No Dogs Body

Sex Pistols : Anarchy in the UK

[Purchase]

On November 26, 1976 the Sex Pistols released "Anarchy in the UK". The single reached #38 in the UK charts and is one of the greatest single of the punk era. After all, it is a true punk song and not just a loud, fast-paced love song ( like "New Rose" for Christ's sake).

Among the legendary lyrics :

I am an anti-Christ 
I am an anarchist
 Don't know what I want 
But I know how to get it
 I want to destroy the passerby 
'Cause I want to be anarchy 
No dogs body *
Anarchy for the U.K. 

*A dogsbody is a someone who does grunt work in the Royal Navy.

In his memoir, Anger is an Energy, John Lydon explains the lyrics of "Anarchy in the UK" in depth:

 With those opening lines, 'I am an antichrist/I am an anarchist", I wasn't trying to set myself up as some kind of bogeyman. I never thought of that at all. No, no, no, somewhere deep inside me, I was thinking I'd be seen as the victim of all of this, and great sympathy and outpourings of love and joy would be bestowed upon me! Honest! I had no concept of being the naughty bugger. It wasn't about that, and to my mind it certainly wasn't just about me. It was about us. We're being given an opportunity here -lets tell it like it really is, shall we? 

 Of course, everyone around the band at the time was saying, "Why don't you write a love song? Why don't you just write a hit single?" It'll be great then, everyone'll love you!""What, don't they already? Oh." To this day that's all I keep hearing from the business end and its utter nonsense they're talking...