Never Trust a Hippie: The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle
[London]: Virgin, [ca. 1979]. Xerox on recto only. 8 ¼ x 11 ¾ in. Very good. Item #5479
Unused poster design from the archive of Jamie Reid for The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle, the 1980 Sex Pistols film and 1979 record produced after the breakup of the band. A chaotic piece of cinema, The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle was the brainchild of manager Malcolm McClaren after the band had already fallen apart and in it, McClaren claims to have invented not only the Sex Pistols but punk rock itself, all to creat “cash from chaos.”
The poster includes several swastikas, one of which is followed by “= the music industry.” An artifact from the angry and chaotic collapse of these early stars of punk, with an indictment of the preceding countercultural movement to which it owed much, the hippies - particularly ironic given the fact that punk inherited many of the shortcomings of the previous generation’s youth movement.
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