well, coathanger he may have been, according to green-and-personal friend Lydon! But Sid's been dead now longer than he was alive, and ironically, people like me still want to read all about him.
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