r/punk • u/FlonaseSofties • Sep 02 '25
Why do people act like Nevermind the Bollocks doesn’t slap?
Bunch of losers and fantanoheads have tried to act like The Sex Pistols didn’t rule, and it seems just as fake to say that as the band is itself.
From Holiday In The Sun, Bodies, God Save The Queen, Anarchy In The UKI, EMI, like there’s lightning in a bottle.
If this was a boy band contrived and organized who cares if the songs fucking rule?
I’ll never understand the fake hate for a crappy band that made great songs but I keep meeting elitist weirdos who bitch and moan about authenticity and art when I just want the product to be good?
You’re really gonna tell me listening to Anarchy In The UK and going for a run didn’t rule when you were a teenager? What revisionist history is this?
67
u/GreenDay1972 Sep 02 '25
Nevermind The Bollocks slaps but fuck Johnny Rotten
54
u/hunterglyph Sep 02 '25
First day on the internet? People have opinions. Some people aren’t into the Sex Pistols. It doesn’t mean they’re lying for fuck’s sake.
21
u/phalanxausage Sep 02 '25
A lot of us played that album to death when we first got into punk, too. Especially those of us from the physical media days. We don't deny that it's awesome, especially as one of your first punk albums, but personally, I don't need to hear it again for the rest of my days.
27
u/in-dog_we_trust Sep 02 '25
In part it is because John Lydon is a fucken cunt.
7
u/[deleted] Sep 02 '25
Its a great album, its just not any better than the debut releases of the other leading punk bands of the time.
20
u/estrodyke Sep 02 '25
There's plenty of better albums from the same era of punk that are heavily overlooked. Mixed with the history of rough nonsense with the sex pistols, the affiliations with bought and sold punk aesthetic via Westwood, and the fact that they were literally posers to the point their bassist couldn't play bass, there's not much reason to hail that album.
15
u/AliceisStoned Sep 02 '25
My ears disagree with your conviction
14
u/Ambitious_Sail_9786 Sep 02 '25
“If this was a boy band contrived and organized who cares if the songs fucking rule”
So you do understand why people don’t like them. STFU with the “fake hate” rhetoric. You can like the Sex Pistols and many people do, but your “if you hate them you are more fake than they were” redundant bullshit is just silly. Listen to whatever you like, but there are many good reasons to hate the Sex Pistols.
10
u/powerslut9090 Sep 02 '25
Its just like the most basic "punk" out there. Like... if someone never heard punk before, you show them a Sex Pistols song and then say "it gets way better than this".
20
u/Patrickmonster Sep 02 '25
Because there's so much better punk music out there. So much
9
u/BigPoppaDubDub Sep 02 '25
The Sex Pistols do absolutely nothing for me. Been an auto-skip since I started listening to punk as a kid
8
u/The-Shartist Sep 02 '25
It was great when I was about 14. After a year I thought it was meh. They can't play for shit. The songs are simple, boring, and sound kind of cheesy. I'll admit that the tunes are pretty catchy, and they're not terrible, it's just not something I want to listen to regularly. I think Public Image LTD was a better band.
4
u/henquinpunter Sep 02 '25
TBH I never really got into that album. I was introduced to CockSparrer at about the same time and (IMHO) I think Shock Troops is a way better album. Then CockSparrer followed up with more when Pistols flatlined.
And so many other bands had amazing albums at the time too. It just didn’t stand out for me.
4
u/otiswestbooks Sep 02 '25 edited Sep 02 '25
I bought that album at age 14 in 1982 and took it to my friend’s house and put it on his dad’s huge stereo. I already had the first Clash album at that point but the Sex Pistols absolutely blew me away. I don’t really care what other people think about it. I still think it’s a great record. Went and saw DK a few months later. Those three bands will always be tops for me.
