Never Mind The Bollocks - The Making of a Classic Album

May 25, 2016 5:25 PM

Documentary about the making of the Sex Pistols seminal album. Also discusses how the band came together, signing to EMI/A&M/Virgin, the Grundy Scandal and resultant publicity, and some footage shot by their tour manager of them in Berlin by the wall. Warning: contains Malcolm McLaren.

More punk: Anarchy at the BBC - punk on the beeb (warning - contains an awesome version of Anarchy in the UK on Nationwide in about 1977 which is interrupted by some idiot talking over it and then a very brief interview with Mclaren.)

Sid Vicious - My Way (from "The Great Rock and Roll Swindle") - the top comment is perfect.

Previously 1: The way they were - Granada TV/Channel 4 punk music showcase

Previously 2: And this is how it ends - the Sex Pistols, Winterland, 14/1/78

posted by marienbad (18 comments total)

This video contains content from Eagle Rock. It is not available in your country. :(
posted by Captain_Science at 5:33 PM on May 25, 2016 [3 favorites]

Speaking of McLaren - his "Duck Rock" album is one of the most criminally under appreciated albums of the 80's. I love that record.
posted by davebush at 5:38 PM on May 25, 2016 [6 favorites]

Also speaking of McLaren, his "Fans" album and his "Paris" album were also excellent.
posted by Joey Michaels at 6:39 PM on May 25, 2016 [4 favorites]

Hey, man. Is that Eagle Rock?
posted by thelonius at 6:41 PM on May 25, 2016 [2 favorites]

Hey, man. Is that Eagle Rock?
Yeah, man!
Well cease and desist, Man!
posted by obsoleet at 7:17 PM on May 25, 2016 [4 favorites]

I remember just after the Sex Pistols broke up reading an interview with Sid and he was livid about the fact that Johnny Rotten wore what Sid called stupid hats. I thought, "That's an oddly specific thing to get upset about."

Then "My Way" was released and there it is in the final verse:
For what is a brat, what has he got
When he wears hats and he cannot
Say the things he truly feels
But only the words, of one who kneels

And I thought, wow, I guess he really meant it.
posted by layceepee at 7:21 PM on May 25, 2016 [6 favorites]

So, layceepee, does that mean Sid should have joined Men without Hats?
posted by suburbanbeatnik at 10:01 PM on May 25, 2016

I had been aware that the Pistols were probably plastic punks, but some of the stuff on Never Mind the Bollocks still makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Then somehow - seeing John Lydon as the face of Country Life butter and after that in the Celebrity Jungle really killed something inside me.
posted by Myeral at 3:13 AM on May 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

I don't have a lot of patience for all of the revisionist conversations about whether the Sex Pistols were "real" punks -- it's like all of those arguments metalheads have about "true metal", only somehow even sillier. Yeah Lydon and company were sellouts, just like all of your heroes were sellouts, or at least tried to be sellouts (after Lemmy Kilmister died, no one dared mention things like 'Love Me Forever', right?).

Anyway, fuck it. They were far from the only punk band out there, they didn't invent the shit, but 'Never Mind The Bollocks' remains a great album to this day. 'God Save The Queen' and 'Anarchy...' are friggin' timeless, and to this day 'Bodies' is as disturbing a song as I have ever heard. I'll take this album over a dozen Crass compilations, and judge me all you want, but I DON'T CA-A-A-A-A-ARE!!!!!!!!
posted by spoobnooble II: electric bugaboo at 4:28 AM on May 26, 2016 [3 favorites]

It's a great album, and it's fitting that the first famous punk band was a contrivance that barely lasted long enough to record an album, and that ever since Sid died of a heroin overdose, legions of earnest punks and music nerds argue over their authenticity. You can't get much more punk than that.
posted by krinklyfig at 4:40 AM on May 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

A Fun Read.
posted by evilDoug at 5:10 AM on May 26, 2016

Yeah Lydon and company were sellouts, just like all of your heroes were sellouts

"It's easy to maintain your integrity when no one is offering to buy it." —Marc Maron.
posted by Dark Messiah at 6:26 AM on May 26, 2016 [8 favorites]

You just have to get over the 'my hero sold out' thing: yes, they do. Doesn't mean you have to, if you care about the thing you do and think you'll be a lesser person if you sell it or let someone else tell you to do it differently in ways you disagree with. I don't think Lydon 'sold out' like that, any more than I thought John Peel stopped mattering because he voiced some toilet paper adverts. Peel got a swimming pool out of it; Lydon got PiL back on the road and in the studio in exchange for some butter.

