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

The Sex Pistol's Comedy Album

David L. Mccabe | El Cerrito, CA USA | 04/27/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"An odd, occasionally hilarious, hodge-podge from those notorious yobs of the late seventies that transcends vulgarity and low brow humor and drifts into the realm of the truly bizarre. Certain tracks will raise questions of not only how much the band was involved, but how these tracks came into existence, but if your taste veers into warped humor, you'll probably have a lot of fun along the way. There's a handful of loud, gritty Pistol's type punk with Rotton's notorious scathing vocals. Some are covers, (e.g.) "Substitute", "(I'm not your) Stepping Stone", some are originals, "I Wanna Be Me", "Belson Was A Gas" (for bad taste fans), and there's also an alternate take, though not much different from the original version, of "Anarchy In the U.K.". Actually there are several different versions of Anarchy, and here is were things get weird, one is part of a disco medley and the other is the French accordion version. Who's responsible for this is unclear. Guitarist Steve Jones and drummer Paul Cook, who originally started the group and expected little more than your standard hard rock band, put in a couple of good originals. The songs "Silly Thing" and "Lonely Boy", not surprisingly, sound closer to standard, crude hard rock. Infamous dervish nitwit Sid Vicious does a trio of surprisingly great covers. He covers two Eddie Cochran numbers ("Something Else" and "C'mon Everybody") and his "singing" has an on target sly but energetic rockabilly delivery, which sounds great with Steve Jones' crude (but often under appreciated) guitar playing. Vicious also turns in a humorous parody of Paul Anka's "My Way". Another great track is Steve Jones' arrangement of an old sea shanty, complete with orchestral backing (Once again, we wonder, how and whom?) titled "Frigging in the Rigging". Be forewarned, the song is credited as traditional and if the lyrics are all original, amusingly, this centuries old sea shanty puts any of the Pistol's original material to shame in the vulgarity department. This track, along with Sid's "My Way", also shows Jones' thick Chuck Berry riff guitar style sounds great with a string section (Who'da thunk?). Also, there's a great track to annoy music "purists" with, a hilariously botched "Johnny B. Goode" and Modern Lovers "RoadRunner" medley recorded live in the studio, presumably from the early days. The best moments are when Jones stumbles over a generic Chuck Berry riff, Rotten exclaims "Oh god, I hate songs like that" and Rotten at one point forgetting the words starts screaming "Stop it, that's f***ing awful! Torrtuure! Elsewhere on the album there's a version of "Rock Around The Clock" with hiccuping strangled unintelligible vocals. You'll probably surmise the album is going to be a bit unusual from the first track. A rasping voice claiming to be band manager Malcolm McLaren, though the voice sounds more like Gollum from Tolkien's "The Lord of The Rings", explaining how the Sex Pistols were a plot to swindle the Rock and Roll music industry. To top it off, a chamber orchestra plays "God Save the Queen" in the background. People expecting only the raging bile of the "Never Mind the Bollocks" album may be disappointed (as well as confused), but I always get a laugh out of it."

The implosion of the Sex Pist--uh, Malcolm McLaren.

Chet L. Young | 07/14/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The Sex Pistols, having recorded just one album and splitting up as a fully-functioning group after a disastrous North American tour in January 1978, suffered the most drawn-out, painful demise of any band in rock history. Their manager/Svengali, London boutique owner and conman extraordinaire Malcolm McLaren, willed the battered corpse of the Pistols to lurch onward for another two years--like Frankenstein's Monster--until the film "The Great Rock and Roll Swindle" was released. McLaren's obsessive quest to bring the Sex Pistols phenomenon to what he felt was a proper end was documented in exhaustive(and exhausting) detail in Jon Savage's "England's Dreaming", and can be heard on this sprawling soundtrack album.

There was no more Johnny Rotten, of course, but Lydon's vocals spice up a few tracks on this disc, including the ragged 'I Wanna Be Me'; a demo of 'Anarchy in the UK' that strangles the life out of the "Never Mind the Bollocks" version; and the horrifying live take of 'Belsen Was a Gas'(from the final show on their American tour). Steve Jones takes the mic on 'Silly Thing' and 'Lonely Boy', two stripped-down rock and roll tracks. Exiled train robber Ronnie Biggs contributes vocals to two more songs(one of them an inferior remake of 'Belsen'), Sid Vicious gets the single shining moment of his brief life on 'My Way', and even McLaren makes a couple of appearances. On the title song, Tenpole Tudor and various Pistols fans join the band on vocals...and the end result is a rollicking, desperate shout into the void that will leave you reeling.

Some of the other reviewers have insisted that this is not a Sex Pistols album. I don't think that's accurate, really--in some ways it's a Pistols album, in other ways it isn't. Ultimately, it transcends such mundane labels and becomes a fascinating document of desperation and mental illness. It's a strange soundtrack for a strange film."

Soundtrack to the cult classic film of the same name!

Joseph P. Ulibas | Sacramento, CA, USA | 06/26/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The Great Rock n' Roll Swindle was a hodgpodge film that

was produced by Svengali/Haberdasher Malcolm McLaren.

The movie itself is a collection of half and partially finished

film projects. It was up to novice director Julien Temple to make something out of the endless reels of footage. The soundtrack mirrors the album. This soundtrack was released in several different versions. A single disc, a double disc and an even shorter release.



The songs for the most part were recorded by the Sex Pistols except....



1.)God Save the Queen (orchestration) spoken word by Malcom McLaren.

2.)Rock and the Clock: vocals Eddie "Ten" Pole-Tudor

guitar Steve Jones, Drums Paul Cook, Bass Andy Allen

5.)Sex Pistols Medley (Black Arabs)

8.)Who Killed Bambi: vocals Eddie "Ten" Pole-Tudor

9.)Silly Thing: Guitar/Vocals Steve Jones, Drums/Vocals

Paul Cook, Bass Andy Allen.

13.)Lonely Boy: Guitar/Vocals Steve Jones, Drums Paul

Cook, Bass Andy Allen.

14.)Something Else: Guitar Steve Jones, Drums Paul Cook

Vocals Sid Vicious, Bass Andy Allen

15.)L'anarchie Pour U.K. (polka version, french language).

17.)Belsen Vos a Gassa : Vocals Ronnie Biggs, Guitar &

Bass , vocals Steve Jones; Drums, vocals Paul Cook.

18.)No one is Innocent (same as above).

19.)My Way : vocals Sid Vicious, guitar Steve Jones, bass

Andy Allen, Drums: sessions drummer. (recorded in

Paris).

20.) C'mon Everybody: vocals Sid Vicious, guitar Steve

Jones, bass Andy Allen, Drums Paul Cook.

21.)EMI (orchestration) vocals Steve Jones

22.)Great Rock n' Roll Swindle vocals:Eddie "Ten" Pole-

Tudor and others, Guitar Steve Jones, Drums Paul

Cook, Bass Andy Allen.

23.)You need hands: Vocals Malcolm McLaren

24.)Friggin' in the Riggin' :Vocals Steve Jones.



Not a true Sex Pistols album. Even the songs with Johnny Rotten on vocals were later overdubbed by Jones and Cook.

A classic collection of songs. MAybe after the legal wranglings with finally crediting Andy Allen on the tracks, we'll finally see a new remastered copy of this CD. Keep your fingers crossed!



Highly recommended.











"