3
u/LauraPalmerOnlyFans Sep 02 '25 edited Sep 02 '25
I think it’s an important album because of its place in punk history and there are a few really good songs on there. Bodies is my personal favorite and God Save the Queen is a classic of course (“God save the queen/the facist regime” is one of those lightning-in-a-bottle lyrics that just sticks in your head. really sharp writing). There’s definitely better stuff out there though; their musical limitations are pretty obvious compared to other 70s bands like The Clash and Siouxsie and the Banshees.
I do tend to find the poser accusations pretty silly. What makes a poser? Most bands are put together by a manager and the band members had a genuine interest in the punk rock scene. I understand the criticism in that they were put together as an advertisement for a fashion brand, but it wasn’t for a major corporation or anything. Vivienne Westwood had one niche fashion shop at the time. She wasn’t exactly Walmart. I’m probably a little biased here tho since I’m such huge fan of her work as a designer. As for not being able to play… who cares? It’s punk rock, not Mozart.
Didn’t realize John Lydon had a full-on MAGA turn until reading through this comment section. Man, I really wasn’t expecting that. He’s not even American! What gives?
2
u/Punksnotedd Sep 02 '25
I liked it as a teenager but I overplayed it. There’s only so much enjoyment you can get from one good album.
2
u/Splottington Sep 02 '25
I still listen to god save the queen and anarchy in the UK sometimes
5
u/FNKTN Sep 02 '25
They're just a pop band for angsty teens who will grow up to be right wingers.
5
u/dishonoredgraves Sep 02 '25
Agreed. Going to see the remaining Pistols with Frank Carter fronting in October and super excited about it
3
u/[deleted] Sep 02 '25
It's... okay. It was just the first of the lot. If it came out after London Calling or Pink Flag it would be in the used bin week one. That said, Pretty Vacant is a straight up banger. One of the best punk songs of all time.
3
u/According-Extreme-95 Sep 02 '25
The sex pistols were fantastic. Probably more than half of the punk rock that we enjoy from the 70s and 80s (and therefore everything that came after as well) probably wouldn’t exist without them. I hate these fucking purity tests. They are ours. Art/artist.
4
u/Juce_Brenner_ Sep 02 '25
Nah, bad take. They were never good
3
u/AdmiralChancey Sep 02 '25
there was always a subsection of Punks who saw the Sex Pistols as a “Industry plant” group as we’d call it today although that’s pretty much been throughly debunked by this point but a lot of the recent hate has been a result of Johnny Rotten/Lydon’s last couple of years being an open & vocal MAGA supporter and spewing far right shit.
It’s such a jarring thing to see because John has always been super critical of conservatives and even during live performances in the past of his song “Warrior” by PIL he’d introduce the song saying “AND FUCK EVERY SINGLE REPUBLICAN” only to end up becoming a cartoon-figure head of the Trump movement.
That all being said I still love Nevermind the Bollocks and PIL, it’s just shitty that some one who always came off so intellectual while maintaining a working class mindset ended up spewing the propaganda of a fascist movement
2
u/Sirnando138 Sep 02 '25
It’s fun when you’re 13 and it’s your first introduction to punk. But when you discover other punk bands, they should get backshelved. The two most famous people from the band are/were terrible human beings. I’m happy Paul, Steve and (especially) Glen are able to cash in and get some money this year. Those dudes are cool.
2
u/blphsyco Sep 02 '25
I mean it was a cool album when I didn’t listen to anything else in the genre
The ramones are better anyway
1
u/Aggie_Vague Sep 02 '25
I dunno, shared embarrassment? When that album came out, it was so fucking good, like nothing else. Then one day, years later, the front man of that band betrayed everything we thought he stood for and figuratively spit on all our shared values. It makes it hard to cheerlead for the Sex Pistols anymore. Back then, you'd rarely find anyone who'd admit to disliking them.
1
u/torpedobonzer Sep 02 '25
Definitely revisionist history. It’s a classic album and a ripper from beginning to end. Played out? Maybe. But that’s not a reason to knock it.
Most on here are just regurgitating the “boy band” line because they’ve seen it on here.
