The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle (album)
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| The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle | ||||
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| Soundtrack by Sex Pistols | ||||
| Released | 26 February 1979 | |||
| Recorded | 1978 | |||
| Genre | Punk rock | |||
| Length | 78:39 | |||
| Label | Virgin Records | |||
| Producer | Dave Goodman | |||
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| Sex Pistols chronology | ||||
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| Singles from The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle | ||||
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The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle is the soundtrack album of the film of the same name. Although released under Sex Pistols' name, it includes performances by other artists.
[edit] Production
The band was defunct by the time the soundtrack was being prepared, and Johnny Rotten refused to participate in the project, so the "proper" Sex Pistols tracks were done by taking Lydon's vocals from the October 1976 demo session recordings and rerecording their instrumental tracks (done by Paul Cook and Steve Jones).[1]
The album features a significant number of tracks that omit Lydon entirely; most of them written and recorded after the band broke up. These include Sid Vicious singing cover songs, two new original songs ("Silly Thing", sung by Cook and "Lonely Boy", sung by Jones), tracks Cook and Jones recorded with Ronnie Biggs, the title track and "Who Killed Bambi?" sung by Edward Tudor-Pole, and numerous novelty tracks including French street musicians playing "Anarchy in the UK" and a medley of several Sex Pistols songs covered by a disco band.
Two further tracks were recorded along "Lonely Boy" and "Silly Thing" between May and July 1978; "Black Leather" and "Here We Go Again". While the two songs did not end up on either the film nor the soundtrack, both were later released as Sex Pistols singles.[citation needed]
Along with Rotten, people who sang on The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle include:
- Paul Cook – lead vocals on "Silly Thing" (1978)
- Steve Jones – lead vocals on "Lonely Boy", "The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle", "Friggin' In The Riggin" and the single release of "Silly Thing" (1978)
- Ronnie Biggs – lead vocals on "No One is Innocent", "Belsen Was a Gas" (1978)
- Malcolm McLaren – lead vocals on "You Need Hands" (1979)
- Edward Tudor-Pole – lead vocals on "Rock Around the Clock", "Who Killed Bambi" (1979)
- Sid Vicious – lead vocals on "My Way", "C'mon Everybody", "Something Else" (1978)
[edit] Track listing
- "God Save the Queen" (Johnny Rotten, Steve Jones, Glen Matlock, Paul Cook) – 3:23
- orchestral rendition with Malcolm McLaren speaking over the music about how he "invented" punk rock and the Sex Pistols (alternate Title on later Reissues: God Save The Queen (Symphony)"
- "Johnny B Goode" (Chuck Berry) – 2:36
- "Roadrunner" (Jonathan Richman) – 3:47
- "Black Arabs" (AKA "Disco Medley") – 4:51
- "Anarchy in the UK"/"God Save the Queen"/"Pretty Vacant"/"No One is Innocent" (Rotten, Jones, Matlock, Cook, Ronnie Biggs)
- disco adaptation performed by a group called Black Arabs
- "Anarchy in the UK" (Rotten, Jones, Matlock, Cook) – 4:00
- Mike Thorne remix (beef-ed up drums) of previously unreleased session from October 1976
- "Substitute" (Pete Townshend) – 3:10
- "Don't Give Me No Lip, Child" (Dave Berry) – 3:27
- "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone" (Tommy Boyce, Bobby Hart) – 3:06
- "L'Anarchie Pour Le UK" (Rotten, Jones, Matlock, Cook) – 3:28
- by a trio of French street musicians led by singer Louis Brennon, with accordion and fiddle. (alternate Title on later Reissues: "Anarchie Pour Le UK")
- "Belsen Was A Gas" (Rotten, Jones, Sid Vicious, Cook) – 2:12
- alternate Title on later Reissues: "Einmal Belsen war Vortrefflich"
- "Belsen Vos A Gassa" (Rotten, Jones, Vicious, Cook) – 2:17
- vocals by Ronald Biggs (alternate Title on later Reissues: "Einmal Belsen war wirklich Vortrefflich")
- "Silly Thing" (Jones, Cook) – 2:51
- vocals by Paul Cook
- "My Way" (Paul Anka, Claude François, Jacques Revaux) – 4:06
- vocals by Sid Vicious
- "I Wanna Be Me" (Matlock, Cook, Jones, Rotten) – 3:03
- "Something Else" (Eddie Cochran, Sharon Sheeley) – 2:14
- vocals by Sid Vicious
- "Rock Around the Clock" (Max C. Freedman, James E. Myers) – 2:04
- vocals by Edward Tudor-Pole
- "Lonely Boy" (Jones, Cook) – 3:07
- vocals by Steve Jones
- "No One Is Innocent" 3:04 (Jones, Cook, Biggs) – 3:04
- vocals by Ronald Biggs
- "C'mon Everybody" (Eddie Cochran, Jerry Capehart) – 1:56
- vocals by Sid Vicious
- "EMI" (Rotten, Jones, Matlock, Cook) – 3:44
- orchestral rendition with Steve Jones speaking the lyrics (alternate Title on later Reissues: "EMI (Orch)")
- "The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle" (Jones, Cook, Julien Temple) – 4:21
- vocals by Edward Tudor-Pole, Steve Jones, Paul Cook & others
- "Friggin' in the Riggin'" (Traditional; arranged by Jones) – 3:37
- vocals by Steve Jones
- "You Need Hands" (Max Bygraves) – 2:54
- vocals by Malcolm McLaren
- "Who Killed Bambi?" (Edward Tudor-Pole/Vivienne Westwood) – 3:07
- vocals by Edward Tudor-Pole, with an orchestra
Tracks 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 14 originally recorded in October 1976 by the Sex Pistols, with Johnny Rotten on lead vocals. Instrumental tracks for some of these were rerecorded in 1978 by Jones and Cook.
The album has been released in 2 versions with varying track listings. Above is the most common vinyl track listing.
The CD Version from 1983 has a different track list and "I Wanna Be Me" has been replaced by "Whatcha Gonna Do About It" (Ian Samwell, Steve Marriott, Ronnie Lane) – 1:55
There was also a single-album release called The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle. This record consisted of a selection of tracks taken from the soundtrack. The sleeve for the record was the cartoon that is on the cover for the Swindle DVD
"Lonely Boy" was covered by Ultima Thule.
[edit] References
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