Sex Pistols “Never Mind the Bollocks Here’s the Sex Pistols” released on this date, October 28th, 1977. The quintessential, genre defining first – and only – full-length studio release from the legendary Sex Pistols went to #1 in the UK and #106 in the US (ours is the US version with the pink cover from Warner Records  with 12 tracks, including “Submission” – a sticker is slapped on the back cover to note its inclusion; the UK’s was yellow with 11 tracks on Virgin Records).

The Sex Pistols had released four singles from the LP prior to its release: “Anarchy in the UK” (#45 UK charts) in late ‘76,  “God Save the Queen” (#2 UK) “Pretty Vacant” (#6 UK) and “Holidays in the Sun” (#8 UK) all in ‘77. While Sid Vicious appears prominently on the inner sleeve, he only played bass on one track, “Bodies” – his skills were so poor that producer Chris Thomas asked guitarist Steve Jones to record the bass tracks for the remaining songs (original bassist Glen Matlock was asked to do it first but because Malcolm McLaren didn’t pay him up front, Matlock refused to show). I recently read Pistol guitarist Steve Jones’ autobiography Lonely Boy which I picked up while in London at Rough Trade Records and it is hilarious, and a bit disturbing. He notes that there’s only a couple of Vicious’ notes on “Bodies” that made it onto the final recording, his bass playing is the bulk of the track. He also writes about his loathing of Rotten, though does concede that Lydon’s lyrics and vocal styling were pretty great. I highly recommend reading Lonely Boy as well as John Lydon’s autobiography Anger is an Energy: My Life Uncensored which I read while in London this past summer, including the day that we visited Vivienne Westwood’s shop Worlds End, formerly Sex, the birthplace of the Sex Pistols at 430 Kings Road (that’s the dodgy end).