Sid Vicious (John Simon Ritchie) was born in southern England in 1957, raised by his single mom, Anne Beverley. He was an exponent of the punk rock revolution in Great Britain resulting from the NYC Punk Tour of '75. Glen Matlock, the original Sex Pistols' bassist, left the band due to irreconcilable musical differences that developed between himself and impressario Malcolm McLaren. McLaren had reportedly created the band to exploit the disaffected youth of London and the cultural influence brought on by the NYC Punk Invasion. Shortly after Matlock's resignation, Sid (a close friend of lead singer Johnny Rotten) had attacked British reporter Nick Kent with a chain during a nightclub altercation. Sid's claim to his new position within the band was justified by his gleeful boast: "Because I beat up Nick Kent!"
This was Sid's philosophy throughout his blaze of glory which resulted in his untimely and lamented demise. He couldn't play for shit, and more often than not had his amp turned down to near-zero by guitarist Steve Cook during latter-day Pistols gigs. And nobody cared. Sid was an icon, a symbol of the Blank Generation superceding founding father Richard Hell, lead singer Johnny Rotten, and possibly even fellow death junkie Johnny Thunders in his suicidal streak to rock and roll infamy. Sid onstage was a message to society, to world culture, anyone who would listen. You didn't have to be able to play an instrument, all you had to do was symbolize the teenage angst that was what R&R was all about. Elvis shook his pelvis, the Beatles gave us dreams. All Sid had to do was stand there.
Sid was 19 when the Pistols hit the billboards in 1975 with 'Anarchy in the U.K.' and 'God Save the Queen', which made number one on the charts despite being censored (the Billboard chart had a blank spot at Number One). It was too much too soon, and Sid fell into the abyss as he delved into the classic pitfall of liquor and drugs. Nancy Spungen found her way into the Pistols' inner circle, and their ill-fated romance resulted in the 'John and Yoko' effect of tearing the band asunder. Unable to live with or without her, Sid went his own way and rose to greater heights of glory than all the rest of the band before his unfortunate calamity at the Chelsea Hotel in 1979.
Their USA tour was an immortal time in R&R history. They played a grassroots tour of the USA which found their audiences receptive though unexpecting the turmoil that reflected itself onstage. Sid grew increasingly self-destructive, and exhibited his pyschoses through self-mutilation and random acts of ultraviolence. After a gig in California, Johnny Rotten left the band and returned to England. Sid checked into a rehab clinic but soon was contacted by rock promoters for a solo tour which led to Nancy directing the Vicious bandwagon.
The R&R circus found its way to France where Sid recorded his infamous "My Way" video (the music appearing on the Academy Award winning "GoodFellas" flick). Hailed as a cult hero, Sid enjoyed the adulation of his fans before accepting a deal to return to NYC for a series of gigs at Max's Kansas City, a punk rock mecca in Manhattan.
Things fell apart quickly on the fast-paced NYC scene. Johnny Thunders, a punk legend who had become a hardcore junkie, was one of Sid's main connections on the Soho scene. Despite the best efforts of upcoming and established punk stars on the NY horizon, they could do little to make Sid's NYC debut more than the disappointment it became. Sid and Nancy were hooked on junk and even megabucks and superstardom could not deter them from the highway to hell. Most insiders figured that the Max's debacles (if they could truly be labeled as such) was a mere test phase for an extended debut at CBGB's downtown, which would have easily become THE event in punk history. Unfortunately, this was not destined to be.
Sid and Nancy had an argument in the late-night hours at their suite at the Chelsea Hotel in Soho. They had 007 knives and more that they had bought on 42nd Street while hanging out with Dead Boys lead singer Stiv Bators. According to police reports, Nancy fell upon a blade Sid was holding, placing him liable for manslaughter charges pending trial.
Sid never appeared before The Man. Days later he died of an overdose, having left a note to Nancy stating "I don't want to live this life without you". It was a sad ending to a career which could have changed the face of music, perhaps reviving the Punk Revolution which the Music Industry so cynically destroyed in their synthesis of Punk and Disco on MTV which resulted in the New Wave of the 80's.
Live fast, die young, leave a pretty corpse...it had been the rallying cry since James Dean, leaving the corpses of Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, and so many others in its wake. Only the demise of no other affected the course of music history as much as did the death of Sid Vicious. Had he stepped into the breach created by the Music Industry upon their planned liquidation of the Punk and Disco factions that created the Punk Wars of the 70's, he may have well became the symbol the punkers needed to continue their revolution on into the 80's. Upon his demise, there was no one else. His death was as symbolic as that of Beethoven's in the late 1800's...when the icon fell, there was no one to replace him. Johnny Thunders submerged himself into heroin and club gigs until his own demise, Patti Smith and Debbie Harry submitted to personal tragedy...the list goes on and on.
Sid died from rock and roll. This may well be a superfluous statement, but when historians pinpoint the fall of Punk Rock, it may well be a point in time they may argue again and again. The music form may resurface, but history proves that it may never be the case. At any rate, if we use Sid's short-lived career as a punctuation mark, we may well have hit the end of the sentence...the period.
Sid RULES...screw everything else.
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