美国国家公共电台 NPR John Lydon On Anarchy, Politics And 'Mr. Rotten's Songbook'

John Lydon On Anarchy 1, Politics And 'Mr. Rotten's Songbook'

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Does the name Johnny Lydon ring a bell? OK, what if I gave you the name of his alter ego 2, Johnny Rotten?

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "GOD SAVE THE QUEEN")

SEX PISTOLS: (Singing) God save the queen, the fascist 3 regime.

MARTIN: That is the voice of the lead singer of the 1970s British punk band the Sex Pistols. Now, John Lydon is channeling Johnny Rotten in a new way. He has published a book with the words to every song he has ever written. NPR's Mandalit del Barco caught up with the musician.

JOHN LYDON: Hello. How are you?

MANDALIT DEL BARCO, BYLINE 4: Johnny Rotten is now 61 years old. He may be a bit rounder than he was in his youth but still has an impish glare and spiky 5 hair. He's still punk rock.

LYDON: I'm a natural born anarchist 6 (laughter). I've never in my life supported any government anywhere and I never will.

DEL BARCO: He was born John Lydon, the son of working class Irish immigrants in London. When he was 7 years old, he contracted spinal 7 meningitis.

LYDON: Which damn well nearly killed me. Apart from surviving that, it was the lack of memory when I came out of the coma 8. And it took me some four years to fully 9 recover properly.

DEL BARCO: He says that experience fueled the turmoil 10 he felt as a teenager in the 1970s, when he was recruited to join the Sex Pistols as Johnny Rotten.

LYDON: It's my nickname. It was given to me because I had green teeth.

DEL BARCO: Lydon railed against the establishment, religion and politics, singing, anger is an energy. You can hear it in his lyrics 11, which he's collected into "Mr Rotten's Songbook." He flips 12 through the 300-page limited edition book that he illustrated 13 himself with doodles and sketches 14.

LYDON: So I could put myself right back in the moment and know what it was that was thundering away between me ears to make me write these lyrics. And here we are, yes, "Anarchy" to be sung with love. And I've got nice little anarchists 15 running around with swords and the black and red anarchist flag and then, of course, the union jack 16.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ANARCHY IN THE U.K.")

SEX PISTOLS: (Singing) Anarchy for the U.K. is coming sometime. And maybe I give a wrong time, stop a traffic line. Your future dream is a shopping scheme.

DEL BARCO: Lydon wrote "Anarchy In The U.K." in 1976, a week before writing his sarcastic 17 "God Save The Queen."

LYDON: I think I hit on the right note and tone of a country that was on the verge 18 of a, yeah, a political collapse 19. You know, very rigid 20 conservative government who were just not open minded about anything. Beginning to sound familiar, isn't it?

BRIAN COGAN: He wrote songs that were really designed to impress shock and also challenge.

DEL BARCO: Brian Cogan is the author of "The Encyclopedia 21 Of Punk."

COGAN: Lydon has always been sort of a trickster fellow that is there to disrupt.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HOLIDAYS IN THE SUN")

SEX PISTOLS: (Singing) I didn't ask for sunshine, and I got World War III. I'm looking over the wall, and they're looking at me.

COGAN: His lyrics had insight. They were witty 22. They were biting. And he was always trying to upset people in a lot of ways and trying to get them to rethink what they thought about the world.

DEL BARCO: After the Sex Pistols broke up, Lydon formed Public Image Ltd. He wrote songs like "Death Disco" which he says was a tribute to his late mother, and "Rise," an anthem 23 against apartheid in South Africa.

LYDON: This is my international letter to the world. It's about decency 24 to your fellow human beings. Your time has come, your second skin. You could be black. You could be white.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "RISE")

PUBLIC IMAGE LTD: (Singing) I could be right. I could be wrong. I could be white. I could be black.

DEL BARCO: Lydon's songbook is electic and includes words to "Psycho's Path" about serial 25 killer 26 John Wayne Gacy, and "Out Of The Woods" about Confederate General Stonewall Jackson.

LYDON: Me war epic 27.

DEL BARCO: In "Deeper Waters," Lydon documented his underwater adventure wearing an old-fashioned diving suit to see sharks up close.

LYDON: Going blub-a-lub (ph), you know, 500 pounds of iron wrapped around your head. I could not move not one inch. Monstrous 28 sharks were hovering 29 around.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DEEPER WATER")

PUBLIC IMAGE LTD: (Singing) I will not drown.

DEL BARCO: Lydon says he was inspired to compile the songbook after playing a gig in China a few years ago. He says government officials there insisted on reading his lyrics before allowing him to perform.

LYDON: I felt the Chinese would be most wicked on censorship. No, welcome arms. So, you know, I don't need to yodel on about Tibet. I need to, like, sing my stuff to the peoples out there.

DEL BARCO: These days, Lydon lives with his wife in Los Angeles near the ocean. And over the years, he's made changes.

LYDON: I really liked what Obama was promising 30. And that's when I became an American citizen.

DEL BARCO: When the conversation turns to President Trump 31, Lydon is provocative 32 as always.

LYDON: (Laughter) I think he's absolutely magnificent. He's a total cat amongst the pigeons. It's got everybody now involving themselves in a political way. And I've been struggling for years to get people to wake up and do that.

DEL BARCO: As he heads off to promote his songbook at a record store, John Lydon - Johnny Rotten - bids farewell.

LYDON: May the road rise with you and your enemies always be behind. May you scatter 33, flatter, batter 34 and shatter.

DEL BARCO: Mandalit del Barco, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF PUBLIC IMAGE LTD SONG, "RISE")