The Professionals is punky power pop and hard pub rock, nowhere near as subversively snotty as the Pistols but still brash and cocky with some anthemic swagger – “Kick Down the Doors” and “Kamikaze” both good examples. They released two singles from the LP in ’80, “Just Another Dream” and “1-2-3.” I don’t think either charted (and omg the video for “Just Another Dream!”). “All the Way With You” is one of the stronger tracks on the LP and feels more “punk” than most of the record (it reminds me a bit of the 1977 Adverts single “Gary Gilmore’s Eyes”). You’d think that “Mods Skins Punks” would be, but it’s not (and really isn’t a great track). This is in our should it stay or go pile – I think it can go.

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Side A has the versions of “Seventeen,” “Satellite” (misspelled as “Satelite“), “No Feelings” (shortened to “Feelings“), “I Wanna Be Me” (or “Just Me“) and “Submission” recorded by Dave Goodman at Decibel Studios Mixes on July 30th 1976. Glen Matlock was still in the band at that time so he appears on bass (he was infamously kicked out of the Pistols in February ’77 because, according to Malcolm McLaren “he liked the Beatles” – this may or may not be true but it is funny). The last track on Side A is “Nookie” but it is actually “the rejected Dave Goodman-produced version of the band’s debut single “Anarchy In The U.K.,” recorded in October 1976″ (Discogs). It’s muddy, brutal, raw and more than a little bit evil.

Side B’s tracks were also recorded by Goodman, these a few months later on January 28th, 1977 at Gooseberry Studios. This was a bit over a month after the “Anarchy” single release and their controversial appearance on Bill Grundy’s TV show, the resulting fallout found them dropped by EMI. Like Side A, the titles vary from the official NMTB release: “God Save the Queen” is “No Future” (its original working title), “Pretty Vacant” is labeled as “Lots of Fun,” “EMI” shows up as “Who Was It” and “New York” gets the added subtitle “Looking For a Kiss.”

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Vicious was not a talented musician, to put it politely, so the entire record consists of cover songs, though he sort of covers himself on the Pistols’ “Belsen Was a Gas.” The album was almost entirely recorded – badly – in concert at Max’s Kansas City in September 1978 and there’s some snotty chatter in between songs (Vicious: “If you want the personal touch, I can’t be fucking bothered”). Apparently Mick Jones from the Clash plays guitar in Vicious’ backing band which probably has saved the record from being absolute trash. The really not too bad songs include rather faithful versions of the Stooges’ “I Wanna Be Your Dog” (a perfect choice for Sid’s aesthetic) and “Search and Destroy,” as well as “Something Else” originally by Eddie Cochran. The kinda OK tracks are his two Johnny Thunders covers: “Born to Lose” and “Chatterbox” and the Dee Dee Ramone/Richard Hell penned “Chinese Rocks.”  Beyond horrendous is “My Way” originally by Paul Anka. It’s the only track that wasn’t recorded live; another version of it appears on Sex Pistols’ The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle, however we are “treated” to a live version that closes the LP – it’s only a little better than the studio version.

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Sex Pistols “10th Anniversary Album” 1986. Unofficial release, MBC Records. A collection of raw demos and live performances with titles that obscure the actual songs, i.e. “U.K. Disorder” is really “Anarchy in the UK” (my guess is the title changes were a bootleg copyright work-around). Not surprisingly, the release is kind of a perfect hot punk mess: no polish, shitty recording, bad production, basically the real deal before professional productions engineers got their hands on the tracks. Besides “U.K. Disorder” aka “Anarchy in the UK,” the tracks include “Sigue Sigue Sex Pistols (sputnik)” which has a lot in common with “Bodies,” “This is Brainwash” = “I Wanna Be Me,” the cover of The Stooges “No Fun” is reworked as “It’s Not Funny” and two obvious ones: “Oh So Pretty” = “Pretty Vacant” and “Underwater Secrets” is “Submission.”

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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.’”

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The shows are rough, that’s for sure. I’m familiar with several of these live recordings as they first appeared on the 1979 release Sid Sings and I totally recognize a beyond-irritating audience member who was too close to the recording equipment “singing backup” through much of the set and shouting out shit constantly. The four sets from the two evenings on Sid Lives are pretty similar. They all include covers of The Stooges’ “I Wanna Be Your Dog” and “Search and Destroy,” the Vicious-penned Sex Pistols song “Belsen Was a Gas,” Paul Revere and the Raiders/The Monkees’ “Stepping Stone,” Jerry Nolan’s “Take a Chance” (from the liner notes: “Sid had to read the lyrics every night we did this. And every night he lost ‘em.”), and Dave Berry via Sex Pistols’ “Don’t Gimme No Lip, Child.” There are two Johnny Thunders covers that don’t appear on all of the sets: “Born to Lose” and “Chatterbox” (from the liner notes: “Originally Johnny Thunders was offered the other guitar spot [in Dior’s band that backed Vicious], on the condition that he was somewhat straight. I was there when [Jerry] Nolan called him. ‘Johnny, if you turn up looking the least bit silly, I’m walking!’ Thunders never showed up. Too many junkies on the one stage is a recipe for total disaster!”) plus Richard Hell’s (co-written by Dee Dee Ramone) “Chinese Rocks” and Eddie Cochran’s “Something Else.” One of my favorites is Sid’s cover of Paul Anka’s “My Way” made popular by Frank Sinatra. Back when I first heard Sid Sings in the 1980′s I honestly had never heard Frank’s version before so my only awareness of the classic pop tune was Sid’s. Hahaha, imagine my surprise when I finally heard the original.

Again according to the liner notes, Vicious had planned to go into the studio with the band (going by The Idols at the time) soon after these shows. However, twelve days after the last gig on October 12th, Sid’s girlfriend Nancy Spungen was found dead with a knife wound to her abdomen and Sid was arrested on murder charges. Steve Dior clearly doesn’t believe Sid did it. “I got to see many tender moments between Sid and Nancy. My memories are fond. I remember clearly the moment I summoned up the courage to ask him about Nancy. We sat alone in my apartment on 3rd Street. I wanted to ask him but I was really scared. Finally: ‘Sid, I’ve to ask you! Did you do it?’ ‘No! Steve! I didn’t! I didn’t kill Nancy!’”

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The Sex Pistols had released four singles from the LP prior to its release: “Anarchy in the UK” (#45 UK charts) in late ‘76,  “God Save the Queen” (#2 UK) “Pretty Vacant” (#6 UK) and “Holidays in the Sun” (#8 UK) all in ‘77. While Sid Vicious appears prominently on the inner sleeve, he only played bass on one track, “Bodies” – his skills were so poor that producer Chris Thomas asked guitarist Steve Jones to record the bass tracks for the remaining songs (original bassist Glen Matlock was asked to do it first but because Malcolm McLaren didn’t pay him up front, Matlock refused to show). I recently read Pistol guitarist Steve Jones’ autobiography Lonely Boy which I picked up while in London at Rough Trade Records and it is hilarious, and a bit disturbing. He notes that there’s only a couple of Vicious’ notes on “Bodies” that made it onto the final recording, his bass playing is the bulk of the track. He also writes about his loathing of Rotten, though does concede that Lydon’s lyrics and vocal styling were pretty great. I highly recommend reading Lonely Boy as well as John Lydon’s autobiography Anger is an Energy: My Life Uncensored which I read while in London this past summer, including the day that we visited Vivienne Westwood’s shop Worlds End, formerly Sex, the birthplace of the Sex Pistols at 430 Kings Road (that’s the dodgy end).

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