Anthony Bourdain’s favourite Sex Pistols song
Television chefs are a strange bunch; who can possibly get so excited about cooking mince? The field is dominated by bleach-white smiles and offensively inaccurate takes on regional cuisine. Anthony Bourdain provided an antidote to this showbiz sheen, showing real food made by real people without any ounce of pretentiousness or superiority. He was the people’s chef, and any good chef needs a complimentary playlist. Unsurprisingly, Bourdain had excellent taste when it came to music.
Born and raised in New York City, Bourdain honed his craft in the restaurants and culinary classes of Manhattan. During his youth, however, the city was undergoing a particularly exciting cultural revolution, as the dark underbelly of the city’s music scene captured mainstream attention. Punk rock changed the face of rock music indefinitely, and Bourdain had a front-row seat to its development, regularly basking in the excellence of groups like Television, the Ramones and Blondie from the sticky floors of the East Side’s CBGB club.
Punk rock fit flawlessly into Bourdain’s rebellious, countercultural personality, and the young chef found a natural home within the underground scene. During these early years, the chef grew particularly fond of figures like Johnny Thunders and the New York Dolls. In fact, he once referred to their track ‘Personality Crisis’ as “The antidote to all the lousy music of the era. Loud, unapologetically sloppy,” explaining, “Johnny Thunders’ guitar made life worth living again and permitted everything good that followed, like New York punk. Joyously nihilistic”.
Of course, punk was not limited to the five boroughs of New York City. Across the Atlantic, an equally abrasive music scene was kicking off in England, spearheaded by the likes of The Clash, Siouxsie Sioux, and the Sex Pistols. The Pistols, in particular, seemed to grab the attention of the younger generation and infuriate the elders with their deliberately shocking output, strong image and raucous performances.
Although the band was essentially manufactured by Malcolm McLaren, drawing comparisons between them and the deluge of corporate boybands who would rise in prominence decades later, the UK punk scene would have looked very different without Nevermind the Bollocks. While Bourdain was fairly sceptical of the Pistols’ quality, once referring to the band as a “Monkees-like industry creation”, he reportedly held an appreciation for some of their musical output.
While directing the documentary Roadrunner, based on the life of Bourdain, Morgan Neville pored over countless notes, records and interviews in order to construct a playlist of Bourdain’s supposed favourite tracks. Nestled in the midst of groups like Sonic Youth, The Stooges, and Gang of Four sat the Sex Pistols and their often overlooked track ‘Bodies’ from Nevermind the Bollocks.
Telling the story of a girl named Pauline who has an abortion, ‘Bodies’ is one of the Pistols’ most controversial tracks in terms of lyrical content; “Fuck it all the fuck out of the fucking brat, She don’t wanna a baby that looks like that”. It does, therefore, fit in quite well with the punk persona of Bourdain, even if his overarching view on the Pistols wasn’t all that complimentary.
