12 STORIES
1976 · 70S
LONDON, UK
It sounds like a bomb going off, but "Anarchy in the U.K." is less a political manifesto than a piece of gleeful theatre — a young singer pl…
1976 · 70S
LONDON, UK
— In late 1976, four young men from London detonated a two-and-a-half-minute single that was less a song than a controlled demolition of Bri…
1977 · 70S
"Bodies" isn't a political anthem about abortion — it's a horrified, first-person scream inspired by a real fan named Pauline, a deeply trou…
1977 · 70S
"EMI" is the Sex Pistols' gleeful revenge song against the record label that signed them, panicked, and paid them to go away — making it pos…
1977 · 70S
"God Save the Queen" isn't really an attack on Elizabeth II the person — it's a furious distress flare fired by a generation of working-clas…
1977 · 70S
Despite its breezy travel-brochure title, "Holidays in the Sun" is a panic attack set to marching boots — Johnny Rotten staring at the Berli…
1977 · 70S
"Liar" isn't an abstract rant against politicians or the press — it's widely understood to be Johnny Rotten's venomous, point-blank characte…
1977 · 70S
"No Feelings" isn't a love song gone wrong — it's a savage satire of narcissism, sung in the voice of a character so in love with himself th…
1977 · 70S
"Pretty Vacant" isn't a celebration of stupidity — it's a weaponized refusal. The Sex Pistols took the insult Britain hurled at its jobless …
1977 · 70S
"Problems" isn't a tantrum — it's a declaration of war on the idea that a working-class kid's frustrations are his fault. The Sex Pistols fl…
1977 · 70S
"Submission" is the Sex Pistols' inside joke at their own manager's expense — Malcolm McLaren ordered a kinky bondage anthem to promote his …
1979 · 70S
"Silly Thing" is a Sex Pistols hit recorded after Johnny Rotten had already quit the band — written and sung by drummer Paul Cook and guitar…