Left to right: Brian May, Freddie Mercury,
John Deacon and Roger Taylor.
For the record, Freddie didn't grow the mustache until 1980.
And, at first, Queen's fans didn't like it.
Now, it's hard to imagine him without it.
The original Pistols were lead singer John Lydon, a.k.a. Johnny Rotten, and bass guitarist Glen Matlock, both 21-year-old natives of North London; and a pair of West Londoners who had been in a previous band together, lead guitarist Steve Jones, 22, and drummer Paul Cook, 21.
The band was put together by Malcom McLaren, who the Pistols realized too late was robbing them blind. They were signed by EMI Records in 1976, and released their 1st single on November 26, "Anarchy in the U.K." Rotten set the tone from the first line: "I am an Antichrist! I am an anarchist!"
On December 1, they appeared on Thames Television's Today, hosted by Bill Grundy. They were replacements for Queen, who dropped out because Freddie Mercury had a dental emergency. The band members were drunk. So was Grundy.
Also a guest was another punk act, singer Siouxsie Sioux, who flirted with Grundy, who flirted back. Grundy was 53 years old, Sioux was 19. Jones called him "You dirty sod. You dirty old man." After every insult, Grundy egged Jones on, leading to "You dirty bastard," "You dirty fucker," and "What a fucking rotter." Grundy got no dirtier than, "What a clever boy!"
The controversy ruined Grundy's career, but it fit the profile that the Pistols were going for. EMI dropped them, but A&M Records signed them. They needed an album, and they had several songs written as they began recording in February 1977. But Matlock, who had written a lot of the lyrics, quit, saying he was "sick of the bullshit."
He was replaced on bass guitar by John Simon Ritchie, a 19-year-old South Londoner who called himself Sid Vicious, and could barely play the instrument at all, but embodied the punk persona (as the British saw it, not as Americans saw it) more than even Rotten did. If Rotten was an anarchist, Vicious was an out-and-out nihilist.
Left to right: Sid Vicious, Steve Jones,
Paul Cook and Johnny Rotten.
For years, until journalists cleared the facts up, there was a dispute among rock fans as to whether Matlock quit on his own or was fired because he didn't fit the punk image. Regardless of which was true, the fact that Vicious was hired because he fit the punk image despite not being any good at playing his instrument showed that McLaren was going for style over substance, which is the very antithesis of rock and roll, and especially of punk.
Only 2 songs on the album had Vicious on them: "Bodies" and "God Save the Queen," the latter written in connection with the Silver Jubilee (25th Anniversary) of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II. Rotten called the government "the fascist regime," even though the left-of-center Labour Party were in power; and said of Her Majesty, "She ain't no human bein'." Were they sincere about their anger at her? Rotten yelled/sang, "We mean it, man!" (After the Queen died, 45 years later, Rotten admitted that he'd always supported her, if not the government the ran Britain in her name.)
The album's title offended many people: "Bollocks" is slang for "testicles," but it can also mean "lies" or "bullshit." (But, like Americans can do with the profanity "shit," adding the definite article "the" makes it a good thing: "It's the bollocks" or even "It's the dog's bollocks.") Some British record stores put masking tape over the word on the cover. American stores, their owners not knowing the term, left it alone.
Despite the album's strong sales, the Pistols were doomed from the start. Their subsequent American tour did not do well. On January 14, 1978, they played the last show on that tour, at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. As with The Band in 1976, that venue would be the site of the last concert that Rotten, Vicious, Jones and Cook played together.
Vicious stayed in America, at the Chelsea Hotel in New York. In late 1978, his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen, was murdered there. He was arrested as the only suspect. Early in 1979, he was sent to the City prison on Rikers Island to detox from drugs. He was released on February 1 -- and died of a heroin overdose the next day. He was 21.
Matlock built a separate musical career, and swallowed his differences with Rotten, Jones and Cook, joining them on tour in 1996, 2003 and 2007-08. As of October 28, 2022, the 4 original members are all still alive.
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Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols may have been the most influential album released that day, but it wasn't the best, or even the best album released that day by a British group: On the same day, Queen released News of the World.
It contains perhaps the last true double-sided hit record, which reached Number 4 on the U.S. pop charts: "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions." Lead guitarist Brian May wrote the former, wanting it to sound like a stadium chant -- which, of course, it became. Lead singer Freddie Mercury wrote the latter, and when he sang about paying his dues, and about thanking the audience for "fame, and fortune, and everything that goes with it," he was completely sincere both times.
Neither song was written about the newly-crowned World Champion New York Yankees, although the confluence of events meant that any confusion was understandable.
UPDATE: It took me until 2024 to think of this, but the 1970s were Schrödinger's Decade. There was too much overwrought music, and, at the same time, not enough of it.
*
October 28, 1977 was a Friday. Baseball season ended 9 days earlier, with the New York Yankees beating the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series. Football was in midweek.
There were 6 NBA games that night:
* The New Jersey Nets beat the Boston Celtics, 116-109 at the brand-new Rutgers Athletic Center (now the Jersey Mike's Arena) in Piscataway, New Jersey. Bernard King scored 30 points.
* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 102-95 at The Omni in Atlanta.
* The New Orleans Jazz beat the Phoenix Suns, 114-107 at the Superdome in New Orleans. Truck Robinson scored 37 points and grabbed 25 rebounds.
* The Indiana Pacers beat the Washington Bullets, 136-127 at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis. Larry Wright of the Bullets led all scorers on the night with 43 points, to no avail.
* The Golden State Warriors beat the Buffalo Braves, 104-97 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena. Rick Barry scored 37 points.
* And the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 98-94 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum. This was a rematch of the previous season's NBA Finals, also won by the Blazers.
There were 2 games in the National Hockey League. The Chicago Black Hawks beat the Cleveland Barons, 4-2 at The Coliseum in the Cleveland suburb of Richfield, Ohio. And the Colorado Rockies beat the Washington Capitals, 8-1 at the McNichols Arena in Denver. The 1977-78 season would be the only time the Rockies made the Playoffs until 1987-88, by which point they were the New Jersey Devils; and the last season for the Barons, who were merged with another bankrupt team, the Minnesota North Stars, who kept that name.
And there were 2 games in the World Hockey Association. The Edmonton Oilers beat the Birmingham Bulls, 3-2 at the Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center in Birmingham, Alabama. And the Winnipeg Jets beat the Cincinnati Stingers, 3-2 at the Winnipeg Arena.
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