Saturday, July 6, 2024

Sex Pistols - The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle (1979)

 


Side A:
1. Belsen Was a Gas
2. I Wanna Be Me
3. Did You No Wrong
4. Satellite
5. Don't Give Me No Lip
6. (I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone

Side B:
7. Substitute
8. Lonely Boy
9. Silly Thing
10. Black Leather
11. No Fun 

The Sex Pistols infamously only released one album before breaking up. In a quest for more material, producer Dave Goodman found an old rehearsal tape and based a movie around their story. Tracks from the tape were featured on the soundtrack from the movie. It's not great but it might be the closest to an official second Sex Pistols album. The first track "Belsen Was a Gas" is included as an edited live performance. There exist two studio versions: one with Johnny on vocals which has a ghostly effect on his voice, and one with train robber Ronnie Biggs on vocals (???). The most famous version though is the live performance since Johnny sings. 

In one part of the tape they do a cover of "Johnny B. Goode" for some reason, but then Johnny says he doesn't know the words and wants to play "Roadrunner" instead. So they play that song but he still doesn't remember the words! The album consists of B-sides from singles and cover songs from the tape that were staples at early shows. After Johnny left the group in 1978, the band recorded some tracks without him for the soundtrack, including some with other members. 

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