"Maybe I'm just a really bad comedian, but I thought Never Mind the Bollocks was just hilarious from start to finish," stated John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten) in a documentary about that legendary LP. "Pointed, but hilarious, and therefore useful." By the time the Sex Pistols first, and only, album was released in the fall of 1977, they had already caused a huge stir in their native England.

The band, assembled by Svengali/manager Malcolm McLaren had been making the rounds in various venues and started to create a following of fans bored with the bland music scene of the day. The band signed to EMI who issued their debut single, the groundbreaking "Anarchy in the U.K.," in November of 1976. Following a profanity-laced appearance on the Bill Grundy talk show, their legend was cemented.

The controversy caused the record companies to panic. They were dropped by EMI, and then signed up with A&M. Plans were made to release "God Save the Queen," but their bad behavior continued to make headlines, and they quickly parted ways. A few months later, McLaren inked a deal with Virgin, and "God Save the Queen" was released in the spring of 1977 and caused another controversy as it coincided with Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee, while "Pretty Vacant" hit shops that summer.

Their early demos were produced by guitarist Chris Spedding but when it came to the album, they turned to famed producer Chris Thomas, who had worked with some very key figures in British rock and roll, including the Beatles and Pink Floyd, Badfinger, Procol Harum and Roxy Music. Thomas was able to bring a power and force to the recordings that certainly went a long way in sculpting the sound of the album.

"I actually saw the legendary 'Screen on the Green' gig," recalled Thomas in the making of Bollocks documentary. "Chris Spedding was championing them, and he said, 'You gotta come along and see them.'"

"If my job was to get a hit record, then I wanted one of these pop hit producers, which obviously Chris Thomas was," said McLaren.

"Perfect with the Sex Pistols," Lydon concurred. "If we went in with some heavy metal noise merchant producer, it would have been catastrophe."

When the album was released in October 1977, it was unlike anything out there. Of course there was a path if you look back to the wild rockers of the past like Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard and on through people like the Stooges, New York Dolls and MC5. There was attitude to be had from a variety of sources, but no one had ever put it all together in the way the Pistols did. The guitars were heavy, but never metal, and the rhythm section was a powerhouse, but not in a traditional way. It was the vocals of Johnny Rotten, however, that truly set them apart. There had been anger, spit, and venom in some other singers, but there had never been a Johnny Rotten before.

Some people referred to his style as 'non-singing' and while he was never going to be mistaken for a Tony Bennett or a Paul McCartney, he was never going to be ignored either. It was Lydon/Rotten's vocals as well as his lyrics that added that undeniable something to the Pistols sound and style. As Oasis' Noel Gallagher once said, "The Sex Pistols came along and said the established order was about to change, and it did, forever."

Even the album title would cause a stir. "That was just an old catchphrase for stop talking rubbish," adds Lydon. "Just common working class stuff."

Virgin boss man Richard Branson would end up in court defending the band and the label's right to use the title. "How can you ban language, words?" he asked rhetorically. "How are words offensive, and why should I have to tolerate your interpretation? I'm the one using the word, ask me how I'm using it. It’s my right, it’s my freedom of expression. Without that, we're nothing but slaves."

So all these years later, where does Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols stand when you put all the controversies aside and focus on the music? Check below to read our song-by-song review.

"Holidays in the Sun"

"It's extremely provocative," said Oasis' Noel Gallagher. "It starts with, what we can only assume are jackboots marching. At that point its all over. Everything that's gone before that is now deemed f---ing irrelevant as soon as he starts anti-singing." The main riff of the song is not unlike the powerhouse riff of the Jam's "In the City," which was released earlier in the year, but where Paul Weller's take on the riff was angular and jagged, the Pistols was heavy and demanding.

The song was written about time spent in Berlin. “Berlin was a very different town then," Lydon wrote on the Sex Pistols website. "It was like that scene in Apocalypse Now when they go up the river and they see the flares and the party going on, all the soldiers on acid. That’s what Berlin was like, with a chaotic war-zone wrapped around it. The Communists were looking in on this adventure playground. Quite mental.”

