[quote name='spinynorman' timestamp='1339601526' post='1691309']
This has been a source of some confusion for me. When punk first hit I totally bought the media/pr story that it was all about bands that couldn't play their instruments, and didn't bother with it. Much later I got R&R Swindle out of the library and was surprised to find that, even on Johnny B Good, the playing's not bad (and I'm assuming it was Sid playing that). It's not a ground-breaking bass line, but I wouldn't be ashamed of it. And the more Pistols tracks I've heard, the less sure I've been that they couldn't play.
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The Pistols could definitely play - saying that would be against the punk ethos, of course. I think you'll find it was Steve Jones who played the bass on R&R Swindle, as he did on quite a bit of Never Mind the Bollocks. That was because when they had a band member who genuinely couldn't play, they couldn't actually use him on record.