England's Dreaming: Anarchy, Sex Pistols, Punk Rock, and Beyond

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England's Dreaming: Anarchy, Sex Pistols, Punk Rock, and Beyond

by Jon Savage

4.03 · rating details · 796 ratings · 62 reviews

England's Dreaming is the ultimate book on punk, its progenitors, the Sex Pistols, and the moment they defined for music fans in England and the United States. Savage brings to life the sensational story of the meteoric rise and rapid implosion of the Pistols through layers of rich detail, exclusive interviews, and rare photographs. This fully revised and updated edit...more

Paperback, 656 pages

Published January 18th 2002 by St. Martin's Griffin

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Jul 09, 2009

Moira rated it

Shelves: underwhelmed, 2009-50-new-books-challenge

It is a REAL question if I will finish this, and it's about one of my favourite periods of musical history! Page 6: "Evocations of the thirties environment characteristic of the babyboomer childhood -- a process which would peak with that palace of fun, Biba's superstore -- went hand in hand with the fine-art codification in 1968 of thirties styles under the term Art Deco." Who the fucking fuck writes like that? Did he program a robot?

(Also, NO, clothing did not 'become...moreIt is a REAL question if I will finish this, and it's about one of my favourite periods of musical history! Page 6: "Evocations of the thirties environment characteristic of the babyboomer childhood -- a process which would peak with that palace of fun, Biba's superstore -- went hand in hand with the fine-art codification in 1968 of thirties styles under the term Art Deco." Who the fucking fuck writes like that? Did he program a robot?

(Also, NO, clothing did not 'become' costume in fucking -1968.- Moron.)

Words I never wanted to read in this lifetime right there on page 56: "....another commission, this time for Ken Russell's flamboyant 'Mahler.' Asked to work out something for the climactic dream sequence where the Jewish composer confronts his Aryan anima...." PS Dear Savage: Describing any Ken Russell film anywhere ever as 'flamboyant' is not only bloody redundant it is INADEQUATE. And wtf is up with all the real dodginess about fixating on people as Jewish and attributing various character traits to that and so on? Terribly offputting. (yet) to the bondage scene which I always thought was a big inspiration -- and wasn't Pynchon's Oedipa Maas drawn from that whole Nazi/bondage scenario? And that was in 1966....

Still continuing, hundreds of pages later. Now I'm thinking of all the other books I wish I had read instead of this one! A history of women in punk! A history of minorities in punk! Johnny Rotten's/John Lydon's autobiography! (I have that around here somewhere....) Hell I went and reread about a third of Please Kill Me the other day in desperation. And here, right here, on page 435 -- I had skipped ahead in despair earlier only to read: 'After the demise of the Ed Sullivan Show, there was no concentrated, nationwide TV exposure of pop until MTV in 1981.'

Seriously this is so wrong, it is staggering. Three words. AMERICAN. FUCKING. BANDSTAND. Or hell, Soul Train. Just a few months before MTV there was Night Flight, and for years I watched Night Flight a lot more regularly than MTV (and the USA network also had Video Concert Hall). And besides that, there was stuff like SNL and a dozen other variety shows bands appeared on including the fucking Muppets, for Godsakes, and people were certainly making 'music videos' even before there was MTV. And if you looked at what MTV first showed, they had something like twenty fucking clips they played over and over, and it wasn't even available in a lot of places -- and it wasn't the only thing, there was Friday Night Videos on NBC too and at least a couple of other video shows. It wasn't like MTV sprang up out of a vacuum and it wasn't like it was EVERYWHERE when it first started. At this point the book is just NOT EVEN WRONG.

I am sure anyone reading this (not that there's anyone reading this) will have the inevitable question, But why are you reading this, Moi? Research partly. I love this era and have read a lot about it. Also -- and this is why I don't actually read books I don't like v often -- I have to compulsively finish a book once I start it, or it really fucking bugs me.

But I also wanted something with which to occupy myself during the long holiday (ugh) weekend because I was bored and miserable and going through personal crap. And in the service of that desire, getting frequently annoyed with this book to the extent of writing pissy lengthy pseudo-scholarly annotations all over the margins succeeded admirably in distracting me.

Chewing through the bibliography (yes I am one of those freaks who reads all the footnotes and sits through the end of the film credits) - DEPT OF THINGS I NEVER WANTED TO KNOW, Virgin published a 'Sid Vicious Family Album' in 1980. Good fucking God. OTOH, there are apparently now several books about Vivienne Westwood, who struck me as a far more interesting figure than MM.

