There are easier Sex Pistols songs to cover.
“Anarchy in the U.K.” has the manifesto. “God Save the Queen” has the history. “Pretty Vacant” has the riff.
“Lonely Boy” is different.
Sung by Steve Jones after Johnny Rotten had left the band, it belongs to the stranger, less celebrated part of the Sex Pistols story. It is melodic, self-pitying and almost funny in its sadness. That may be exactly why it works so well for Bôas Teitas.
The Argentine band recorded their version in 2005 for Holidays in the Sur, while they were still establishing themselves between Ushuaia and Buenos Aires. Singer and guitarist Martín Locarnini would later play in the final period of Attaque 77, after previously being part of De Romanticistas Shaolín during the Mexicaneándonos era. That connection to Argentina’s independent scene is easy to hear in Bôas Teitas: punk is part of the language, but melody matters just as much.
Their choice of “Lonely Boy” says a lot. They ignored the obvious Pistols anthems and picked a song built around exactly the things that would remain important to them: direct guitars, pop melody and group vocals.
The narrator keeps saying he is lonely, but Bôas Teitas make the chorus sound increasingly communal. The more voices sing “I’m a lonely boy,” the less lonely anybody sounds.
More than twenty years later, Hernán Agrasar has remixed the original recording. The new mix is brighter and more open, with greater separation between guitars, vocals and drums. But importantly, it does not clean away the character of the old performance. The rough edges and slightly chaotic backing vocals remain.
That feels like the right approach. Make an old punk recording clearer, not safer.
The new artwork by MAX-O-MATIC works in much the same way, referencing the collage language surrounding the Sex Pistols without simply reproducing the past.
What makes this reissue interesting is not only that Bôas Teitas returned to a twenty-year-old recording.
It is that, very early in their history, they chose a song that already sounded like the band they were going to become.
Credits
2026 remix: Hernán Agrasar
Artwork: MAX-O-MATIC