Video: Sex Pistols – “Holidays in the Sun”

It’s easy to write off the Sex Pistols as being an overrated, manufactured novelty group. These days anybody who knows anything about the history of rock and roll acknowledges that the Pistols did not invent punk rock. That (dis)honor would belong to any number of American bands such as the Sonics, the MC5, the Stooges, the New York Dolls, the Ramones, whoever, depending on how you wanna slice it.

It doesn’t matter.

Watching this newly edited video for “Holidays in the Sun” makes you realize what an exciting band the Sex Pistols really were. None of the backstory or later developments make any difference to how good their meager output actually sounds.

This video was put together to promote a new Never Mind the Bollocks super deluxe box set due October 2 with a current Amazon price tag of $182.76. You can make jokes about the great swindle and feeling cheated, but hey. This is the state of the music industry in 2012 — a complete shambles the 1977 version of the Sex Pistols would no doubt take great delight in watching scramble for its life.