You can view my extremely misguided attempt to enter the entire sixty-five-plus-page discography as a streamable last.fm tag station here: http://www.last.fm/user/the_red_shoes/li...(less)

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Aug 07, 2011

Ron rated it

The most remarkable aspect of the Punk movement is that it was largely engineered by a shallow, politically disinterested, art school failure (multiple times) who turned clothier to young Brits in the late 60s and early 70s. Malcolm McLaren flirted with the works of such disparate entities as the Situationists, the French Anarchists and even the Fluxus crowd, but he was a largely directionless man who went with the capitalist tide and sold anything to anyone, regardless of political stripe. He w...more

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Jul 27, 2011

Tom Nixon rated it

I don't know when I fell in love with punk music, but I did. Probably because of Green Day's album Dookie more than anything else, though at the time, I didn't know what punk was, much less have an appreciation of Green Day's place within the genre. But Green Day eventually lead to The Cure, The Cure to Joy Division, Joy Division to the Sex Pistols and from there, out to the Clash, Rancid, Social Distortion, Siouxsie and the Banshees. The emotional energy of punk, the sheer raw power of its soci...moreI don't know when I fell in love with punk music, but I did. Probably because of Green Day's album Dookie more than anything else, though at the time, I didn't know what punk was, much less have an appreciation of Green Day's place within the genre. But Green Day eventually lead to The Cure, The Cure to Joy Division, Joy Division to the Sex Pistols and from there, out to the Clash, Rancid, Social Distortion, Siouxsie and the Banshees. The emotional energy of punk, the sheer raw power of its social rebellion and the anti-establishment message at its core appeal to me on several levels, both politically and personally. So many things in this country fall short of what I believe them to be capable of. We can do great things, we can be better, eventually events will force us to change, but I think waiting to forced into a corner is laziness. We can be better. And the fact we aren't makes me want to scream sometimes, hence my love of punk.

In England's Dreaming, I finally found the book that told me everything I ever wanted to know about the punk movement but was afraid to ask. The perfect compliment to the biography of Clash lead singer Joe Strummer, Jon Savage's tome (yes, it is a little bit of a doorstop, but a worthwhile doorstop) focuses more on The Sex Pistols than anything else, but within the wider lens of the punk movement as a whole. And what surprised me more than anything? Punk wasn't about music right at first, it was about fashion. And more specifically, punk impresario (the late, great) Malcolm McLaren's drive to sell clothes that shocked, rocked and would shake the world. Operating from a shop called (strangely enough) Sex he pushed his fashion outwards into Britain and from there the world- and crafted punk and more specifically The Sex Pistols as a vehicle to help him hock his fashion wares.

A digression: another surprise? Punk wasn't a British thing. No, the New York Dolls started it and the Ramones and Dead Kennedys followed and THEN The Sex Pistols took the stage, because McClaren was desperate to make his band work, make his band hit big and bring his sense of fashion and music back to London- and incredibly, with Johnny Rotten, Sid Vicious and company he single-handedly moved the center of the burgeoning cultural movement back from New York City to London. Then, it blew up in a major way.

What follows chronicles the heady days of punk in that short sprint between 1975 and 1979, where the Sex Pistols went supernova and then shattered like broken glass. Anyone vaguely familiar with the history of rock n'roll (or for that matter, Gary Oldman movies) will remember the sad demise of the Pistols: Rotten leaving, Vicious being implicated in a murder and OD'ing and it all ended so suddenly, on the moment of their success. While The Sex Pistols blew punk into the mainstream, really and truly it was The Clash that kept it going. The twin Janus-likes heads of the punk movement- so different and yet joined by a core of angry rage at the decay and decadence of the crumbling society all around them. 'God Save The Queen' proved to be the high water mark of the Pistols' success, but it also proved to be their undoing- what today seems to be a fairly straightforward critique of establishment Britain was INSANELY controversial back then and the backlash almost did them in and in fact, proved to be the first of the fault lines that would eventually bring them down.

There's more than Sex Pistols in this volume- its everyone and everything, bands big and small, people that I'd never heard of and it makes me insanely jealous. To be alive back then, when rage and the demand for change was channeled into such pure artistry... it would have been AWESOME.

This book, at the end of the day, pretty much rocked my face off. Everything you ever want to know about punk but were afraid to ask is to be found here. And as almost a signature to the whole thing, remember what punk was really about: 'If nothing gets challenged, nothing gets changed.' (less)

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Dec 13, 2011

Marty added it · review of another edition

Savage was an original punk, on the ground in King's Road in 1976, and though his subsequent absorption of Situationist philosophy and his sound grip on English pop-cultural history lend an air of objective authority to England's Dreaming, the book retains hints of the championing one would expect from a survivor. Namely, for Savage, punk began and ended with the Sex Pistols. Savage does make reference to the Ramones, to Iggy and the Stooges, to the Velvet Underground, but he holds them out as d...more

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Aug 30, 2011

Judy rated it

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Das ist mit Abstand das allerschlechteste Sachbuch, das ich jemals gelesen habe. Ich quäle mich gerade noch durch die letzten Seiten, weil die darin enthaltenen Infos über die Zeit Ende der Siebziger so interessant sind.

