#80 The Sex Pistols, 'Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols' (1977)
Previously #41
Arguably the greatest and most influential Punk record of all time, ‘Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols.’ Controversy after controversy follows the band, and this, their only album. A thing of legend, really. Besides for the fact that their band name is named after the euphemism for a penis, the album title features the word “bollocks,” leading many record stores’ refusal to stock it. Even the charts at the time refused to list its title. The band had originally signed with EMI but following Johnny Rotten’s swearing on live TV, as well as a debaucherous tour, they were duly released from their contract. Word is that packers at the EMI plant refused to handle their first single, ‘Anarchy In The UK.’ They went on to sign with A&M in a public ceremony outside ‘Buckingham Palace,’ which was meant to be a publicity stunt in support of their new single, ‘God Save The Queen.’ After that ceremony, the band returned to A&M’s offices drunk, where Sid Vicious smashed a toilet bowl, cut his foot and traipsed blood all over the offices. Steve Jones got busy with women in the ladies’ room and Rotten verbally abused staff. A&M dropped them and destroyed all the singles before release.
Enter Richard Branson and Virgin Records. Their third label in less than a year, Virgin, a fledgling label, was the only one that would sign them. The band finished the record with Jones playing all Vicious’s bass parts, as he couldn’t actually play bass. ‘Bollocks’ influenced artists from Kurt Cobain to Noel Gallagher and beyond. The music is filthy, it’s messy, it’s anarchist; Rotten’s vocals are all over the place and it’s fun as hell from start to finish. The band broke up 2.5 months after the release. Less than a year later, Nancy Spungen, Vicious’s girlfriend died mysteriously of a stab wound. He was charged and attempted suicide 10 days later. A few months later, Vicious was arrested again for assaulting Patti Smith’s brother. Mick Jagger paid for his lawyer and Virgin posted bail. That night, Vicious and friends gathered at his girlfriend’s apartment to celebrate his released. Vicious, who had been detoxing, got on the heroin and subsequently overdosed and died. In a twist of irony, years later Virgin was bought by EMI, the band that originally dropped The Sex Pistols, which probably makes them the only label to release a song where the band humiliates them on record (“I can't stand those useless fools (E.M.I)”). Is there anything more punk than that?
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