"Bodies"

"A girl from Birmingham used to bother the hell out of me. Turned up at the doorstep one night in see-through clear handbag with a fetus in it," recalled Lydon of the origin of the controversial lyrics. "That song was hated and loathed. It’s not anti-abortion, it’s not pro-abortion. ... Don't be careless like that with a human being, and don't limit it to a such a thing like morals, 'cause it’s immoral to bring a kid into this world and not give a toss about it." Perhaps the most direct, and confrontational song ever written about abortion, it’s probably the heaviest and most brutal music found on the album, every note and beat dripping with anger and attitude.

"No Feelings"

"This originally came from a Steve Jones riff," recalled Lydon in his book, Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs. "It would work this way. One night someone would have an idea and then everyone else would just build around it until it was done. It’s a haphazard way, but that’s the way it was. You don’t need to be technically proficient at your so-called art to write songs.” Like most of the album, the song is overflowing with attitude. Rotten spits out the venomous lyric atop a sped-up Johnny Thunders styled riff. "If you are musically proficient, usually you won’t be any good at writing songs because you won’t be able to express your feelings," Lydon continued. "You’ll be bogged down in the technology of note perfections, set patterns and set ideas."

"Liar"

"Liar" is a tour de force on many levels. The way John sings the very catchy chorus of "You're in suspension / You're a liar," is so perfect for the song, especially the word "you're," which he stretches out for maximum effect. "We never used to believe anybody then," said Paul Cook. "Self-explanatory, really, considering the manager we were working with," added Lydon.

"God Save the Queen"

“God Save the Queen’" was definitely the pinnacle. It all went sour after that,” said drummer Paul Cook via the band website. "We'd recorded "God Save the Queen" well before the Jubilee actually. I don't think we was actually really aware, we didn't sit down and say, Oh, let's write an anti-Jubilee song." Lydon recalls writing the controversial lyric. "I just woke up, went down, had a cup of tea and wrote it, and there it was. I thought, "Oh, that's a laugh. I'll try and sneak that one in."

The music came from Glen Matlock, who originally conceived it in the style of Eddie Cochran with its driving riff, but in the hands of Steve Jones, those open chords became power barre chords and the rest is sonic history. Controversy once again followed the band as the record was banned by the BBC following headlines of "Punk Rock Jubilee Shocker." Despite its blacklisting, it reached No. 2 in the U.K. chart, although the title was blacked out in the paper's chart listings, and there was speculation that it was actually the top-seller, but was kept out of the No.1 spot by the powers-that-be to avoid more potential problems.

To promote the single, and up the ante of the controversy, McLaren set them up to perform on a boat riding down the Thames River, following the Queen's flotilla. "We got arrested for having fun," said Lydon. "I mean you think of it, 'God Save the Queen,' it’s kind of high camp in a way. You don't think it’s going to be taken as the be-all end-all, a declaration of civil war. It’s a song that has many contradictions in it, but that's the point." The lyrical refrain of "no future" would resonate among the youth for some time to come.

"Problems"

"I played the first thing that came into my head to get things going," remembered Glen Matlock. "Paul immediately picked up on it and we had the main riff. Steve had this idea which became the chorus and John supplied the lyric, real spontaneous." That spontaneity suited the song, and the band, just fine here. Jones delivers one of his trademark guitar breaks which towers above in all its simplistic glory, while Lydon's vocal here is a force unto itself. The way he adjusts his highly animated delivery throughout into a monotone refrain by song's end is brilliant.

"We had run out of ideas for songs, a major problem, said Lydon. "As the song progressed it got better. The cynicism of the title and the chords being A, B, C, D is still there. We didn’t add any bridges. We were very good at burning them though."

