May 10 - Anarchy In The UK

Rolling Stone Magazine has had a huge celebration of The Ramones recording their debut album, marking the 40th anniversary of punk rock. I am not sure that is quite the way I see it - but I have a slightly more European take on it - and I blame the Sex Pistols. They were the first punk rock band I remember listening to, even though I had a friend who had introduced me to a much better band from the British Isles called Stiff Little Fingers before I really heard Johnny Rotten's sneer. But here in America it appears that The Ramones really are it - and to that I simply shrug my shoulders and say "meh." I have never been a huge fan of The Ramones - I owe my taste in punk rock to the British Isles altogether, so we will be spending some time there this week - as well as stopping back up in Scandinavia for two of my all time favorite punk rock bands.

But today is all about Sex Pistols. They actually played my hometown, Trondheim, and people who went to that concert still talk about it. Looking at them now, I see all image and very little substance, but I do believe John Lydon - or Johnny Rotten, as he is known when in the Sex Pistols - had artistic aspirations that really started to get harvested after the end of the Sex Pistols when he formed Public Image Limited. Anyway, it all started with manager Malcolm McLaren, who got Johnny Rotten to sing with Paul Cook on drums, Steve Jones on guitar, and Glen Matlock on bass. While Sid Vicious is the best known bass player of the Sex Pistols, Glen Matlock was the first, but Steve Jones does most of the bass work on Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols.

It is remarkable to me that a band that really only released one album, Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols, became as influential as they were. Much of that was because of Malcolm McLaren, but the personalities of Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious also helped quite a bit. While they were not the first punk rock band - neither in Britain or in the US - they were quickly the biggest - and just as quickly they were no more. They released their first single, Anarchy In The UK, in 1976, their only full studio album in 1977, and a break up was announced in January of 1978. On February 2, 1979, Sid Vicious died from a heroin overdose. The band has reformed since - for the money, according to themselves - with Glen Matlock back on bass - and there was a soundtrack and a movie with some new material released in 1979 and 1980 respectively, very appropriately titled The Great Rock'n'Roll Swindle. But to me, their first single was their finest, and that's the song to play today: Anarchy In The UK.