Aber es ist einfach schlecht geschrieben!
Kaum eine erkennbare Handlungs-Ablauf-Linie (außer grobem zeitlichem Ablauf), keine notwendigen Erläuterungen zu Hintergründen sind eingebaut. Stattdessen wird Name Dropping der übelsten Art betrieben, als ob man nach vierz...more

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Apr 27, 2011

Rob rated it

· review of another edition

History was created by those who say "no" as Savage claims at the back of this book and during Royal Wedding week in the UK, this seems more relevant than ever - especially in view of the Sex Pistols' attempted hijacking of a previous royal event, the 1977 Silver Jubilee.

An exhaustive account of the early days of punk and the rise and fall of the Pistols in particular, this volume deserves its place in the pantheon of classic rock literature. What astonishes is the ability ...more

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Sep 20, 2010

Brett rated it

Shelves: anarchism, history, music

I don't claim to be an expert on music or music criticism, but England's Dreaming is probably the best book on music that I've read. The subject is the English punk movement of the 1970s and its context. Savage writes like an academic even though it's a topic clearly close to his heart, and his prose is interspersed with selections from his personal diary from the time-period.

England's Dreaming deals cogently with the contradictions of punk: right-wing imagery and left-wing politics...more

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Apr 12, 2008

Raegan Butcher rated it

All you ever wanted or needed to know about England's nascent punk scene. A must have for fans of the Sex Pistols.

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Jul 30, 2007

Michael rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: alive

it's not Please Kill Me, but the Sex Pistol weren't the Stooges. Still pretty great.

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Aug 11, 2011

Godzilla rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, everyone-s-a-critic, biographies, history, memoir, music, sub-cultures

It's taken me a while to get through this, not because the book was dull or hard work, but because of the sheer volume of information inside, covering a relatively short time span. plus the fact it was too unwieldy for reading on my commute (how punk does that sound!)

I'm giving it 5 stars on the basis that it covers the subject matter so well, plenty of other people seem able to find fault with it, but to my mind they're merely nit picking.

If you have any interest in the ...more

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Jul 23, 2010

Katey rated it

Shelves: biographyandauto-biography, musique, non-fiction

If you aren't interested in punk or the Sex Pistols, obviously skip this one. If you are, ask yourself "How interested am I?" before delving into it. It's long, and, at times, trying and tedious. I realise that even the briefest of historical moments can be long and winding when written about, and I appreciated all the precursory info about McLaren and Sex, and the most enjoyable for me was middle of the book, the section about the Pistols forming and gathering momentum; punk gathering...moreIf you aren't interested in punk or the Sex Pistols, obviously skip this one. If you are, ask yourself "How interested am I?" before delving into it. It's long, and, at times, trying and tedious. I realise that even the briefest of historical moments can be long and winding when written about, and I appreciated all the precursory info about McLaren and Sex, and the most enjoyable for me was middle of the book, the section about the Pistols forming and gathering momentum; punk gathering momentum. But as the author states again and again in not so few words "The end was nigh," the writing keeps it in a stasis of decline for a couple hundred pages. The focus was not only the Sex Pistols, but other punk bands in the UK and US, so the linear flow of the book could be rather muddied at times. The book ended, much like the original movement, with a whimper and not a bang (not counting the 80 or so pages of appendices and bibliography/discography, which I did read).

For me, it's been about a decade and a half since I was really, really into the Pistols, and I while reading this book I felt compelled to dig out some of the music. The Great Rock n' Roll Swindle is a horrendous soundtrack to an even worse film; even in my youth I felt a twinge of listener/viewer emabarrassment, and I agree with the author that listening to NMTB straight-through is not enjoyable- only with this book I learned of the tracks released as singles timeline. The X-ray Spex album was fantastic to mine ears back in the day and even moreso now. I still don't like the Clash, despite how Savage goes on and on about them. I tried. Again.

And... while I appreciate and understand the necessity of giving the socio-political background of the times, as a non-Brit who wasn't even born during this period, there was a whole lot of googling of acronyms and events on my part. Be prepared for that if you're ignorant yet determined not to be so.

