Sex Pistols/The Great Rock & Roll Swindle
Posted by Thurston in punk, Sex Pistols
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.
The band was defunct by the time the soundtrack was being prepared, and Johnny Rotten didn't want anything to do with the project. So the "proper" Sex Pistols tracks were done by taking Johnny Rotten's vocals off the October 1976 demo session, and rerecording their soundtracks by Paul Cook and Steve Jones[1].
These Cook/Jones sessions also produced original songs "Silly Thing" and "Lonely Boy".
The album also features a fair share of Johnny Rotten-less tracks. These include Sid Vicious cover songs, recorded mostly with session musicians, tracks Cook&Jones recorded with Ronnie Biggs and numerous novelty tracks including French street musicians playing Anarchy in the UK and medley of several Sex Pistols songs covered by a disco band.
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)
