Sex Pistols Album: “Spunk: The Official Bootleg”

This one's for true fans of the Sex Pistols only. While it's a treat to here some of the raw footage of the band's first-ever recording, the sound quality is less than professional, and the band lacks the energy found in "Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols" and later recordings. The only true gems on this album are the '76 demo versions of "Anarchy in the UK" and "Pretty Vacant" and their cover of the Iggy Pop classic "No Fun," which was also recorded in '76.

Aside from that, stick to never minding the bollocks when it comes to the Sex Pistols. Your ears and your wallet will thank you.

It is one of those music industry mysteries that will probably never be solved; about a month before the release of the debut album on Virgin Records, 12 tracks from sessions produced by Dave Goodman appeared on this then bootleg. It had pristine sound quality and captured the "punk" power better than the official album.

And to make things even more intriguing, a bootleg (No Future UK?) of the bootleg - with additional tracks - made it into the "underground" marketplace. The lineup is bassist Glen Matlock (before he was replaced by Sid Vicious), John Lydon, Paul Cook and Steve Jones.

The 15 tracks of this now official bootleg (there has also been a number of "official" releases of Spunk) captures the band in full-flight, minus the media drama that was drummed up by Malcolm McLaren. Goodman understood his role as producer and let the music do the talking.

The back-story is interesting, but the music shows the full potential of the "Fearsome Foursome," since the person directing the show understood that "punk rock" needed a healthy dose of the latter to go with the swagger of the former.

The Sex Pistols were the Stock-Aitken-Waterman pop creations of the punk years. Much as they are touted by populist historians as the progenitors of the British Punk movement, they came second, third or last in every category. The Damned beat them to virtually everything and sounded better, UK Subs had better punk credentials and there weren't any punk bands that sold as completely as the Sex Pistols, not even the Clash.

"Never Mind..." was their only real album, these recordings floated around at about the same time and to every interested punk were infinitely more exciting. "Never Mind..." was turned out as pop-punk, over-produced with half an eye on the singles charts and the newspapers, designed to sell to an enormous potential in the USA market.

Spunk on the other hand was raw, featured the classic line-up of Lydon, Matlock, Cook and Jones and had the Sex Pistols sounding like a band with energy, talent and some great great songs. They had something to say and knew how to say it.

On the album there are a couple of weak songs, most notably track 6 "Nookie" (Anarchy in the UK) which always sounded trite and pretentious, a sort of hair-metal type of punk appealing to silly teenagers who will eventually evolve into the sort of idiots who wear baseball caps backwards and think they look something other than stupid. The sound quality isn't the studio-polished quality you'd expect if you'd heard the same tracks on "Never Mind...", rather there are mistakes, poor edits, vocal errors and so forth that you'd actually like to associate with a great punk band doing their Do-It-Yourself best on limited studio time and cheap equipment. Real late 70's music in other words. However, the album is obviously a studio production and not a live bootleg or true rehearsal tape gone astray, these are early cuts and alternative versions of songs that would be released professionally and make a legend from a bunch of hyped-up teenagers.

What appears here is a demonstration of exactly how talented the Sex Pistols really were. Guitar riffs that rock, Lydon's vocals excellent and the rhythm section very tight.

So, if you're looking to buy a Sex Pistols album, buy this one. It's far and away their best. Get "Never Mind..." too to hear how awful they were to become when the money men got hold of them and produced their music to death.

If you're looking for a great sound of 70's punk, listen to the Damned's early efforts, or Eddie and The Hot Rods, or even the Ramones.

The same set of songs from `Bollocks,' but in a more vibrant and in-your-face presentation that seems to me to be more a rehearsal or perhaps a run-through ahead of the taping. Some have said this was a stolen master; that it is clearly not. Variations in lyrics - in `Seventeen' for example - and playing are very apparent. The mixing is also different, at times making Rotten's phrasing more clear.

It's odd that this disc should be reissued after all these years. Between `Spunk' and `Bollocks' and `Kiss Me' and `Flogging a Dead Horse' and `The Great Rock `n' Roll Swindle and `Live from Cheltenham Prison,' there are only about 15 or 20 songs that the original band (Rotten, Jones, Cook and Matlock) performed. Not exactly a large body of work. Nor has anything else appeared ; even after the Filthy Lucre Tour.

So why do we keep buying the same recycled material?

Because this band was, is, and always will be unique in that it did - in its incredibly brief life - act as a tipping point in rock `n' roll that was right up there with Elvis and The Beatles. It was - as is necessary - ready, willing and able to not just upset complacency but to seek its negation. That's proably why, 34 years later, as the world - not just England - finds itself staring at a socio-economic and political abyss signaling No Future is once again the status quo, the music is made even more pertinent.

World's greatest punk band and almost as good as 'Never Mind the Bollocks'. Please, guys, do a reunion album !