No. 41: Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols

Band: The Sex Pistols
Album: Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols
Why Rolling Stone gets it right: Where the Ramones were punk rock in sound and DIY mentality, the Sex Pistols were the stylistic template. Their blatantly antagonistic lyrics and leather-and-safety-pins look has been copied by gutter punks across the nation.
Why Rolling Stone gets it wrong: The Sex Pistols were antagonistic for the sake of antagonism and musicianship-wise, they're nothing to brag about.
Best song: "Anarchy in the U.K." is classic, sneering punk rock. "Pretty Vacant" is slacker anthem steeped in some mildly misogynist language (notice how Johnny Rotten pronounces the last syllable).
Worst song: "Holidays in the Sun" is pretty mediocre. I have some ideological questions about "Bodies," if only because it's confusing.
Is it awesome?: There are a few awesome songs (the aforementioned two and "God Save The Queen"), but, on the whole, it's not really awesome.

As you can tell, I'm not the world's biggest Sex Pistols fan. The musicianship of the band is lacking and the band's subject immaturity just doesn't strike me as good for an adult to listen to. I can understand and appreciate that the album was recorded by, basically, kids (the band members were in their early 20s when it was recorded). I understand that these kids were mostly manipulated by Malcom McLaren.

My problems remain in the fact that the record sounds like a teenager screaming at his parents. Rotten's voice fits that; He has the middle-class sneer of a teenager whose parents won't let him borrow the car.

But, it'd be foolish to say that the record isn't important or that it doesn't have its moments of greatness. "Anarchy in the U.K." is a cool protest song, despite it coming from a totally ludicrous place (Anarchy? Really?). "God Save The Queen" is similarly political, though slightly more coherent. "Pretty Vacant" mirrors the slacker ethos that the Ramones championed. "EMI" portends the normal struggles bands have with their management, though I'd like to hear less of that.

As for its import... Just look at a photo of the Pistols from the late '70s and you'll see why they're important. Their personal style -- aped partially from the New York Dolls and partially from the burgeoning London punk scene -- has been copied millions of times throughout the world. The liberty spikes, the junkie chic, the leather, the safety pins and even the Nazi imagery are all template punk rock cliches. The sneering sound of Rotten's delivery has also been aped by everyone from Green Day to the Descendants.

In an odd pairing, I'd have to say "Never Mind The Bollocks" to "Born To Run." I don't like either, but that doesn't make both important.

---

How great is Wikipedia? I say it's quite great and here's why: I wanted to do a little research on "Bodies," the song about abortion on "Never Mind The Bollocks." So, I looked the record up on Wikipedia (I do that for every album I review)and found out that it is thought to be both anti-abortion ("I'm not an animal") and pro-abortion (the subtext is that abortion should be legal and safe). According to Wikipedia, it could go both ways and everyone just puts their opinion on it.

That's not important. What's important is that the song was included on a National Review list of "The 50 greatest conservative rock songs" because of its purported anti-abortion message. That this list exists blows my mind, especially since the Clash (socialists!) are on the list. Wow. Those conservatives must have a lot of time on their hands.