Rhino High Fidelity Unzips a Flaccid "Never Mind The Bollocks Here's The Sex Pistols"
kinda soft
Okay, here's my sub mission: I'm spoiled. I have the original 11 track Virgin U.K. release (A2/B1) issued in haste and quickly corrected to the 12 track standard version. You want Steve Jones's snarling, fibrillating singular animal guitar (arguably the glue that holds the record together, created by reproducing his guitar part an octave down as explained in Chris Thomas's notes in this reissue) make your ears sizzle. You want Lydon/Rotten's voice to singe and Paul Cook's cymbals to cause real (but not permanent) damage. This communication is not about bass or a textured snare drum.
The original U.K. Virgin and probably the second 12 track press delivers that. Two mute-sounding Americans I have here never did. The original Warner Brothers includes the missing track ("Sub-Mission") but it was left off the original jacket rear. One pressing I have has a "Sub-Mission" sticker, one does not or it fell off. Both of these pressings are tame.
Here's one. The other a Winchester, VA pressing is equally tame.
Here's the back jacket with sticker:
But a Japanese Nippon Columbia original delivers all the goods and how!
This Rhino High Fidelity reissue cut by Kevin Gray sounds "good". Lydon's voice has never sounded so natural, with so much chest cavity intact. Cook's cymbals sound polite and his snare full bodied. Very deft EQ work to produce a "good sounding" high fidelity record but the guitar? That's the signature sound and it's tame. Flaccid if you will.
Is this because that's how this tape sounds? is it a copy sent by Virgin? It sounds closer to the original American pressing than it does to either the U.K. Virgin record of the Japanese original.
This reminds me of the Television Marquee Moon "controversy". If you want your Sex Pistols to go down smoothly this reissue will give that to you and Chris Thomas's notes are fascinating. I wonder if he's heard this reissue.
There's a photo of the Warner Brothers tape, but it must be a copy of the original U.K. tape. Nothing about that in the notes but also in the notes is a photo of a Pye Studios tape with the WB catalog number but listing the client as "Glitterbest", which was Malcolm McLaren's and his lawyer partner's Bond Street management company. The date on that tape is 10/19/1977. The date on the WB tape is 10/12/1977. ???? None of this is explained in the notes.
This is not the first time Rhino High Fidelity has published unexplained images like this. If you're going to publish photos that really deserve explaining, please explain! Is the WB tape a tape copy made by Virgin? If so what's the Pye Studios London tape and/or tape box with the WB catalog number? And what about the date discrepancies?
I can't explain. I have no idea. I just think this really good sounding, beautifully packaged gatefold high gloss jacket reissue misses the point.