Yet part of me is all the way with Bill Hicks and 'if you're in advertising and marketing, kill yourself'.

So, yeah. Being human is living with contradictions and trying not to become an arse, and if you'll accept that about me I'll accept that about you and let's get on with what's next. A pleasant byproduct of not beating yourself up about it means you get to enjoy all the good stuff that people do and forget the bad, at least if it doesn't really matter - and flogging butter doesn't really matter. (Full disclosure - I intend to go and see PiL next month when they're in town, which I wouldn't have been able to do if Lydon hadn't taken that curdled-milk coin, so perhaps I too have been bought.)
posted by Devonian at 7:00 AM on May 26, 2016 [4 favorites]

I checked out of the whole "sellout" business when I read a letter in Rolling Stone that called Lou Reed a "whore for corporate America" for doing a Honda scooter ad. Bill Hicks, at least, had the self-awareness to follow up that bit about marketing with one in which he imagines a marketer talking with him about marketing the whole anti-marketing thing. Someone like Henry Rollins gets paid to do a Gap ad where he's wearing the same sort of shirt that he'd be wearing anyway, so what? Good for him.
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:16 AM on May 26, 2016

Re the whole sellout thing, "EMI" is still the best middle finger to a record company (companies) ever, apart from maybe Prince writing "SLAVE" on the side of his face.
posted by blucevalo at 10:33 AM on May 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

I've honestly never understood the argument about "selling out," and that's largely because it tends to be completely disingenuous. Imagine "sellout" as the precursor to "hipster" — i.e. that guy you just don't fucking like; fuck him, he's doing something wrong.

Being a metalhead, I've had to endure these meaningless, mindless, grating debates about "selling out" for over two decades. They've always been bullshit arguments, and always will be. You don't know where someone else's heart lies, and you don't know what they get from their craft. Writing a radio-friendly song might actually be what someone wants to do — for a variety of reasons. The same goes for pretty much anything.

"Doing commercials is bullshit."

Why? Licensing a song and being paid for it is fine, as long as that's your actual job but verboten for bands because .... what, their fans demand they remain impoverished and therefore 'hungry' or something? It doesn't make sense. It's just a mixture of jealousy and / or misplaced anger not too far removed from claiming a band 'sold out' just because people you don't approve of now like your pet band.

The arguments about integrity and such tell you more about the speaker than the band or artist in question.

I'd love to sell out. Bring it on. That means I made it, and my seal of approval has a value. Gimme that damn money; we're all going to die, I'd like to at least be somewhat comfortable before the time comes!
posted by Dark Messiah at 1:28 PM on May 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

For the record, though, I loved Hick's bit about marketing and the Jay Leno bit is still funny.
posted by Dark Messiah at 1:29 PM on May 26, 2016

I used to believe in the whole concept of selling out, that it was an artistic betrayal. Then I worked for a touring band for several years in my 20s, and since then I've seen how many artists' lives and careers survive (or not), not just musicians. Some have starved and others did very well. Now, I really don't hold any resentment about artists doing what they need to survive. I congratulate them for getting paid.

A friend recently confessed that he's been playing in a country cover band to pay the bills, because his own music isn't working as well for him financially. So I told him, whatever you need to do to make a living as an artist, that's ok. You're making money as an artist, which is its own measure of success. As long as you're ok with who you are and can live with it (honestly, some people can't do commercial work, which is also ok), more power to you. There is no shame in making a living as an artist. Just keep doing work that makes you happy, even if it doesn't pay. Otherwise, you might end up hating what you do.
posted by krinklyfig at 3:35 PM on May 26, 2016 [1 favorite]