1977: The Sex Pistols - Never Mind the Bullocks
The Sex Pistols walked a tricky road. Acting like a complete lunatic requires some poise and a lack of self-consciousness. If you're wondering how you look, you look like an idiot - with your middle finger and your rolling around on stage and cursing out the British government... you look insane. You need to not care. You need to be free with your feelings and be willing to let it hang out. You need to be ok with random strangers hocking saliva onto you. See, that's what is dangerous about the Sex Pistols. It isn't what they did, but that they were willing to do it at all. That's why you can do something offensive and stupid and no one will care - or you can have all your concerts in England canceled.
The obvious question, though, is whether the Sex Pistols accomplished anything. Not whether they have influence or not - they obvious have influence. And not whether they left behind any good musical artifacts. Never Mind the Bullocks is one of the catchiest, popiest punk albums ever. I bought it once while I was still in Yeshiva. My friend Aryeh and I went into New York City (the Yeshiva was in Staten Island) and while we were there we stopped in Tower Records. My friend bought... Offspring I think? Or maybe Genesis. I can't remember off-hand. (Maybe he didn't buy anything.) But the Sex Pistols were on sale and so I bought a copy. I smuggled it into Yeshiva, removed the cover from the jewel case, and burnt it. The album I kept hidden under my mattress. I'm sure the scrapes and scratches only made it seem more dangerous at the time. But even then, I understood how good it was. It was an album you could jump around the room while it played - you could bang your head to it - you could point your finger at people and shout at them. It was an album that let you burn things, or protest things. I want to destroy passerbys.
Anyway, it still holds up today.
And let me take this moment to bitch. I generally try to stay out of the cultural battle over punk - the "superword" battle as Frank would call it. I don't feel a need to argue about what punk means, I just enjoy it. If Green Day isn't punk, then it's something else. But I still like it. But here I'm going to drop that cold, intellectual facade for a moment. So bare with me.
FUCK YOU LITTLE TEENY-BOPPER KIDS WHO CLAIM THAT THE SEX PISTOLS AREN'T PUNK. >.<
That's right. I know you think you're all that with your The Clash albums and your Buzzcocks albums and your... oh. Buzzcocks aren't punk anymore? Just Rancid and The Clash? Fine. Why don't you like the Sex Pistols? Because they were "constructed" by the owner of the a store? Because they were a boy band? Well the shop was called SEX and what makes a band of boys unpunk? Because Sid Vicious couldn't play bass? Vicious wasn't even on this album. So give it a break. And you know what else? Johnny Rotten had one of the most punk names ever. You know what else? Joe Strummer was inspired by the Sex Pistols. Know what else? Buzzcocks/Clash/Sex Pistols Anarchy shows are some of the most amazing live sets ever. And I wasn't even there - I only heard the bootlegs. And! And! And!
Ok. No more rants. I just felt it was appropriate, in the spirit of the album and all. I doubt Rotten needs me to fight for him though. Someone who can give the middle finger to the music industry (in the guise of refusing to be inducted to the RockNRoll Hall of Fame), then he doesn't care what some punks on the internet are saying about him. Fact is, Never Mind the Bullocks blew my little teenage mind back in highschool. That's punk enough for me.