Yes, esp by Legs McNeill in 'Please Kill Me'. From memory (according to Legs, who apparently is not to be trusted if you're English, cos he supposedly overexaggerates the US influence) it goes back to Malcolm McLaren's overt attempt (after managing the NYD's) to create an English version. That was his intention... but it could be that the Johnny Rotten took the whole thing in a different direction, replacing NYD's relatively fun view of life and love with class war invective and provocation. Not to mention a tiny little subterranean stream of rastafarian/dub reggae influence which you can really hear in tracks like Submission, and in the political lyrics too, of the Pistols, and more overtly in The Clash. McL, always adventitious, may have noticed that the Rotten personalityhad a momentum and style of its own and let him have his way, both musically and in image (although it was not an image for John, just his personality and his social circumstances - no Irish, no blacks, no dogs). Musically, of course, almost all the punk bands owe a lot to the earliest rock and roll.
I finally discovered NYD's about 2 years ago. What I really noticed was the sense of humour. That was really infectious, you just have to smile! Them and the Ramones, just great.
― colin s barrow (colin s barrow), Thursday, 18 September 2003 20:14 (twenty-two years ago)