The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle (album)

Infobox Album
Name = The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle
Type = Soundtrack
Artist = Sex Pistols


Background = gainsboro
Released = 2 March 1979
Recorded = 1978
Genre = Punk rock
Length = 77:06
Label = Virgin Records
Producer = Dave Goodman
Reviews =
* [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:pe2m96bo3epo~T1 Allmusic.com] Rating|4.5|5
*Robert Christgau (B+) [http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=sex+pistols link]
*"Rolling Stone" (Not Rated) [http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/thesexpistols/albums/album/182435/review/5944032/the_great_rock__roll_swindle link] | Last album = "Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols"
(1977)
This album = "The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle"
(1979)
Next album = "Flogging a Dead Horse"
(1980)
Misc = Singles
Name = The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle
Type =
single 1 = No One Is Innocent/My Way
single 1 date = 30 June 1978
single 2 = Something Else" b/w "Friggin' In The Riggin'
single 2 date = 23 February 1979
single 3 = Silly Thing" b/w "Who Killed Bambi
single 3 date = 30 March 1979
single 4 = C'mon Everybody" b/w "The God Save The Queen (symphony)/Watcha Gonna Do About It
single 4 date = 22 June 1979
single 5 = The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle" b/w "Rock Around The Clock
single 5 date = 5 October 1979
single 6 = (I'm Not Your) Stepping Stone/Pistols Propaganda (movie trailer voice-over)
single 6 date = 6 June 1980

"The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle" is the soundtrack album of the movie of the same name. Although released under Sex Pistols' name, it includes performances by several other artists. It is often mistakenly perceived to be the Sex Pistols second studio album.

Production

The band was defunct by the time the soundtrack was being prepared, and John Lydon 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). [ [http://www.cookandjones.co.uk/swindle_part1.htm The Swindle Years ] ]

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 neither the film nor the soundtrack, both were later released as Sex Pistols singles.

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)

ong list

#"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)"
#"Rock Around the Clock" (Max C. Freedman, James E. Myers) – 2:04
#*vocals by Edward Tudor-Pole
#"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
#"Substitute" (Pete Townshend) – 3:10
#"Anarchy in the UK" (Rotten, Jones, Matlock, Cook) – 3:35
#*Mike Thorne remix (beef-ed up drums) of previously unreleased session from October 1976
#"Don't Give Me No Lip, Child" (Don Thomas / Jean Thomas / Barry Richards) – 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 War Belsen Bortrefflich"
#"Belsen Vos A Gassa" (Rotten, Jones, Vicious, Cook) – 2:17
#*vocals by Ronald Biggs (alternate Title on later Reissues: "Einmal War Belsen Wirflich Bortrefflich")
#"Silly Thing" (Jones, Cook) – 2:51
#*vocals by Paul Cook
#"My Way" (Paul Anka, Claude François, Jacques Revaux) – 4:06
#*vocals by Sid Vicious
#"Whatcha Gonna Do About It" (Ian Samwell, Steve Marriott, Ronnie Lane) – 1:55
#"Something Else" (Eddie Cochran, Sharon Sheeley) – 2:14
#*vocals by Sid Vicious
#"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
#"You Need Hands" (Max Bygraves) – 2:54
#*vocals by Malcolm McLaren
#"Friggin' in the Riggin'" (Traditional; arranged by Jones) – 3:37
#*vocals by Steve Jones
#"Who Killed Bambi?" (Edward Tudor-Pole/Vivienne Westwood) – 3:07
#*vocals by Edward Tudor-Pole, with an orchestra

Tracks 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 and 13 originally recorded by Sex Pistols in October 1976, but with instrumental tracks rerecorded in 1978 by Jones & Cook and Johnny Rotten's vocals intact.

The CD Version from 1983 has a different track list.

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 above mentioned soundtrack. The sleeve for the record was the cartoon that is on the cover for the "Swindle" DVD

References