The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle by Sex Pistols (The) (CD, Jul-1999, Emi/Virgin)

Album Features
UPC:	077778787624
Artist:	Sex Pistols (The)
Format:	CD
Release Year:	1999
Record Label:	Emi/Virgin
Genre:	General, Punk Rock, Rock & Pop

Track Listing
1. God Save the Queen (Symphony)
2. Rock Around the Clock
3. Johnny B Goode
4. Road Runner
5. Black Arabs
6. Anarchy in the U.K.
7. Watch Gonna Do About It
8. Who Killed Bambi?
9. Silly Thing
10. Substitute
11. Don't Gimme No Lip Child
12. I'm Not Your Stepping Stone
13. Lonely Boy
14. Something Else
15. L'Anarchie pour le U.K.
16. Einmal War Belsen Bortrefflich
17. Einmal War Belsen Wirflich Bortrefflich
18. No One Is Innocent
19. My Way
20. C'Mon Everybody
21. EMI (Orchestral)
22. Great Rock N Roll Swindle, The
23. You Need Hands
24. Friggin' in the Riggin'

Details
Contributing Artists:	Malcolm McLaren, Ronnie Biggs, Tenpole Tudor
Distributor:	MSI Music Distribution
Recording Type:	Studio
Recording Mode:	Stereo
SPAR Code:	n/a

Album Notes
Remastered featuring a different track listing than the US version. Bonus tracks include 'Road Runner', 'Watcha Gonna Do About It' & 'Einmal War Belsen Bortrefflich'.

The Sex Pistols: Johnny Rotten (vocals); Steve Jones (guitar); Sid Vicious, Glen Matlock (bass); Paul Cook (drums).Additional personnel: Malcolm McLaren, Ronnie Biggs, Tenpole Tudor (vocals).Producers include: Matrixbest Productions, Paul Cook, Steve Jones.This UK edition includes three bonus tracks.When first approaching The Great Rock `n' Roll Swindle, it's best not to think of it as a Sex Pistols album; rather, keep in mind that it's the soundtrack to a movie that was mostly about Malcolm McLaren and only tangentially concerned the great band he managed. Only eight of the 24 songs on The Great Rock `n' Roll Swindle feature the same band as on Never Mind the Bollocks, and most of those capture them stomping through covers in the studio, sometimes to impressive effect (Johnny Rotten sounds positively feral on the Who's "Substitute" and the whole band tears into "[I'm Not Your] Stepping Stone" with malicious glee) and sometimes not (Rotten reveals he doesn't know the words to either Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode" or Jonathan Richman's "Roadrunner," and the band's familiarity isn't much greater). A live take of the Pistols roaring through "Belsen Was a Gas" is exciting but sounds as if Rotten and the rest of the band were traveling in very different directions, and it's not hard to imagine why he quit the group after the show. Steve Jones and Paul Cook offer up a few tunes of their own, which lack the danger of the cuts with Rotten but confirm they were the backbone of a solid, scrappy rock band, and if Tenpole Tudor isn't much of a singer, on his numbers he delivers an impressive degree of sheer eccentricity. But a large percentage of the album is devoted to jokey material tied into the movie -- orchestral versions of "EMI" and "God Save the Queen," a French busker performing "Anarchy in the U.K." en Français, train robber Ronnie Biggs attempting to sing, and Malcolm McLaren ascending to show biz heaven with a cover of Max Bygraves' "You Need Hands." And while Sid Vicious sounds like a good if unexceptional rock & roll shouter on a pair of Eddie Cochran covers, his inarguably remarkable version of "My Way" shows the man was incapable of comprehending the irony of his situation, and sadly sounds like the work of a kid destined to die young. Never Mind the Bollocks Here's the Sex Pistols was the sound of a hydrogen bomb being dropped on your head, and The Great Rock `n' Roll Swindle collects some of the debris left after the explosion; parts are brilliant, but it's ultimately a padded and slightly depressing look at a great band in collapse. [For those keeping track of the minutia of the various releases of The Great Rock `n' Roll Swindle, this CD edition restores the Pistols' truncated but impassioned version of the Small Faces' "What'cha Gonna Do About It" that disappeared after the first release, but for some reason the fiery early take of "Anarchy in the U.K." has been replaced by the version that appeared on Never Mind the Bollocks.] ~ Mark Deming

Editorial Reviews
3 stars out of 5 -- [A]mong its 24 tracks are several brilliant, bozoish punk rock anthems that make a guilty pleasure of Sid Vicious, Steve Jones and Paul Cook's loutish, young offenders school swagger.
Mojo

...Graded generously for changing the world... - Rating: A
Entertainment Weekly (19930108)