No, it isn't the birthday of the Soup Nazi. The Sex Pistols released there only true studio album - Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols - today in 1977. The album contained a couple ‘hits’ – ‘Anarchy in the UK’ and ‘God Save the Queen’, both often covered since.
The album was released amid controversy over the band, who had already been fired from two record labels for cursing on live TV, and also for the inclusion of the word ‘bollocks’ on the album cover; the origin of the word meaning ‘testicles’, although it is figuratively and more widely used to mean ‘nonsense’. Many record stores refused to stock the album and some record charts refused to list the album title. The album was co-produced by Chris Thomas, who also has produced music for many well-known artists including The Pretenders, Pete Townshend, Sir Elton John, INXS, Badfinger, Wings and U2.
Musically, it was loud, raucous and irreverent. “It's an assault. A remembrance of things past and of a spirit almost lost. You feel the Sex Pistols. This is dissolute, daring music that isn't easy in any way, but it is one of those rare recordings that somehow affects the way everything after it is heard. Nihilistic, nasty, neurotic, and pneumatic, it was/is the spirit incarnate. The sound is tight, driving, and abrasive, just as was intended.” - Bill Shapiro, Rock & Roll Review: A Guide to Good Rock on CD
And while probably not the first or best punk record you’ll find, “It was the first one to tantalize, to terrorize, and eventually galvanize a large part of the rock-speaking world. For better or worse, this thirty-nine-minute blast of loud and proud scruffiness has become punk's ground zero. And it remains an essential document for understanding the music's cyclical upheavals: When the Sex Pistols exploded, rock was mostly Foreigner. Safe stuff, with few aspirations toward rattling the status quo.” - Tom Moon, 1,000 Recordings To Hear Before You Die, 2008.
At some point Rolling Stone listed it as the #41 album of all-time.
Released 28 October 1977
Recorded October 1976; March–June 1977; August 1977
Studio Wessex Sound Studios, London, England
Label Virgin
Producer Chris Thomas Bill Price
Also a brief shout out to another album I enjoy – Room On Fire by The Strokes – also released today, in 2003.