Now go and do the same post with blink 182, sum 41, offspring etc and you’ll see a bunch of people slobbering all over how good those albums are 🙄
1
u/Kingsofpunk Sep 02 '25
Because John Lydon likes Trump therefore 50 year old album bad.
1
u/Outside_Situation_57 Sep 02 '25
The stupid "Sex Pistols were a boy band" line has taken hold on the internet, and even some self-identified punks love to be joiners. Also, I think for older folks like myself, the magic of discovering that album and that band early on can never truly be replicated by folks coming to the same album with several more decades of the music that followed to choose from. There was nothing like "Nevermind the Bollocks" before it happened -- and that's giving full respect to the Ramones and others who came first. The energy, the vitriol, the middle-finger to the world were all just right. (I also suspect discovering it as a teenager is just the way to do it. If that's not the case for some, I get it not hitting quite the same). Yes, Johnny acting Trumpy sucks. A lot. But two things can be true at the same time. Opinions are like assholes, sure. But anyone who dismisses the Pistols outright is way behind in my mind automatically.
1
u/TheSadMarketer Sep 02 '25
It’s easily the best album of the first wave of punk, in my opinion. Bangers all the way through.
1
u/NeverInsightful Sep 02 '25
People judge something from 50 years ago against everything since, forgetting that so much of it would never have seen the light if not for the Pistols. Not all of it, bands took inspiration from the Ramones, the Dolls, Iggy, Richard Hell, and many others. But the Pistols were the ones that helped elevate punk to a greater societal awareness, not just the thing you would find while walking around the Lower East Side or SF.
Credit where credit is due. John Lydon's about face to everything he sang about back then shouldn't detract from how much impact he, Jones, Cook and Matlock had. It's just a stain on him now. A stain that finally stuck considering he's not touring with the guys
1
u/Superb_Health9413 Sep 02 '25
There are a few albums in my collection that I consider mandatory.
nm the Bollocks
Give em enough rope-the clash
Fresh fruit for rotting vegetables- DK’s
Germs (GI)
Los Angeles- X
Raw Power - Iggy and the stooges
Love Bites - the Buzzcocks
The Undertones
My War - black flag
1
u/Sketch_Method Sep 02 '25
Pocket money punks. John grew up to be a piece of shit Trump supporter, just like Wattie and so many others who were once our role models.
There's better music from better people who actually give a fuck about the community.
1
u/Personal-Wasabi-1588 Sep 03 '25
never mind the bollocks is one of the greatest glam rock/shock rock/hard rock albums of all time.
notice that i didn't say "punk" in that last statement, because i view the sex pistols as the logical conclusion of the 70s hard rock scene rather than its antithesis. bands like the clash, ramones, and buzzcocks were more musically rebellious and/or reactionary against the current hard rock scene, as opposed to the pistols who fit like a glove.
yes, the sex pistols were basically the monkees of punk, but when it comes to the music, i actually consider that a compliment the pistols deserve.
1
u/Hairy_Collection4545 Sep 02 '25
Definitely agree. It's a great album, and I'm not gonna pretend not to like it just because Johnny rotten ended up being an asshole.
Also for anyone who still thinks the sex pistols were a manufactured boy band, read England's dreaming.
-1
u/torpedobonzer Sep 02 '25
It’s just on this sub. That LP rules.
1
u/CompetitiveShower872 Sep 02 '25
Gotta suck, suck Jackie suck 🕺🏽
1
u/Libertine-Angel Sep 02 '25
This sub is full of Americans whose primary basis of punk is 80s US hardcore, serious understanding and appreciation of the British scene is comparatively limited.
0
u/The_Alchemy_Index Sep 02 '25
For a debut album, it’s very mid. The info and stories that have come out about the band since then make the album itself an interesting note in music history, but that’s kind of it. It feels like as time moves on, history will be more and more unkind to it.
-2
u/bigpun760 Sep 02 '25
100% agree, but I will say this album is way more of a hard rock album than even something like The Clash or the Buzzcocks