Fifty years ago today, John Simon Ritchie was born. For most of the world, he was better known as Sid Vicious, the less-than-competent bassist for the Sex Pistols.
It was easy as a teenager to appreciate, or at least romanticize the notion that Sid Vicious was somehow relevant. He had the look and attitude that seemed to epitomize the punk movement and his image has remained synonymous with punk rock nearly three decades after his death.
For me, the time since his passing has shined a new perspective on Vicious himself and how unoriginal his caricature actually was. Death may have bequeathed him an iconic image, but the reality of his short life was nothing more than a punk tragedy filled with the same clichés found in any conventional rock star.