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I actually think the legacy of the Pistols suffers from the Sid association. He had little to do with any of their music..he was a late comer to the band..he wasn't even plugged in because he couldn't play at all. Not even 'sex pistols' bad which in reality wasn't that bad because they could really play they were just filling a role.
John Lydon has continually been a head of his time musically. PIL was doing the kind of dance music that the Prodigy later made their name by way before them (Rammstien even give them a little 'This is not a love song' homage during one of their songs).
Sid was that bad side of punk where it was just drugs and 'fuck you'. The 'fuck you' I like in punk is the 'fuck you' that is backed up with a real attitude and usually with a political/social message somewhere behind the attitude. The best British punk had that ..Clash, Buzzcocks, The Dammed, etc all had either a political 'fuck you' behind their songs or a 'fuck you I am going to a fuck who I want no matter what your god might think' behind them. Sid added nothing but something for people AFTER the height of punk to cling to and claim was THE punk.
Btw..I knew I was going to marry my husband when I found out he was on the boat on the Thames with the pistols when they got arrested for playing for the Jubilee.
The UK is SO different now since those arrests were possible and a lot of that had to do with the attitudes of not following class system for the heck of it. That record simply could not be banned now ..it just would not happen. To me that is the legacy of British punk and it has nothing to do with Sid.
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