The Bastards and the Buzzsaw: The Rise of Punk Rock

March 30, 1974, at the Performance Studios in New York City:

In the span of just six minutes, four very strange individuals have finished ripping through three songs. The commanding officer of this blitz is wearing a leather jacket, torn jeans, and sports an unflattering bowl cut. His name is John Cummings.

His compatriots routinely fall in and out of ectomorphic spasms before reverting back to their statuesque postures. In an era of Billy Joels, Bruce Springsteens, and Rolling Stones, such a facade was taken as just another phase-just another band of misfits who would thrive at the local CBGB's. However, it would soon spark a revolution in the United States and beyond-one that would be carried through the underground until its eruption from obscurity to worldwide acclaim and eventually, immortality.

One year and a half later at Saint Martin's College in Holborn, London, John Lydon and his friends have just been kicked off the stage after only six minutes of play time. They are awful, they are unruly, and they are unworthy of the college's attention. However, almost a year later, they will be on the cover of every national newspaper worldwide in what would be known as "The Filth and The Fury."