Home News Classic Rock News Sex Pistols’ punk classic “Never Mind the Bollocks” turns 40 on Saturday

Sex Pistols’ punk classic “Never Mind the Bollocks” turns 40 on Saturday

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Rhino/Warner Bros. RecordsThis Saturday marks the 40th anniversary of the release of The Sex Pistols‘ one studio album, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols, which helped define British punk rock. Packed with attitude-filled songs reflecting the disillusionment that many British youth felt at that time, the album featured such memorable tunes as “Anarchy in the U.K.,” “God Save the Queen” and “Pretty Vacant.”

“It meant a lot to a lot of people at the time,” drummer Paul Cook tells ABC Radio. “It was a real seminal moment in music that time in the U.K. I mean, people now…don’t realize the impact it had…in ’76, ’77…[but] it just changed the face of music, I guess.”

Never Mind the Bollocks showcased the snarling vocals and razor-sharp lyrics of John Lydon, a.k.a. Johnny Rotten, and the buzzsaw guitars of Steve Jones. Jones says the band doesn’t get enough credit for the actual music on the album, of which he’s quite proud.

“I spent a lot of time doing the guitars on that,” he explains. “We made sure we got the tracks right…We got a proper producer who’d done some great albums, Chris Thomas, and we spent a lot of time…That was probably my happiest moment being in The Sex Pistols, was making that album and making it sound the way it did.”

When Never Mind the Bollocks hit stores, the Pistols were the most controversial band in the U.K., thanks in part to a curse-filled December 1976 TV appearance and the hit single “God Save the Queen,” an unabashed critique of the British monarch. The album shot to the top of the U.K. charts, but the turmoil surrounding the band would lead to its 1978 breakup following a brief U.S. tour.

Here’s the album’s U.S. track list:

“Holidays in the Sun”
“Bodies”
“No Feelings”
“Liar”
“Problems”
“God Save the Queen”
“Seventeen”
“Anarchy in the U.K.”
“Submission”
“Pretty Vacant”
“New York”
“E.M.I.”

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