Never Mind The Bollocks // Sex Pistols
The Pistols first and only LP is one of the (arguably very few) truly classic albums that the first wave of punk produced, whose legacy would endure long after the final Mohican was shaven. The band became the focal point of the punk movement because they totally adopted and concentrated its spirit: the nihilism, the arrogance, the glamour, the anarchy.
And it was all channeled into this, their sole statement to the world. A statement that was articulated through John Lydon’s (or ‘Johnny Rotten’s’) impossibly vitriolic lyrics. Aged only 20 at the time, his dissatisfied outlook was already both remarkably cohesive, and totally scathing in equal measure. “We’re the flowers in the dustbin / we’re the poison in the human machine” is undeniably poetic – with a substantially large ‘p’. Elsewhere on the album you’ll find explicit attacks on everyone from the monarchy, the record industry and the blandness of their 70s rock contemporaries (“You’re condemned to eternal bullshit”, he spits on ‘New York’). But through all the angst, Lydon’s profound intellect shines through, notably on stomping album opener ‘Holidays In The Sun’, which looks at the isolation and paranoia of living in divided Germany, Communism, and exploitative tourism, with the odd esoteric nod to Nietzsche and Situationist sloganeering.
But where the seminality of this record really lies is in the growling power chords charging from guitarist Steve Jones’ Gibson Les Paul. Simplistic arrangements and a disregard for indulgent rock star solos made the concept of being in a band accessible for an entire generation. If not for this, there would be no Joy Division, no Smiths, no Nirvana, no Jam, no…Simply Red (swings and roundabouts, I guess).
The reason NMTB truly endures is because it encapsulated a mood and a time into a medium so direct and so forthright that it continues to astound with every listen. In the same breath, it defines and totally transcends punk.
Words by Matthew Smith