All in all, a really good view of what happened. Or some of what happened. According to a few people. What they said at the time, anyway.(less)

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Jun 05, 2011

Kristen rated it

Shelves: music

I don't really like the Sex Pistols a lot (but understand their place in music history) and I can't stand Malcom McLaren for the most part, but this mammoth of a book gives it all a perspective. Pretty comprehensive, Jon Savage gives us a good look at the UK punk scene, the corrupt product-oriented music industry, and the influence of punk in general on culture. For anyone really interested in music, I'd recommend. (Also, there's an excellent discography at the end of the book.)

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Oct 17, 2010

Kim rated it

England's Dreaming is an excellent book about the punk movement in England. What's really fascinating is seeing how consciously political the movement was in England, which is a stark contrast to how the scene developed in the US. Not that it wasn't political in the US, but it was much more subtle and social, rather than overt. An excellent companion to Legs McNeil's Please Kill Me.

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Jan 08, 2010

Mark Stalcup rated it

Well-written overview of punk rock, its precedents and antecedents in England which includes everything from the New York Dolls and situationist thought to the sloganeering of anarchists, etc. well before Johnny was Rotten and Sid was dead. If you read only one book on the Pistols, this is the one to look up.

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Dec 05, 2008

Susanna rated it

Recommends it for: anyone into music

Shelves: lazy-day-stuffs

Dry but worth the read if you are into punk music, early 80's music, or just want to learn a little somethin' somethin'. You don't have to be a fan of the Sex Pistols to enjoy this one. There's a little bit for everyone in this Huge book. I think it's thicker than the bible.

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May 26, 2009

Mike rated it

This book sure is long. It's exhaustive, which in a certain way is a good thing. But the writing is often disappointingly flat. Could've used an appendix to make up for lack of descriptive clarity about various people (i.e., people would be introduced, then go away, then pop back up and for the life of me I wouldn't be able to remember who they were).

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Oct 05, 2010

Bosco Farr rated it

This is the definitive work on the first generation English punk rock explosion. One of the best books on punk rock ever. You want be able to put it down.

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Apr 14, 2011

Eric Shivvers rated it

I think this is the definite book about the rise and fall of the Sex Pistols. If you wanted to know everything about the band, this book is it.

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Feb 04, 2009

Linwood rated it

savage is king of the english punk intellegencia. much better writer than legs, and without the "cool" i was there apparitions.....

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Feb 18, 2011

Jim Corrigan rated it

It might not be fair to compare this book to Lipstick Traces, but I'm going to. This book is infinitely superior to Lipstick Traces.

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Jul 26, 2011

Claire added it · review of another edition

The best book about punk ever written, by someone who was there. Should be read by anyone with any interest in music.

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Jul 22, 2011

Sam rated it

"The ultimate book on punk"? I don't think so. It is, however, a good book on the Sex Pistols, though over-long, at 600-something pages.

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Jan 12, 2010

doug rated it

Exhaustively researched and incredibly well written history of the 70's punk scene in England. Couldn't put it down!

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Feb 01, 2009

Roger rated it

The best book I've read on the English punk movement. A must for fans of the Sex Pistols and the Clash.

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Mar 02, 2008

Alex rated it

Shelves: i-dig-music, punk-is-dead

Well, I don't know, do you like 900 pages of music criticism and anecdotes about the dangers of being spat on regularly? You'd better. This is officially a tome. As writing it's primitive, moving chronologically and not providing a consistent thread of argument throughout, although there's lots of noodling around in good Pitchforkian style about what punk really meant. There is a colour picture section (yay!), tons of b&w pictures, and an exhaustingly exhaustive discography. It is worth own...more

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Apr 05, 2010

Joe rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: politics-history, music

Not just the best book about punk rock ever, but probably the best book about a subculture ever. What's particular impressive is the way Savage manages to tell the Pistols' story as an engaging narrative about the small number of individuals involved, while also touching on all kinds of other, more peripheral and sometimes more interesting bands, as well as all the theory and politics that was going on before and around and after punk. As my partner once said about another book, I wish I could t...more

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Sep 29, 2007

David rated it

I read this last year. However, I continue to enjoy the experience. I've read a number of complaints about this book's accuracy, but, if read in the spirit of hucksterism that at least partially defined the Sex Pistols phenomenon, it's a lot of fun. Also, it attempts a quasi-academic sociological anchoring (Birmingham School), which provides some added and, for me, welcome weight. At the least, this account of the early 70s London scene will cause you to pull out some of that vinyl languishi...more

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Jun 23, 2009

Shawn rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: history-culture-and-sociology

Pretty dang definitive.

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May 02, 2009

Shaun rated it

The greatest story ever told.

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Dec 06, 2010

Jerry rated it

thick

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