Never Mind the Bollocks Here's the Sex Pistols

by

Sex Pistols

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I've never seen so much blatantly false information about a subject in one place before. Some of these people need to find out what the hell they are talking about before they submit reviews. I'm guessing that many of these 1-star ratings are coming from children weened on the Green Day poseurs.

Just to set the record straight, aside from some dross that was released after their demise, Bollocks is the ONLY Pistols album. To say that it is their best album or their worst album is simply a display of ignorance. Cripes, I'm seeing people write reviews of this landmark record who don't even get the names of the band members correct. Leave the critiques to folks who have more than a passing knowledge of the band and the album and the genre, for that matter.

As for all these comparisons, The Clash were very nice indeed, but they never packed the snarling power of 'Anarchy in the UK', nor did they ever produce a signature song like 'God Save the Queen', one of the great hard-rock anthems to ever come down the pike, blowing the doors off of anything by these neo-punk revivalists. And for all this talk of filler, I'll take one 'New York' for 5 songs on London Calling.

If it wasn't for albums like Bullocks breaking the prog-rock and corporate-rock mallaise of the late '70s, we'd all STILL be listening to turgid immitators of Floyd and Zeppelin.

Contrary to what many say, the Sex Pistols were not the originators of punk. In the U.S. The Ramones beat them to the punch by a year or so, and in the U.K. The Damned released their first album a few months before Nevermind The Bollocks.. came out in '77 (what a year!). Of course, then you had The New York Dolls, The Stooges, and The MC5 who all came before them.

Still, this was a very important recording, for if nothing else it revealed punk's scathing anger to the world, a world in which radio was dominated by the likes of KISS and Journey. Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious got all the press and attention for their controversial antics, and their manufactured image as nihilistic punk rockers. The band only lasted one album under Malcolm McLaren's supervision before self-destructing in a grand fashion. Before the album was recorded, competent bassist Glen Matlock was already fired from the band. His crime? Liking The Beatles! Sid Vicious filled the void, but he couldn't play worth a damn, so Steve Jones did all the basslines and guitarwork for the album. Johnny Rotten was a lousy singer from a technical standpoint--in other words, he was perfect, and his voice was one that dripped rage, disaffection, and sarcasm.

The music is probably what you would expect from all this--tattered, forceful, confrontational, and somewhat inconsistent. There are two great, controversial anthems that spit on the British establishment, God Save The Queen and Anarchy In The U.K.; pisstakes at record labels (E.M.I.) and The New York Dolls (New York, which Johnny Thunders promptly shot back at with his song "London Boys"); a somewhat over-the-top anti-abortion track (Bodies); and downright excellent and hilarious expressions of defiant nihilism (Pretty Vacant, No Feelings and Holidays In The Sun). The rest? Well, to be honest, not all that great.

While The Clash's first album, The Stiff Little Fingers' Inflammable Material, The Ramones' first three records, and The Damned's Damned Damned Damned are all more consistent and more musical than Nevermind The Bollocks.., it would be foolhardy to dismiss the Sex Pistols' impact on rock 'n' roll (even if they weren't the first punk outfit). Buy this record along with the above albums if you want an education on punk's legacy.