Arts & Entertainment

 

 

“E.M.I.” by The Sex Pistols

Song of the Week

By Patrick McKenzie

 

Pi cca Mind the Bollocks, Here’s The
Sex Pistols was released on October 28,
1977. Widely disparaged in its day by
Conservative MPs and notable prog-rock
band Genesis, the seminal English punk
band’s only proper release is now held up
alongside the Beatles’ Sergeant Pepper’s
Lonely Hearts Club Band as one of the
most important and influential records
ever made. Pretty good for a group of
disaffected kids who only managed to
stay together for three tumultuous years.

Likewise, “E.M.I.,” in just three
minutes and ten seconds of snarling,
guitar-driven revelation, seems to capture
the intensity of The Sex Pistols brief rule,
and subsequent overturning, of popular
music.

Before The Pistols released Never
Mind the Bollocks, they were originally
signed to old-school record label EMI
Through a series of “incidents,” one

involving “strong” language leveled
at the host of ITV’s popular Today
Show, and another involving spitting at
Heathrow airport, EMI dropped the band
after only a few months amid growing
public outrage at the band’s apparently
antisocial behavior. Seeing a sure thing,
A+M Records swooped in to sign the
group, but dropped the Pistols soon
after, citing similar concerns over public
disapproval. Not to be denied, the Pistols
finally found a home for their only LP at
Virgin Records [Editor’s note: Ironically,
Virgin was acquired by EMI in 1992,
and the Pistol’s original label now profits
from sales of a song that disparages it].

Although directed at a singular record
company, the song’s barbs, like most of
the tracks on Never Mind the Bollocks,
are aimed at the stuffy, conservative
establishment (both political and artistic)
of England circa 1977. The corporate
monolith of EMI serves as a greater
symbol for the constricting attitudes that
seek to stifle new forms of creativity no
matter how threatening.

As a potentially marketable band with
a notoriety already in place even before
putting out a record, the temptation
to sign The Pistols must have been
great—even in the face of an almost
certain public outcry. Indeed, the lyrics
of the song seem to be pointing to the
hypocrisy of EMI’s position as both
member of the established conservative
order and record company seeking to
profit from a band that ostensibly sought

to undermine that same order. Johnny
Rotten sings, “Too many people had the
suss/ Too many people support us/ An
unlimited amount/ Too many outlets in
and out - Who? EMI.” By promoting The
Pistols, EMI and companies like it were,
perhaps unwittingly, supporting artists
that actively sought to question, if not
destroy, the dominant culture. According
to the lyrics, EMI seems to have only
seen The Pistols as a novelty act, as
something from which to acquire a profit
and be gone. But as Rotten sings they

were far more significant, “Don’t judge a
book just by the cover/ Unless you cover
just another/ And blind acceptance is a
sign/ Of stupid fools who stand in line
like EMI.”

Even though the revolutionary strain
running through early punk rock seems
to have been successfully co-opted by
market forces, EMI’s dropping of The
Sex Pistols is a testament to the power
of art to threaten traditional sources of

power.

a Fytut

 

 

Fuck Punk

30 Years of Sticking it to the Man... in Song

By Iain W. Reeve, Assistant Editor

N.. I understand the significance
of the Sex Pistols musically. They
created a new sound that was edgy,
abrasive, and took all remaining
preconceptions of what a musician or a
band was, chewed them up, and vomited
them back out. The only problem—in
my opinion anyway —is that in the thirty
years since it was birthed on the streets
of London punk has done little to grow,
diversify, or actually do anything about
the problems it has made a living off of
pointing out to disenfranchised kids. In
fact, it has been so co-opted and watered
down that it’s even difficult to determine
what would constitute “selling out”
anymore.

My biggest problem with punk bands
over the years is that they have been
the most prolific perpetrators of one
of my least favourite cultural crimes:

bell outlining and complaining endlessly

 

about political and social problems
through song and then doing absolutely
sweet fuck all to actually solve them.
The number of punk musicians who
have actually become directly involved
in a cause is pathetically small compared

to the number who simply strut around
onstage singing empty lyrics like “fuck
authority.” When you’re getting outdone
by Bono, you know you’re in trouble.

And if you’re going to just keep
playing that same chord (I mean this
both metaphorically and literally) at least
push your genre to evolve so you can
reach new people with the message, in
hopes that they will do more than just get
high and sit around complaining about
war and the police. But no, instead of
doing this punk stagnated, became more
palatable to more people, and was then
neutered and turned into the newest form
of pop rock. And what was the response
to this by those who opposed pop-punk?
You guessed it, the same old three chord,
two minute, screamy songs complaining
about how so-and-so had sold out. Hey,
at least the ones who sold out make
enough money that they can probably
afford to give some to charity, instead
of spending all their time grabbing used
couches out of people’s back alleys.

My message here is that it takes more
than a poorly tuned guitar, a lack of
musical talent, and a total disregard for
your vocal chords to make change in the
world. It also takes more than a can of

spray-paint and a skateboard, cause the
only people who will absorb the message
are those who already agree with you.
You have to actually do something.

Join a political group, go to a faraway
country and volunteer, or — god forbid
—actually get involved in politics. Want
to know why you think the government
sucks so much? Because everyone who
agrees with your perspective is too busy
complaining about the government,
getting high, and “rebelling” by buying
the latest from Sum 41 to do anything
about it.

At the time, some 30 odd years ago,
when Johnny Rotten was yelling to a
rabid crowd that he was an anarchist,
he probably believed it. But after all
this time, a best-selling book, tons of
financial gain, and recently agreeing to
sell the Sex Pistols back catalogue to
Universal Music, can we really believe
that it is still so? When even the legends,
the founding fathers are selling out it’s
time to take things in a new direction.
Redefine the music, redefine the lifestyle,
and redefine the call to action.

Prove me wrong punk, prove me
wrong.