Continuing my look at the albums of 1977…

What Kraftwerk did for electronic music, the Sex Pistols did for punk. Though the English band lasted just two and a half years and released only one studio album, they are considered the godfathers of the punk movement in the UK and beyond.

That album was 1977’s Never Mind the Bollocks Here’s the Sex Pistols, an unlikely chart-topping hit in the United Kingdom. That success came despite the album being banned by major retailers and having to make up the slack through sales in independent stores. Exactly as it should be, I suppose.

I owned this album as a teenager but never really listened to it. The one exception was the lead single, and today’s SOTD, ‘Anarchy in the U.K.,’ a song that generally tops any list of the greatest punk tracks. On this seminal song, lead singer Johnny Rotten gives voice to every disaffected young person tired of the world passing them by.

The same goes for the whole album, though I don’t hear another song on it as instantly catchy as this. I can imagine, though, how bracing this must have sounded to people hearing disco and soft rock take over the radio.

I’m fascinated by musical genres such as electronic and punk that speak so deeply to so many people while leaving me entirely cold. Of course, I’m sure those fans can’t stomach my beloved yacht rock. The ear likes what it likes.