Sex Pistols “The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle” 1979. Today, September 3rd, is Pistols guitarist Steve Jones’ 65th birthday (b. 1955) (also !!!!!) so I’m spinning this rather uneven LP released (after the band’s dissolution with the exit of Johnny Rotten/Lydon) as an accompaniment to the film of the same name. In fact, the only appearances of Lydon on the double LP are from 1975 demo sessions (and for the most part these are the best parts of the record) – especially great are “Johnny B. Goode” when Lydon starts shouting “Stop! Stop! It’s fucking awful!” and Jones, Glen Matlock and Steve Cook just keep pounding on, then segue into “Road Runner” (Lydon: “I don’t know the words! How does it start? What’s the first line?” then Cook starts shouting out the lyrics from behind the drum kit)  The demo of “Anarchy in the UK” is rough, but excellent, as is the  super-snotty cover of The Who’s “Substitute.” Jones takes lead vocals on two tracks: “Lonely Boy” and the truly horrible “Friggin’ in the Riggin.” Also horrible – but I love anyway – is when Sid Vicious takes on Frank Sinatra with the punk’d up “My Way.” A little better Sid: “Something Else.” For the ultimate in awful is the Stars on 45-esque “Black Arabs” which is disco medley of “Anarchy,” “God Saves,” “Pretty Vacant” and “No One is Innocent.” Seriously ear-bleeding level of bad. This version of The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle is “Version A” (I bought it sometime in the mid-80′s when this version was the most common). There’s another version that was more common after the early 90′s with a different track order: Version B includes the track “Watcha Gonna Do About It” which is not on A, while A has “I Wanna Be Me” (sung by Lydon).

I don’t remember if I ever saw the movie The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle or not. If I did, clearly it was not memorable. Steve Jones plays the main character, Malcolm McLaren is the main bad guy and Paul Cook and Sid Vicious have lesser roles. From the film’s description on Wiki “The movie tells a stylized fictional account of the formation, rise and subsequent break-up of the band, from the point of view of their then-manager McLaren. In the film, McLaren claims to have created the Sex Pistols, and manipulate them to the top of the music business, using them as puppets to both further his own agenda (in his own words: ‘Cash from chaos’), and to claim the financial rewards from the various record labels the band were signed to during their brief existence.” Lydon “refused to have anything to do with the film, stating that it was ‘a pile of rubbish’ and ‘Malcolm’s vision of what he believed – not true in any form.’”