Sid Sings

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Smash Hits	6/10

Sid Sings is the first released solo live album by English punk rock musician Sid Vicious. It was released posthumously on December 15, 1979 and peaked at number 30 on the British album charts.

The album features the two singles "My Way" and "Something Else". These songs also appeared in the film and album The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle along with "C'mon Everybody", which did not appear on this album. Most of the album features cover versions of other artists songs whilst only one original by Vicious is featured on the album, that being "Belsen Was a Gas", originally a Sex Pistols song that Vicious regularly performed and so far the only known Sex Pistols song that has a solo version done by him.

Overview

The album is thin on liner notes; there are no musicians' credits or recording info, and the production credit goes to "The Engineer," John "Boogie" Tiberi.

The bulk of the album comes from lo-fi recordings of performances at Max's Kansas City in New York on 28, 29 and 30 September 1978.

The version of the Johnny Thunders song "Born to Lose" on this album reportedly comes from a Sex Pistols concert at Huddersfield, on 25 December 1977. During the children's matinee performed during the day, lead singer Johnny Rotten stepped off stage to act as Father Christmas, while the remaining trio played a set, including among other songs "Born to Lose" and "Chinese Rocks".

Despite having an audio fidelity not much better than the rest of the album, "My Way" comes from a studio session in Paris with French session musicians. The remixed version that was released as a single and on The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle features a different vocal take, an overdubbed guitar solo from Steve Jones and strings, arranged by Simon Jeffes. But on the video version of the song it features Vicious' vocals on Sid Sings but an instrumental version from The Great Rock and Roll Swindle. There is also another demo version available from the album Too Fast To Live, which is entitled "My Way (Take 3)".

Mick Jones from The Clash was long rumored to play on the album. His two sets with Vicious have now been released on CD in the double album Sid Lives, released by Jungle Records.

The album was not designed by Jamie Reid, the Sex Pistols' art designer, but he created the guitar swastika that appeared on the labels of the original UK pressings (though the German pressing had a blank spot instead due to the swastika's illegality in that country).

Track listing

All tracks are live, with the exception of "My Way".

Side one

1. "Born To Lose" (Johnny Thunders)
2. "I Wanna Be Your Dog" (The Stooges)
3. "Take A Chance On Me" (The Heartbreakers)
4. "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone" (Tommy Boyce, Bobby Hart)
5. "My Way" (Paul Anka, Claude François, Jacques Revaux) (alternate version without strings)

Side two

1. "Belsen Was a Gas" (Sid Vicious, Sex Pistols)
2. "Something Else" (Sharon Sheeley, Eddie Cochran)
3. "Chatterbox" (Johnny Thunders)
4. "Search And Destroy" (Iggy Pop, James Williamson)
5. "Chinese Rocks" (Dee Dee Ramone, Richard Hell)
6. "My Way (I Killed The Cat)" (shorter live version Of "My Way")

Tracks 2, 3, 10, 11 – 1st set, Max's Kansas City, New York, September 29;

Tracks 4, 6, 8, 9 – 1st set, Max's Kansas City, New York, September 28;

Track 7 – 1st set, Max's Kansas City, New York, September 30.

There are talking bits edited in from both the 28th and 29th sets, including quite a few from the second set of the 28th, although no music is included from that set. This helps at least make sense out of the fact that the LP's inner sleeve shows a copy of Boogie's notes from the second set of the 28th used during compiling the LP.

Personnel

• Sid Vicious – vocals, bass (track 1)
• Paul Cook – drums (track 1)
• Steve Jones – guitar and backing vocals (track 1)
• Arthur Kane – bass
• Steve Dior – guitar
• Jerry Nolan – drums
• Claude Engel – guitar (track 5)
• Sauveur Mallia – bass (track 5)
• Pierre-Alain Dahan – drums (track 5)