The Sex Pistols - The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle

Aussie version of the classic release at a nice price! Unavailable in the US. Features their campy version of 'My Way'. Digitally remastered. Album Description

Swindle indeed

The cover of "(I'm not your) Stepping Stone" is one of my favorite cover songs by anyone. I haven't listened to anything else on the album for several years.

If you like Sid singing "My Way", then, fine, buy it for that, too. I don't care for it. The addition of Sid to the band wasn't a good thing as far as I'm concerned.

The cover of "Roadrunner" is the second best song on the album, but you are better served by getting the Modern Lovers original. October 5, 2008

A bit uneven

The best tracks tend to be the ones where Lydon is actually singing, along with Sid's version of My Way. The stuff with some wally named Ten Pole Tudor on vocals and the tunes with Ronnie Biggs, Malcolm McClaren and Steve Jones singing lead haven't really stood the test of time well; they tend to work much better along with the visuals of the movie than just listened to as audio tracks sans film. Not really a Pistols album in many senses, as a lot of it was put together after Lydon/Rotten had already left the band. March 11, 2008

A good companion to "Bollocks" or "Kiss this"

I read a review of this cd at this site and it said that this was an essential Sex Pistols cd. As far as I am concerned, if you want a definitive Sex Pistols cd, go for "Kiss this" [I'll put up a review of that cd soon, as soon as I confirm that the version I have is more definitive that some cds being sold here...I mean having more songs].

When I bought this cd, I listened to the start of the first track "God save the queen" and, expecting the classic Pistols song, I was really disappointed to hear something else...a spoken word 'song' by Pistols 'manager' Malcolm McLaren. Unusually, I now find myself listening to this song often, as I find it really sensual...it's basically a symphonic piece, with some 'war' sound effects, and McLaren delivering a creation myth story about how he invented the band and the genre of music they play. I'm sure that this would be news to Australian band The Saints, who were the first punk band to get a record deal anywhere in the world, or amongst the first, along with an American band...The Velvet Underground, I THINK. Apart from McLaren's self serving Genesis story, the track is a mellow pleasure to listen to. I'm sure if McLaren talked about how he created punk fashion, he would have got less kudos than for claiming to invent punk rock.

In the title to this review, I note that there is much parody in this cd. Here's the bit about double edged parody: the Pistols do covers of "Rock around the clock" and "Road runner" [at least I think the pistols do covers of both...my cd doesn't give attribution for songs on this cd, apart from writing credits-i.e. if different bands play different songs, you won't know it looking at the credits]. The parody part is due to the band not giving a stuff about learning the lyrics to the songs they cover and thus doing a bad cover. One might find this amusing, if you are into 'out takes' humour etc.

The double edged parody part is that punk itself is parodied in that Sex Pistols classic songs are covered in a high brow way...whether through classical instruments or being sung in French by a middle of the road type crooner. These are also amusing, if you are into type of thing.

"Black Arabs" is a "Stars on '45'" type song-punk songs mashed into a single song.

*** One potentially troubling aspect of this cd is that it, at least superficially, seems to have anti-Semitic or Nazi sentiments. On the sleeve of the cd too is a cartoon of Pistol Sid Vicious wearing a top with the swastika on it. The songs in question are tracks 16 to 18, inclusive [starting from the "Belsen" songs]. If these songs are ironic or something, I apologise for mentioning them, but superficially at least, they seem to have nasty Nazi sentiments. If that is true, then this bollocks shouldn't have been included, on moral grounds. It's ironic that 'anarchists' like the Pistols would have pro Nazi sentiments like the British royal family have had in the past. The Australian musical comedy trio "The Dough Anthony All-Stars" had a song called "I want to spill the bloody of a hippie" but it was understood that they were an ironic band, not to be taken seriously. I did hear though that skin-heads in the UK latched onto this band and totally missed the irony. I'm not sure how ironic the Pistols are in these songs. Anyway, I suppose my point is that I find it a moronic coupling-anarchy and fascism...perhaps demonstrating that these political philosophies are merely glibly held to by members of the band [ones not intelligent enough to realise that they are incompatible].