"Seventeen"

"We like noise it's our choice / It's what we want to do / We don't care about long hair / I don't wear flares." There's a credo circa 1977 for you. Originally titled "Lazy Sod," "Seventeen" is a mission statement of sorts, and as trivial as it seems to mention not wearing flared trousers, it seemed a fairly radical, albeit humorous concept at the time. "It was about being young, having nothing to do, and going through the typical emotions that every seventeen-year-old goes through," wrote Lydon in his book. "You are lazy, you don’t see any future, and you really don’t care. You give up before you even begin. Everybody goes through that period. Unfortunately most English people stay there."

"Anarchy in the U.K."

Here it was, the rallying point, the battle cry for a generation of British youth who saw life passing them by. Despite the loud and heavy guitar riff, its arrangement is not unlike a standard '60s pop song, in an almost "Sugar Sugar"-styled bubblegum way. "I had this idea for a sort of ‘theme tune’ and had been knocking ideas about at home, but nothing concrete," said Matlock.

"Glen came up with a clever riff. Ditto John’s lyrics," added Jones. "I turned up the guitar and thrashed away. Paul somehow held it all together, a classic." Though it only made No. 38 in the British charts when released in November 1976 as a single, "Anarchy in the U.K." would prove to be a milestone in British music, kicking off a cultural revolution the waves of which can still be seen today. "John came up with these amazing lyrics half an hour later, the rest, history," added Matlock. "The only thing that bugged me about this was the dreadful ‘Antichrist / Anarcheeest’ rhyme."

"Submission"

The original concept for "Submission" came from manager Malcolm McLaren who had suggested the title to Glen Matlock. "Malcolm had been constantly nagging me to write a song about bondage. I told John about Malcolm’s idea and we both groaned about it."

Lydon concurs. "Malcolm gave us a list of words and ideas. It was so funny. One of the words was 'submissive.' We turned it into 'Sub Mission,' a submarine mission. Glen and I enjoyed the humor of it all I don’t think Malcolm did."

"Take the piss and shut Malcolm up in one fell swoop," added Matlock.

"Pretty Vacant"

"Pretty Vacant" remains one of the Pistols' finest moments. Everything about it, from the opening riff, to the brilliant title and lyric, is rock and roll at its best. But how did they arrive at such a perfect song? "To cut a long story short, I was short of a riff. Abba’s 'S.O.S' came on the jukebox and hey presto! I had it," admits Glen Matlock on the unlikely inspiration for this classic. "I wrote the lyrics, apart from a couple of lines John later changed. I’d written something like, 'If you don’t like it, stick it up your bum.' John changed it to, 'Stick your cheap comment, we know we’re for real,' which is a far better lyric."

To help move it away from Abba territory, Steve Jones added his own trademark style. "A great intro with lots of layered guitars and great chorus, which I really beefed up," he said. "I liked to beef up Glen’s tunes."

"New York"

Possibly the least engaging track on the album, "New York" is a bit generic musically, while the lyric is a swipe at the New York Dolls, with whom McLaren had previously been involved. "Malcolm had this big thing about the New York Dolls. He loved New York and thought it was all so great, he’d been there once," recalled Paul Cook. "John came up with the lyrics to wind up Malcolm."

"The only thing anyone knew about this so-called New York scene was what Malcolm would tell us," said Lydon. "It was hard to listen to the same old stories night after night, slightly changed each time. It got blown out of all proportion and the mythology of it became unbearable. The song is a reaction to that. Everything that came out of there was poetry based and too arty. These people were much older than us and had more old-fashioned attitudes, they still do!"

"E.M.I."

After the controversy stemming from the Bill Grundy show, EMI got cold feet and dropped the band. They did, however, have to buy them out of their contract. The song "EMI" addresses the issue without mincing words. "We weren’t trying to be clever. Just blatant. EMI. You know what this is about," said Cook.

"Don't judge a book just by the cover / Unless you cover just another / And blind acceptance is a sign / Of stupid fools who stand in line." "There was not much they could do about that song," Lydon recalled in the Bollocks documentary. "You couldn't resist it, at the same time, it’s damn catchy, but it’s the truth. Goodbye EMI...fakes."

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