The Sex Pistols guitarist discusses his memories of making the landmark 1977 punk album -- the only official full-length the Sex Pistols ever released. Full interview with Steve Jones for Backspin: yhoo.it/2k80I1b
He played riff's, most punk guitarist just bang out cord's, I bought the import Bullock's before the American release came out and still listen to it to this day
When the album came out I was 14 and had never heard of multi-tracking. No wonder it sounded so powerful - it was more or less the same thing overdubbed about 20 times over! Nothing wrong with that - Phil Spector would have killed for that technology in 1963, if only to save session fees - just saying. That guitar sounded devastating in 1977.
If he has said 'it WOULD have sucked' I'd be with you, but he is not being staight. Of course it would gave fuckig sucked. Ronnie Biggs on vocals no doubt. You trust this guy's radar!! Haha.
Done it all didnt he,from a poverty start to being a guitarist in a 70s revolutionary rock band that ended with one album,shagging loads of women icluding prossys,to slumming it over in usa doing drugs and getting in other bands to presenting rock radio shows.Yeah,hes a rock n roll geezer
They changed music. For the better, I believe. With one album and in only a year or two. Amazing. How many groups can say that? Or athletes, artists, etc. They were like lightning. Everyone knew about them, talked about them, that’s how I recall it. They were far more authentic and “real” than any of the other acts of the time. No refinement, just energy. It was like a group of high-schoolers went out and presented something magical.
Steve Jones. You are a major guitar player who influenced many of us to play the guitar. Thank you. You opened up a venue to a lot of great guitaring style.
The impact these guys had on the world with just one album is mindblowing, they have their place in rock and roll history for sure. NMTB is in the top ten best albums in the history of music.
When I first heard of the Pistols, it was supposed to be the most vile thing, now being into (punk) rock music, I listened to ‘‘em and thought they had more albums 😂
I love him. He seems less aggressive now ha :-) I miss the Marquee. we used to go there on fridays, and a few other places on Wardour Street. I grew up with Johhny's first cousins Owen and Eamon Lydon.
Listen to the rift he plays on Satellite, it s one of the best . I can never get it out of my head and have got to listen to it at the least once a week . My favourite band since I first heard them when I was 10 years old and still love them , even got Sid tattooed on my arm 💪 “Never Mind The Bollocks , Here’s The Sex Pistols “ 👏👏👏👏
One great LP that is a stunner of all time...really a collection of singles. The Swindle don't really count so not doing another was priceless and pristine if you will.
Very rarely have working class musicians made it in music, Steve was self taught, a brilliant guitarist who added a gem of an album to the amazing history of Rock n Roll.
Might be self-taught and (ex) working class (he's a fat, liberal pie-guzzling sack of sh*ite now who will sell out his mates and sell out his own self-proclaimed values) but he's still a fat greedy b*stard.
I wasn't a punk at all - loved Zeppelin, Alice Cooper, Aerosmith, Cheap Trick, Max Webster, The Tubes, Stones, etc..but when I heard "Holiday in the Sun" for the 1st time on radio back in '77, I was astounded. I BOUGHT that LP. It's a great record. I don't know if I consider it the GREATEST album of all time, but it CERTAINLY is one of the great album releases of the 1970s and for sure one of the GREAT debut albums of all time..easily. It was game-changing .. definitely. Still today, it holds up well. Great releases do that. Really happy I was able to live through that period. The Pistols were special. For a very short time in the late 70s, the whole world were watching them. There's very few bands who can make that claim.
Punk always had something to say. You only have to listen to Jonny and Steve to realize there was a fierce intelligence behind the angry searing music...
I think he comes across so well; very measured, honest and entertaining. I was 10 in '76 and truly shocked by them. I was too young and not brave or rebellious enough for them. It was only about 20 years after that I listened agog at actually how good they were and was slightly ashamed that I had been such a little woos all those years (still am in fact). As an aside I find all these original Londoners be they the Small Faces eg Ronnie Wood etc, Charlie Watts, Pistols, my mate Terrence to have a common grit and extremely likeable. As a Scot the they make me proud to be British and have them in the team ... may that always be the case.
@@thursoberwick1948 ok so you’ve revealed yourself as a typical SNP tosser whose limit of intelligence and expression is a dislike of Britain. Now head back under your stone to your brainless misanthropic microverse and stop embarrassing Scotland with your Snazi pish. You lot are truly cringeworthy.
This album changed the trajectory of music. Appreciate Steve’s music and his radio show. Pistol is an enjoyable show that encapsulates that small window of time perfectly. Well done.
0:47 "I ain't a singer"... And yet their version of "Friggin' in the Riggin'" (with Jones singing) was the bands biggest selling single... You did pretty well, mate.
The Sex Pistols, a cornucopia of sex and horror ,the changelings of 70’s pop(dreary) culture I Loved them ,and still do! What a f***ing Genius of Punk Rock music🎸🇬🇧🎶💋
I enjoy listening to him talk with his various guests on his radio show daily. I always tune in when I'm driving my car between noon and 2:00 pm. He seems nice, and he's funny. Keep going mate. Cheers.