Anyway, other songs of interest are the catchy song "Silly thing" which is a real singalong kind of song. The sound is real polished and smooth-so, I'm not sure if it is the Pistols doing it.

"Friggin' in the riggin'" is a catchy, singalong Broadway type of song, based on a traditional verse, I think. It is bawdy though.

Lastly, Sid Vicious has some singing duties on this cd-covering Sinatra's classic "My way" and the '50's rock'n'roll song "C'mon everybody". Vicious sings the first really badly, both intentionally and unintentionally, I think [I mean, how well can he sing anyway?]. I haven't heard singing that bad since the last 5 seconds of a song in a Sinatra compilation [read my review of a Sinatra cd for further details on this]. "C'mon everybody" is Vicious at his singing best-well, better than for "My way" in any case.

Well, I'm only giving this compilation 3 stars because it lacks one of the all time great songs, The Sex Pistols version of "God save the queen". That song is a notable exclusion from this cd. But, having the Pistols' "Anarchy in the UK" is good, because that too is one of the all time great songs-with Johnny Rotten at his maniacal and playful best...all snarls and mocking attitude.

N.B. you may be interested in the followind cds I've reviewed, related to punk:

The Saints: Know your product [punk pioneer from Australia]

The Ramones: Anthology [punk pioneer from the U.S.]

Billy Idol: Greatest Hits [part of the early U.K punk movement]

Patti Smith: Horses [not a punk album but she came from that movement]

Megadeth: [don't have album details with me, but they do a pretty good cover of "Anarchy in the UK" featuring The Sex Pistols' Steve Jones]

For socially and politically conscious pop/rock music, check out the numerous reviews I've put of Australian legends Midnight Oil [esp: "10-1" and "Diesel and dust"]. June 1, 2007

The most complete version of the LP available on CD

This is the import "Remastered" CD and it sounds great. It even includes "Whatcha Gonna Do About It" which got left off some CDs (I think the US one left it off,too). But, like the original LP which had multiple vinyl versions, this one is not fully complete and it's a shame because they had so much they could have included to make it *complete* (hence, my 4 stars). This has the single version of "Anarchy..." instead of the enhanced demo version (only on the old vinyl LP). Also, some LPs and one of the singles had a fully instrumental (no voiceover) of the "God Save the Queen (Symphony)" that could have been included. Another b-side was "Pistols Propaganda" which featured the films' trailer voiceover narration. But, these are quibbles - this is a fun, ridiculous, music-hall cartoon of the Sex Pistols meant to be an iconoclastic "f-you" to the punks that took the whole thing way too seriously. Honestly, would the Clash ever have had the guts to ridicule themselves like this? No - they were too busy being earnest and 'serious.' The Pistols rule. November 1, 2006

Malcolm Says

In the original packaging of the double-album set, a photograph of a bloodied dead doe shot through the throat with an arrow, with the question, "Who Killed Bambi?," says everything about this soundtrack to a movie of the same name. It was a bloody mess.

Marketed as a Sex Pistols album, it only features vocalist John Lydon and original bassist Glen Matlock in audio from archival footage, but has guitarist Steve Jones and "The Great Train Robber" Ronnie Biggs fronting the "new" Pistols - minus Lydon - and tracks from other artists.

I strongly feel the album was Malcolm McLaren's rib on fans who actually took the "punk revolution" seriously and his hope the brand name could survive with anyone in the studio. There is McLaren - in his best "Voice of Christmas" - bragging about creating punk rock, a disco medley of four Pistols' songs and French street musicians playing Anarchy in the UK.

The best track is a remix of My Way - performed by Sid Vicious, which initially appeared on Sid Sings - that was released as a single in the UK.

Punk rock was never owned by any person or band. But McLaren made sure that he was poised to push the movement over a cliff. Too much too soon, indeed. September 7, 2006

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