The late Seventies were the years of punk rock, and although not the first punk rock band, The Sex Pistols were the epitome of the movement, with songs like “Anarchy In The UK”, “God Save The Queen”, “Pretty Vacant” and “Holidays In The Sun”.
I didn’t actually get a (taped) copy of their only album, “Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols” (1977), until a few years later, when I lived in Germany.
Or maybe I did get it before leaving New Zealand, I just remember playing it in the car of a band I wrote some stuff with in Germany, shortly after I met them in December 1980. The bass player and singer of the ZZ Top/Lynrd Skynyrd type band didn’t like The Beatles, so I played him The Sex Pistols…
This is the studio version of “Anarchy In The UK”:
“God Save The Queen”, also the studio version:
Sex Pistols classic “Pretty Vacant”:
“Holidays In The Sun”:
Having experienced the Berlin Wall on numerous occasions while living in Germany – from both sides – the lines in this song about it took on particular significance for me at least in the 1980s.
Now the Wall is gone and so are The Sex Pistols, though the Berlin Wall actually lasted longer…
Nevertheless, the “cultural” legacy of The Sex Pistols lingered on well after the actual demise of the band.
Whatever one may think of their music, they were a catalyst for many great acts that followed.
Paul