Once a year or so I go down a YouTube rabbithole of Steve Jones' radio show, Jonesy's Jukebox. Partly because him being Steve Jones means he can get amazing guests, and partly because he's just naturally funny, oftentimes cutting off people in mid-story with a random thought like "what kind of foods do you like", or "do you think the guy from Kid & Play still has that haircut?" Also it cracks me up that every time he pantomimes playing guitar while talking about a song he does it left-handed when in reality he's a right-handed guitar player. Whack! Oh and he was illiterate until his 40s.
And of course you can't help but think of the Sex Pistol's classic of classics, Never Mind the Bollocks. Set up to fail and imploding after delivering the album, they are the basis for a philosophical argument for artists along the lines of would you rather make one album that doesn't really sell (as of 2016, after 40 years the album had finally wheezed over the 1 million sold mark) yet totally changes not only music but culture itself and will be revisited and lauded by every generation until the Earth flies into the Sun, or record ten albums that are fine, nothing to be embarrassed of and sell millions but are pretty much forgotten immediately by the conscience of the masses?
I don't know what most answers would be; personally, I think you'd wanna do whatever you can to just ensure you get to keep making music for a living, whether or not anybody likes it. But Noel Gallagher, who sells about the same number of Oasis records in a day as the Pistols have since 1977, seems pretty clear what he'd prefer:
"I made 10 albums and in my mind they don't match up to that, and I'm an arrogant bastard. I'd give them all up to have written that, I truly would."
That's someone speaking while sitting on their already-made pot of gold so it may be easy to say, but I believe he thinks he really means it. And I think a lot of bands would trade their discography for the Pistols - CERTAINLY other bands with only one album to their name.
I will now personally rank the songs off the album:
Anarchy in the UK
EMI
Holidays in the Sun
Seventeen
Bodies
God Save the Queen
Pretty Vacant
No Feelings
Liar
Problems
New York
Submission
On a side note, while in San Antonio in 1992 I stumbled upon some bootleg "Sex Pistols" cassette without a lot of info on it; it was clearly just Steve Jones and Paul Cook from the Pistols but even years later with the internet nobody seems to really know who played on it and under what band name it was recorded. But I've always LOVED the song, Here We Go Again should've been a huge hit, and makes it clear Jones should've sung more. But we're talking about some 20 year-olds who while in the Pistols decided they should fire the guy writing all the songs and replace him with Sid Vicious, so they were obviously still just a total mess. Here's the song, enjoy! And you're welcome, Earth!
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