Saturday 20 September 2014

Top 50 Debut Albums - No.23 "Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols" Sex Pistols (1977)

Next the first entry in a UK Punk double header ...


Even growing up in sleepy suburb in Surrey the Pistols were big news, though I knew more about them from bits in the newspaper than anything on music radio or television.

I remember walking into class in my final year at middle school and finding a bunch of boys crammed round one of those portable record decks that everyone seemed to have, listening to Friggin' In The Riggin' from The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle soundtrack. This would have been early in 1979, by which time the Pistols were all but over, but even a ropey cover of a traditional bawdy drinking song was enough to light a spark in my head.

When I eventually picked up a copy of the Pistols debut album I was amazed at how musical it sounded. The raw energy is key, and Johnny Rotten's ferocious lyrics stand the test of time, but they were a pretty fine rock band too. Whilst their fire burned bright and briefly their impact on the British music scene was immense.



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