Sex Pistols Album: “Great Rock N Roll Swindle”

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.

This album contains a bit of something for everyone, although hardcore Pistols fans may be somewhat disappointed. However, despite the inclusion of some dreadful material (most notably Ten Pole Tudor), there are some rare and entertaining tracks. Sid Vicious renders an hilarious version of "My Way", and turns in surprisingly good renditions of two Eddie Cochran classics. The Pistols' botched efforts on "Johnny B. Goode" and "Road Runner" are quite amusing, and fugitive train robber Ronnie Biggs gets in on the action (and steals the show) with "No One Is Innocent" and "Belsen Vas A Gassa", and does both rather well. The rest is somewhat spotty, ranging from great to awful, but the good parts of the album are worth the price of admission. Get this one - it's great fun.

Arguably the most prominent and well crafted album displaying the fundamentals of anarchist thinking as well as being a fine example of the development of punk. The album ranges everywhere from creating new sounds out of old ones they love, to throwing on obscure tracks that can only have been dropped for humor's sake in the vein of, "we enjoy pissing people off!" Truly classic.

This is a great addition to any Sex Pistols collection. The Pistols only had a certain amount of recorded songs, so this adds a few more you can't get anywhere else along with some really silly covers. Eat Me!

This album is weird but is still a great album. The song's humour get old fast but so does any humour really. There are still a few good solid songs though like "Belson was a gas" and "I'm not your stepping stone". I really enjoyed "my way" sung by Sid Vicious, when I hear the line I lived a full life, I get coked up inside. I would have like more rotten though. All in all a great album but for anyone who doesn't already love the sex pistols but for anyone else get never mind the bollocks.