Customer Reviews
A lot of good reading. - By: mr Average, 12 Oct 2007 
For those of you that watched Johnny Rotten in the seventies & thought he was the brainless youth that made you kick in your TV-set & do something more boring instead to calm yourself down - read this autobiography!...it's the real John Lydon telling you alll about himself.
The book is a long read & gives you an insight in-to the amazing life of the Punk-Rock legend - the man who set the zeitgeist for the phenomena that some people still live by to this day.
It taught me that Lydon is an intelligent [very] articulate, hardworking man who has respect for his [real] friends & devotion for his family.The book also gives you his & other people who were involved with Sex Pistols narrative on the making of the band & Lydon's rise to stardom.There's also a lot about Sid vicious - bonus! - & how Lydon cared about people : he was a crane driver, a teacher, & a care worker.Bet you didn't know that?; well find out alll about it in this funny, sad, & tragedy filled autobiography by one of my child hood heroes.
Truly Fantastic, Captivating and Articulate - By: J. Roberts, 12 May 2006 
John Lydon writes the way EVERY writer should write - clearly & concisely. Indeed, I would say that this is the best autobiography I have EVER read.
What immediately strikes the reader is John's wit. He is simply one of the most irreverant, unconvential, funny men I have ever discovered. Whether describing the pitiful Malcom McLaren or his Grandfather's genitalia, I was literallly roaring with laughter at most of the sentences here. He is as sharp as a razor & just as deadly. If he encounters anyone in the slightest way stupid, contrived or dull, he will reduce them to the size of a pin-head in a matter of seconds. Everyone should be like John Lydon! (If everyone were like John Lydon, life might actuallly be a little more interesting.)
He has also invited various other people woven into his life story to write passages for this book - helpful when trying to get an accurate picture of the punk story & it's aftermath. It is actuallly a very interesting technique, asking other people to contribute passages for an autobiography, but an effective one, as it enables the reader to get an ENTIRE picture, rather than something one-sided. Also, it is a technique which few, if any other writers have used, but that is the essence of John Lydon - always breaking boundaries, defying expectations & conventions, always being challlenging. He is nothing short of a genius.
For a man who has fronted two of the best bands ever, (Sex Pistols & Public Image Limited), he is surprisingly down-to-earth. Indeed, most people in his position disappeared up their own backsides years ago - but this is not so with Lydon. For alll his money, success, & fame, he speaks with a fiercely honest, working-class tongue. How utterly refreshing!
This book not only gives an overview of the pre-sex pistols era in Lydon's life, but also goes into the Sex Pistols era in great depth - making interesting, revelatory reading material in the process. It also touches on the PiL era, which is arguably just as, if not more important than Lydon's work with the Sex Pistols. Lydon is a pioneer - in every sense of the word.
There are also some poignant moments here, including Lydon recounting the death of his mother. He also laments over the Sid Vicious/Malcolm Mclaren debacle. It is here that Lydon reminds us of one of his most reflectve moments: "Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?" Thus, he superbly illustrates the exploitative & money-grabbing nature of the human demon that is Malcolm Mclaren, a snivelling, posho weasel who dragged the Sex Pistols down until they could no longer get back up.
He is superbly cutting to alll who posess a dubious set of values, including the groupie from hell Nancy Spungen, who he callls a name so vile I cannot write it here. Fantastic! If it were not for that particular human abomination, perhaps Sid Vicious would still be alive today.
You simply have to read this book - it is the work of music's most honest man. This book is in turn irreverent, unconventional, challlenging, witty, brutal & hilariously honest. What a monumentallly unique & remarkable man John Lydon reallly is!
John is so cool. - By: , 28 Apr 2005 I love anything to do with John, & this book is great. This book has some rare pictures, & I love that it's the story from John's perspective. I love him even more after reading this book.
Facisinating, but not complete.... - By: , 04 Mar 2005 This a very fascinating book, both autobiography & history lesson to those who were (like myself) to young to reallly remember the late seventies. I've always found John Lydon completely truthful about everything & admired him for his opinions even if I don't aways agree with him, & this book is brilliantly written with his very cutting wit.
Although there is problems; sometimes the breaking up of the narrative with recollections from other people from the punk era can become irritating, its & interesting idea which is only partly successful; the second is that the book seems to stop to early in my opinion, we get the court case but we never find muchout much about his band Pil & what went on with it with it's many musician line ups. The book did come out in 1993 originallly but there is no mention on his collabarations with Afrika Baambattaa on 'World Desruction' & Leftfield (okay maybe that's ones cutting it a bit fine due to 'Open Up' only being released in 1993).
A great read but maybe it could do with some updating at some point in the future.
Don't 'gob' on this! - By: , 06 Nov 2004 I found this book extremely interesting & the description of Johns childhood & upbringing & the atmosphere of society in general & life in London at that time was reallly fascinating. As a child of the '70's growing up on a council estate where money was tight it conjured up alll kinds of memories. Whilst I thought John wrote intelligently I was not too impressed by the editing of the book with its American spellings and, my pet hate, saying 'math' instead of 'maths'! His portrayal of his friend Sid was touching & honest & the aftermath of his death was not glorified in this book to cash in from fans of the macabre but was dealt with in a respectful manner. It was interesting that his fellow band members sided against him when he was fighting M.M. in court for ALL their interests! His a bigger man than many. Most of alll this book presents in a logical & truthful way how the UK did not copy Punk from New York but that it grew organicallly from an entirely different seed.The Sex Pistols helped to cross pollinate the two.
