Review #80: Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols, The Sex Pistols
#80: Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols, The Sex Pistols
Don’t lie, this album’s title/cover is a lot of fun. How painful is that color combination? I want to chew it up like a piece of gum.
I definitely burned this album onto a CD as soon as I was able to drive, and I definitely listened to it three times and then never touched it again. I needed to listen to blink-182 about 182 more times before I could process the Sex Pistols.
As the RS blurb points out, it’s pretty wild that this is their only studio album and they had such an outsized impact on culture. I’ve met a lot of people who insist that this is a terrible album and that it was intended to be terrible, but that’s actually not true at all. This album was written by geniuses who should have been knighted and given the nuclear codes. God Save the Sex Pistols.
FAVORITE SONGS:
“Holidays In The Sun” — I know that Johnny Rotten has a pretty divisive timbre, but I just love the way these guitars sound.
“Bodies” — I can’t decide whether this song is offensive or transgressive, but, again, I just like these guitars.
“No Feelings” — In some ways, this was always my favorite song.
“Liar” — Lie lie lie lie lie! You lie lie lie lie lie!
“Problems” — Problem/ problem/ problem/ The problem is YOU!
“God Save The Queen” — No disrespect to Her Majesty.
“Anarchy In The U.K.” — In 2012 Johnny Rotten said in an interview that he had never been an anarchist, adding, “I also had a song that said Pretty Vacant. I’m not pretty and I’m not vacant.” That explains his whole Trump thing.
“Pretty Vacant” — Probably the best sleeper swear word in a popular song until Britney Spears’ “If You Seek Amy.”
“New York” — Why do the Brits love NYC so much?
“EMI” — This song was written after they terminated their contract with EMI. Why are revenge songs always so great?
LEAST FAVORITE SONGS:
“Sub-Mission” — His voice is a whole lot, huh?
IS RS FULL OF IT?
See, having Never Mind the Bollocks at #80 makes me question this whole futile exercise. Why on Earth is Astral Weeks by Van Morrison 30 spots higher than this?
RS is full of it but honestly, so are the Sex Pistols. Here’s a list of the least punk things Johnny Rotten has ever said.
