Customer Reviews

El Sid: Saint Vicious

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Borrowing a passage from the book "Everything had been said. Everything had been done"

Published in 1998, long after many much more informative, significant books on the subject had already been printed and read. This is a sarcastic, snide look back to events that occurred during the short lived career of The Sex Pistols. It contains some well known information about the post-Sex Pistols Sid.

It repeats the headlines, the happenings, the very end. The only difference in this book, is the writer's sense of comedy.

There is no compassion at all to be found within these pages. It is a smirking, proud effort of humor on what was an obvious tragedy.

Sid Vicious was a heroin addict who was disoriented and often semi-comatose.

Fatal attraction:

The mystery of his girlfriend Nancy's murder has never been solved. Initially he said he did kill her, but was apparently stoned during the time of this statement. The question of whether or not he was involved in the death has been buried with Nancy Spungeon and Sid's own cremation.

Ten years ago this book was horrid and it hasn't changed.

While as a new but avid Sid fan I wanted to read everything available on the still compelling icon, this superficial tome was way disappointing as a first choice biography. Make no mistake, it's not about Sid Vicious, it's about David Dalton TALKING about Sid Vicious - an entirely different and much less satisfying thing.

Is the photo on the cover Sid? Don't think so. (Is everything else in the book as fake and superficial as the cover? Absolutely DO think so!)

Are the boxed and bolded quotes--distractingly placed throughout the chapters-- Sid's words? No, they are Dalton's ridiculous gimmick of "channeling" Sid's commentary as a supposed unifying feature of the narrative. (Nothing is more irritating than reading an attempt to phonetically reproduce a dialect; plus, examples of Sid's actual recorded voice and words don't reflect the cornball Cockney stupidity that Dalton tries to purvey.)

For me, the only remotely useful feature in "El Sid" was the limited bibliography of other works on Sid and Punk. But even here, in a review of a book which labelled Sid "stupid" and "cheesy", Dalton sniffs, "If you don't get Sid, you don't get Punk!" I don't profess to know a lot about Sid or Punk, but I know Dalton couldn't possibly 'get' either.

If you just have to have all currently available works on Sid, go ahead and buy a (used) version of this book. Otherwise -- pass.

I bought this book today and was done with it this evening. It is totally uninformative and absolutely uninteresting. it is nothing more than a psuedo-intellectual trying to to show off all the big words he's learned and be philisophical. Yawn! Do not waste your time. Plus there are no photos!

Well, it's a quick read. Yeah, the anecdotes are borrowed (or stolen) from other sources. And, no, there's certainly nothing new to this story. The most interesting thing about El Sid is the concept of rock fan becoming rock star virtually overnight. That examination, however compelling, cannot save this overly-arty slab of punk Pulp (non) Fiction from "yeah, so what?" mediocrity, despite its', ...uhmm, interesting intentions. The totally hokey "reincarnated Sid" comments that appear throughout are way more annoying than poignant (or revealing, or entertaining, for that matter). I have read a couple of other reviews that state that the "Sid from beyond" running commentary insults Mr. Vicious' intelligence, but I'll disagree with that. I seriously doubt that Sid could (or would ever want to) grasp his place in "rock history", and why should we want him to? His legacy totally rejects such rubbish, and he remains to this day some high-priest of the exposed nerve - a live wire strewn across the face of the music "industry". The best thing this book did for me was to get me to dust off my Sex Pistols' album, turn it up way too high, and feel 16 again... of course, John Lydon's book made me do the same thing, and it was much more satisfying.

The folks at Kirkus are full of it and so is the jerk that wrote this book. I take no exception to anything written; I take execption to the fact that EVERTHING in this book was ripped off of previously published books,(Ie; No Irish,No Blacks,No Dogs, Enland is Dreaming & 12 Days on the Road), strung together with a few outlandish metaphores and similes, then passed off as his own work. It isn't. There is nothing new in this book; no new pictures, no new facts, nada. David Whatever is a fraud just out to make a few $$$. The really insulting part is that he didn't even had the decency to acknowledge the theft with a refence table or a single footnote. Save your money.

Sorry for those who liked it, but I hated it. I've read a lot of books (about Sid or the Pistols) that were much better. This one does SID no good. The writer thinks he talked to Sid like a medium, pitty.... Furthermore there is NO NEWS in this book. Everything is copied from Savage's book and Lydon's book. Again, nothing new....

This book offered no new insight on sid vicious--in fact-it seemed it was hardly about sid. I myself could have written a better book about him.

Terrible book. The author of this book had pages filled of "Sid's Diary" which were in fact as he stated in the beginning of the book just a bunch of BS. This book was not even really about Sid and more about how punk got started. I have never been so dissapointed in a book. Don't even waste your two dollars! Trust me this book is not worth it. I'm going to buy another book about him soon, because I learned absolutley nothing frm this one.

though this book was not all true it was so entertaining. If you like Sid Vicious and his crazy ways,read this book!

This books is thru Sid's eyes. I read books like this before where the wirteer if he or her is the famous person. I love all Sid Vicious books. It is a beauful picture of Sid and his life and loves and mates. Sid is the sex dead rock and roll icon. Thats why hes such a myth. Sid was two people in one body. One wants to do drugs and there orther wants to be a normal man leading a normal life. No one can blame anyone for Sid's death buy Sid himslef. He knew what he was doing.