Man.... it is so sad to see them age..... I remember when a kid showed up in our classroom with safety pin in his ear.... And he is right. They made one album. And it was all than was needed. Greatest Rock'n Roll swindle. Love "Bodies" and "EMI"
The pistols changed the sound of metal music. Thin lizzy and judas priest sounded more lively after the bollocks album came out. Then you had motorhead and thrash beginning
There’s an interview with Jones and Cook for Aussie TV from 1977, and the video quality is stunning, like it was filmed yesterday. Makes it harder to believe this is the same guy 40 odd years later, even though he looks in pretty good shape for his age.
NMTB the greatest collection of rock music ever, its what being 17 is all about, I was 17 when it was released and its literally the sound track of my life !
That album captured the times so well. If anyone wants to know what the mid seventies in London was like, listen to that album and watch The Great Rock'n'roll Swindle.
Unconscious genius - really a remarkable man. And the band? Collective genius. With Elvis and the Beatles, the most important artists in music history.
Great memories as a 14year old punk back in the day,meeting up with fellow punks to buy NMTB , going my home with them and blasting out the full album as we drank beer ,sang along, po going round the rooms..Oh Happydays 😊
1st time seen Steve Jones & Paul Cook play live was June 29TH 1979 "special guests" with Sham 69 ( ShamPistols) support the Valves at the Glasgow Apollo. My 1st gig ! Still got my ticket stub.
Steve Jones may be the most underrated R&R guitarist in R&R history. He is incredible!!! He should be spoken of in the same breath as Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, etc.
If it wasn't for Steve Jones and the Pistols I would never have joined a band. Paul Cook and Never mind the bollocks gave me my start. Even later playing along to Tony Williams and Elvin Jones I would never have got that far without that start. I learned the single stroke roll from the opening bars of Holidays in the sun.
This man is a real legend and a hell of a guitar player. The sound guitar sound in never mind the bollocks is perfect, and he plays all the tracks as a machine. His tone and playing on that album is just the stuff of legend. And he also play the bass on the record. Is a little sad when you think the stamp of bad players stays with this guys. Of course, punk appeared during the 70's as a normal reaction to Stadium and Prog rock, they were the ones saying punks couldn't play shit...and journalist also for sure, and in that perspective I can understand the idea of this guys not playing as good as prog rock. But at the end of the day if you take all the stereotypes away from your ears, and try to get a listen to that awesome album you'll realize that is played to perfection, and sounds great even 40 years later
I heard God Save the Queen the first time on my clock radio on top of my fridge in 1977. That was my sound system at the time. It blew my mind! How was I to know it was just the beginning of one of the very best periods of rock music for me? My first favorite song was Stagger Lee by Lloyd Price in 1958.
You can't find a more honest, straightforward musician than Steve Jones. He is passionate about what he does but isn't afraid to speak his mind about the good, the bad, and the fuckin' ugly sides of rock n' roll. He does it without any ire or attitude.
I dont know if i am typical but back in the day i didnt get the Sex Pistols. I thought Johnny Rotten was a twat. A couple of years ago i started to listen to them and now i cant get enough of them. And i go out of my way to listen to John Lydon talk. I kind of feel i missed out. Life is weird. Great listening to Steve Jones. They are all pure genius.
Thing of it is, the Sex Pistols created a LOT of buzz with Anarchy and God Save as singles, but then the album came out and Holy Shit! It was one of the best albums, if not THE BEST album ever recorded, no doubt about it, and many people were acutely aware of that fact at the time. Steve understates it a bit, but that's why people are still talking about it 40 years later, it really is that good!
Nope. You don't understand music history. At all. Good luck to you. Music has some art behind it. Music has some theory behind it. Check into these things and then find the "best album ever recorded" when you turn 20.
Tripped me out when I turned on the radio after not listening to the radio for many years to hear Steve’s voice on KLOS. Pretty cool that the station lets him go freeform and play whatever he wants. Never thought I’d hear the buzzcocks on mainstream radio.
The guy's a legend. What have you done with your life apart from taking pathetic shots at people behind the anonymity of your RU-vid account? You sir are a worthless pathetic worm.
We were Cleveland pop music aficionados. We subscribed to "Melody Maker" and "NME." We saw "Anarchy in the U.K." at the top of the British charts with "Don't Cry for Me Argentina." We said, "What is that?" Then the record was released in the U.S. It was great.
Check out a gig we did in '83! It was great fun ! Type in "The Nothings & Steve Jones" it was just after the Professionals ended & he was with Chequered past ! Cheers !
I am also a Virgo, go Virgos haha. I love this guy, so down to earth and chilled and i absolutely love his radio show or podcast, every Sunday night i'll listen to it and look forward to it all week, he's a great guy and isn't as biased against certain types of music like John, but Johns a legend too.
Agree 110%. Sgt Pepper was a good album but overrated by wanker music critics. Abbey Road was their best. Bullocks just great start to finish - no filler !
"There's something about John that makes me uncomfortable around him, and I don't know what it is. Well, I do know what it is, but I don't want to say." Massive words right there to describe John Lydon, especially when it's coming from his own bandmate.
I think you're on to something there. Rotten's been drunk in public a bit lately, and he's been making an arse of himself. Check out his idiotic behaviour on that Q&A thing with Henry Rollins, Marky Ramone, and Duff McKagan. I couldn't watch more than 5 minutes.. it's wretched.
