for quite a while.

I can separate the artist/art from politics.

And YES I agree, I can separate the artists from the politics. I'm not like right wing fools who burn records when someone they listen to comes out as Liberal.

NOT ONCE have I ever tossed out a record because of an artist's politics.

With an interview with say

Greg Graffin of Bad Religion. Rotten comes off as a drunken clown at a bar and Graffin comes off as a college professor (winky).

Probably had no cogent thoughts at all given he was so wasted and was involved in the death of his GF. He was not good people. That said I wonder what Steve, Paul and even Glenn have to say.

are playing with Frank Carter these days.

I know these things are subjective, and Sex Pistols were influential, but IMO not very good. All their songs, and they don't even have that many, sound the same. I like a couple but really they were not great musicians and are more important because of their iconography than their musical legacy. They don't hold a candle musically to bands like the Clash or the Damned IMO. PIL wasn't great either, but were more interesting, to me at least.

But to your point: NO punk musicians at the time were any good. That was kinda the point of it.

Pistols only record was really good to me. But I also agree with you in that it shouldn't be treated as sacrosanct untouchable music either. I do like Nevermind ... but it's not as good as other think it is. And the Clash were much more substantive and had far more depth, but that was clearly because of the incomparable Joe Strummer. Joe was the heartbeat of that band. And when Joe talked politics, while he was a street kid, he always came from a serious perspective as opposed to the idiotic mendacities of Rotten.

'Anarchy' is a great tune, a classic really. And 'Bollocks' is a classic as well even if somewhat simplistic. Not sure it has aged well, b but who cares. Pistols were definitely a product of the moment, and important in that regard. And yeah, the early Clash records have some good stuff but I like their later, more sophisticated records more.

I finally got to see the infamous documentary about the Pistols "DOA: A Rite of Passage" on Criterion Channel recently- it was pretty interesting, with Sid and Nancy nodding off mid-interview, just like in the Alex Cox movie that came later. And yeah, none of those bands were that great, although I did like the X-Ray Spex! They were cool.

No, none of those bands "were great", but we needed that shit big time. I actually liked the earliest Clash records (love the self titled) and I liked their 80s mainstream shit too. I am more a metal guy than a punk guy, but I loved the ethos of punk that said, "you don't gotta be Steve Howe (Yes guitar player) to play rock n roll". I thought the Dead Boys were great. Their first album, the first half of that record is simply insanely good to me.

Take what you got and see what you can do. There are no rules in rock n roll and punks broke down the rule that said you had to be a virtuoso to play it. NOW, don't get me wrong, I like a good virtuoso, but I also like a catchy damn song with 4 power chords as well. Again, NO RULES. If it sounds good I am down.

Johnny Rotten is rust that never sleeps.

Freddie was certainly both gay and bi, but he was also extremely strong and athletic in tennis and other sports.
Johnny didn’t have any manners so Freddie gave him a lesson in proper etiquette. Unfortunately it didn’t stick.