T h e S e x P i s t o l s
NEVER MIND THE BOLLOCKS, HEREīS THE SEX PISTOLS
(1977)
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No band ever tried as hard to be a national scandal and no band ever did turn into a national scandal like The Sex Pistols. Punk was a novelty to most of the British pop audience in 1977, although New York avantgarde bands like The Velvet Underground (Lou Reed later being labeled the "grandfather of punk") and the New York Dolls had, in a way, laid the foundation stone almost two decades earlier. However, even with The Ramones making a lot of noise in the USA and bands like Motorhead and The Damned pioneering the genre in Great Britain, it didnīt receive a lot of public attention before The Sex Pistols forced their angry sound upon the ears of rock fans and the most conservative of citizens alike.
And they did so with a vengeance. Johnny Rottenīs sneering vocals seemed to reflect pure schadenfreude and unleashed a never heard before amount of fury on the audience, while the band rambunctiously played simple riffs of pure malevolence. The single "Anarchy in the UK", which begins with music historyīs most threatening "right now" and ends with Rotten no less ferociously singing "get pissed, destroy" seemed to be so revolting that the band got dismissed from their label, which - of course - was some of the best publicity they ever got. After "Anarchy in the UK" and the equally disturbing "God Save the Queen" had been released, The Sex Pistols were the most infamous band of the country and probably of the western world.
The album itself, however, was heavily critisized. While American reviewers, almost completely oblivious of British punk, praised the incendiary quartet as the new big thing, to most British fans and critics the album came in as a let-down, an example of how mass hysteria can result in the big disappointment "Never Mind the Bollocks" was to them. Indeed, after several scandalous hit singles had got the bandīs reputation established, they proved to be incapable of having the same effect throughout the length of an entire LP. The lacklustre compilation of known singles and only six new cuts didnīt seem to be enough for anyone and the "NME" hit the nail on the head for most of the audience: The magazine retorted with the by general consensus very apt title "Never Mind The Sex Pistols, Hereīs the Bollocks" and sarcastically asked "Hey punk! You want an LP-sized īAnarchyī single?"
The band proved to have as little future as their depiction of their own generation. After bass player Glen Matlock, the bandīs most talented musician, was kicked out and replaced with the much more image-fitting Sid Vicious who barely had any skills at all, the downfall of The Sex Pistols began. The group tried to plagiarize its own material from back in the pre-debut album days and often failed miserably, turning nihilistic anthems into pretentious cynicism. Nevertheless and despite all the bad criticism, "Never Mind the Bollocks" stands as one of the most important emblems of the late seventies. It might not be the definition of good music, but itīs the most legendary punk album ever, a short, noisy attack at a whole nation, the one everlasting record by a band that went as quickly as they came.