Various Artists - Never Mind The Ballads (2010)

The current court case involving John Lydon and his former band-mates Steve Jones and Paul Cook, over whether the band's music can be used in a forthcoming biopic, reminded me just what a unique band The Sex Pistols were when they first appeared in 1976. This is borne out by the fact that I can't recall ever having heard a cover version of one of their songs - and although I know that there are loads out there, it's just that they aren't by any bands that I've ever been that interested in hearing. There are perhaps two exceptions, with Galaxie 500 covering 'Submission' for a John Peel session, and Bananarama attempting 'No Feelings' for the soundtrack to the 1982 film 'Party Party', but the rest have generally passed me by. I though that in the ensuing 40-odd years there must be some intriguing covers out there, so I attempted to put together an album along the lines of my earlier 'A Slow And Quiet Sabbath' post, with covers that almost verged on easy listening. It wasn't easy to find ballad versions of these most raucous punk songs, but mostly I managed it, and to my ears it sounds pretty good. The Bad Shepherds is the band led by former Young Ones star Adrian Edmundson, and adding pipes to 'Anarchy In The UK' was inspired. Hayseed Dixie can always be relied on to provide a yee-ha country twang to any song that they cover, while Nouvelle Vague and Sofia Allard & Carl-Michael Herlofsson really pull off the easy listening vibe. Hotrats were a band formed as a side project by former Supergrass members Danny Goffey and Gaz Coombes, and Twinkle Twinkle Little Rock Star make albums full of lullabye versions of punk classics, and in the end I found a subdued version of every track from the 'Never Mind The Bollocks' album, now retitled as 'Never Mind The Ballads' (and I know they're not all strictly speaking ballads, but the title was too good not to use).      

Track listing

01 Holidays In The Sun (Hayseed Dixie)
02 Bodies (Veruca Salt)
03 No Feelings (Bananarama)
04 Liar (Micro Grande)
05 God Save The Queen (Nouvelle Vague)
06 Problems (Twinkle Twinkle Little Rock Star)
07 Seventeen (Detune)
08 Anarchy In The UK (The Bad Shepherds)
09 Submission (Galaxie 500)
10 Pretty Vacant (Sofia Allard & Carl-Michael Herlofsson)
11 New York (Opium Jukebox)
12 E.M.I. (The Hotrats)

The Sex Pistols - Spunk (1977)

'Spunk' is a bootleg demo album by The Sex Pistols, which was originally released in the UK during September or October 1977. The album comprises studio demos recorded with Dave Goodman during 1976 and early 1977, while original bass player Glen Matlock was still a member of the band. Most of the songs would later be re-recorded and officially released on the group's debut album 'Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols', although some fans concur with manager Malcolm McLaren and producer Goodman that the raw versions of the songs on 'Spunk' are superior to the officially released ones, particularly since they approximate a faithful reproduction of the original Sex Pistols line-up's live sound. The album actually features the bass-lines of Glen Matlock, whereas for the re-recorded versions guitarist Steve Jones took over bass duties. Several parties, including some journalists in the British music press, suspected that McLaren was responsible for the original 'Spunk' bootleg, which would have been in breach of the band's record contract with Virgin, and once word got out about it, it quickly became extremely hard to find. It's often cited as the Sex Pistols' de facto alternative debut album, making it ideal fodder for bootleggers, who have issued it in a number of editions over the years. Track titles are what the songs were called when they were taped, and a number of them were later re-named when they were re-recorded for Virgin. This is an excellent quality version, and so fans who haven't already heard it can decide if McLaren and Goodman were right. 

Track listing

01 Lazy Sod
02 Satellite
03 Feelings
04 Just Me
05 Submission
06 Nookie
07 No Future
08 Problems
09 Lots of Fun
10 Liar
11 Who Was It
12 New York (Looking for a Kiss)

Suggested by 'The Greatest Albums You'll Never Hear' by Bruno MacDonald