Smells Like Punk’s Spirit

Considering that John Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols, has never been shy about wanting to make more money, we’re kind of sitting on the fence on this one. On one hand, you can consider this a slap-in-the-face directed to all the other bands that have licensed their images and names to various products.

Or perhaps it’s just anarchy in big business as the band finds yet another way to capitalize on a short career that culminated with the band’s implosion while on a U.S. tour in early 1978.

The perfume – Sex Pistols – was created by Etat Libre d’Orange and is packaged in a box featuring cover art reminiscent of the band’s only official studio album, 1977’s Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols.

Described in various esoteric terms denoting chaos, anarchy and rebellion, the manufacturer has likened it to “revolution in a bottle” while a more down-to-earth description mentions lemons, black pepper and patchouli. Either way, the odds are pretty good that the perfume probably smells a helluva lot better than Sid Vicious ever did.

“To wear this scent, you must resist tradition, fight conformity, and disregard aromatic conventions,” reads a statement issued by the perfume company, according to Jam! Showbiz. “In the spirit of punk, you must be willing to express yourself with abandon. You take risks and you wouldn’t be adverse to creating a little mayhem.”

And you gotta love the comment (planted?) that appears below the product at Fragrantica.com.

“I had a whiff of this when I was in France a couple of weeks ago. The fragrance really suits the name and the image of the Sex Pistols. I smelled a lot of patchouli and pepper. It made me smile, because this is the sort of scent I imagine the punks back in those days would have loved. Rebels doing their own thing, refusing to adapt to society. There’s absolutely nothing sweet about this fragrance, exactly how it should be. I haven’t tried it on my skin because it’s not really my thing, but I definitely appreciated it as a fragrance.”

For more information, click here to view the Etat Libre d’Orange page at Fragrantica.com and here for the Jam! Showbiz article.