The only notes that really count are the ones that come in wads (The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle - The Sex Pistols)

Member Name: Wolfzilla

Product:	The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle - The Sex Pistols
Date:	27/11/06 (151 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Steve Jones, Some interesting material

Disadvantages: lots of garbage and filler

It's widely accepted as fact that The Sex Pistols only actually released one album. However, many fans, and apparently this website, are fooled into believing that the soundtrack to the movie featuring the band, The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle, was actually a Sex Pistols album as well.

And while the four men who recorded Never Mind the Bollocks Here's the Sex Pistols do contribute more than half of the album's tracks, it isn't by any means a Sex Pistols record. Not unless, of course, after the band split up, they were replaced by a group of black disco artists who also called themselves The Black Arabs, or Edward Tudor Pole and Malcolm McLaren were ever official members of the band.

This isn't a Sex Pistols record, it's more an eclectic mix of demos by the band, songs with Sid Vicious or Steve Jones singing, and all sorts of oddities, somewhat related to the band or the movie of the same name.

We have the orchestral renditions of EMI and God Save the Queen from the movie, the latter featuring samples of Malcolm's introductory speach in the movie. These were quite entertaining in the context of the film, but to be honest, I don't see many people sitting listening to them on CD, I can't say I ever have, so while their inclusion is a nice touch, at the end of the day, it's a bit pointless really. I greatly doubt many Sex Pistols fans like orchestral music.

On the other hand, also cropping up are demos of the band, in their most famous line-up of Sid Vicious on bass, Johnny Rotten on vocals, Steve Jones on guitar and Paul Cook on drums. Demo versions of songs unreleased, mostly cover versions, include I'm Not Your Stepping Stone, Watcha Gonna Do About it?, The Who's Substitute, Road Runner, Johnny B. Goode and Don't Give Me No Lip Child. The quality of these recordings ranges from bad to horrendous, and the quality of the songs themselves isn't, in most cases, much better. While it's moderately amusing Rotten not knowing the words to Johnny B Goode, when he does the same thing in Road Runner it's getting old. When you take into account that the songs have mostly been relegated to standard Sex Pistols power-pop sounding tracks, but not very good ones, doesn't really do the album any favours. While Subsitute, already a classic song, is hard to go wrong with, the band do perform a good rendition of it, with jaggier guitars than the Who's original, and a different sound to what I've become accustommed to hearing from Jones.

Speaking of Jones, arguably the best thing about the record is this guitarist. When he takes up the mic for Lonely Boy, Silly Thing and Friggin' in the Riggin', the album finds most of it's highlights. While the first two are basically the same sort of power-pop edgy love-songs the Pistols filled the spaces of their album with, they have pretty catchy hooks, and I actually kind of like Jones as a singer. While he doens't exactly 'sing', as a rock n' roll vocalist he is actually pretty good. It makes you wonder if the Pistols could have carried on with him taking over vocal duties.
Friggin' in the Riggin', which closes the album, as it does the movie, is a sing-a-long number, and the best way to describe it comes from what is shown in the movie as it plays, the band represented by cartoon pirates on a sinking ship. It's a very pirate-singy song, and features lyrics about a dysfunctional pirate crew, always up to no good sexual antics and the like. So lyrically it isn't anything marvellous "friggin' in the riggin'/friggin' in the riggin'/friggin' in the riggin'/there was fuck all else to do" comprising it's chorus, but it's a fun song, and very, very catchy.

On the flipside, the songs vocalised by Vicious are pretty bad really. While his infamous cover of My Way is included, which starts slow and sang in a silly voice, but kicks in with Jones guitar and some snarled vocals, coming together for what is actually a song far better than it deserves to be, his other songs, including covers of C'mon Everybody and Something Else are just bad. His voice is terrible, and Jones guitar work is at it's least interesting.

The last real Sex Pistols tracks on the record are Anarchy in the UK and Belsen Was A Gas. The former, everywhere I read, was apparently originally the demo recording or something. I don't know if this has been changed for the CD-Re-issue, but this is the exact same as the version on Never Mind the Bollocks Here's the Sex Pistols, which makes it's inlcusion a waste of time. Belsen Was A Gas, here labelled Einmal War Belsen Borrtrefflich is a live recording, with Rotten, of possibly the band's worst taste song. Opening with the line "Belsen was a gas I heard the other day/in the open graves where the jews all lay". In it's defence, Jones guitar has a real menacing riff, and Rotten's snarled vocals are about as good as he gets. The immediate next track is a real oddity. Einmal War Belsen Wirlflich Borrtrefflich is a studio recording of Belsen Was A Gas, with great train robber Ronnie Biggs on vocals. It's pretty odd, although Biggs singing isn't actually all that bad. What really sinks this version, is that Jones was apparently playing his guitar part wrong in the live recording, because this version is just dull.

Aside from these tracks, the album is just padded with...crap. Malcom's song, You Need Hands, and almost broadway style love song, is just stupid, as it was in the film. Rock Around The Clock features the vocals of 'Tenpole Tudor', who would later gain fame as the host of TV's The Crystal Maze, who is basically a posh twat, and him singing a cover of this old song is supposed to be funny because of his accent. It isn't. Neither is his other song on the album, Who Killed Bambi?, which starts composed, and ends up with him absolutely harping the lines, which is moderately funny for about 4 seconds, then you get bored and hit skip.

Actually it would be a bit harsh to label The Black Arabs song crap, it's just a bit different. A disco medley of all the Pistols' biggest hits, it's very trippy, but at the same time pretty fun.

Actually, I've left my favourite track on the album until last. The title track, The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle, which has it's chorus sung by numerous youths auditioning to replace Rotten, and even Pole, is basically a reworking of EMI: Unlimited Edition, telling of the band's ejection from record labels, and their quest for cash. What makes it great is Jones buzzing guitar, and the en masse chanting of the chorus of "The time is right to do it now/the greatest rock 'n' roll swindle/the time is right to do it now". It's almost like a cross between Sham 69 and the Pistols, and I think it works wonderfully.

At the end of the day, fans of the Sex Pistols will want The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle, mainly because it's one of the few official releases by the band, and it does feature some good tracks. Unfortuneately, it also features some really bad tracks, and some really just silly stuff, that really makes me wonder if it's worth a purchase for all but the most ardent fans. I enjoyed the Steve Jones songs, as well as the title track, and I think there is enough material of quality, or at least interest, to earn 3/5, just. I'll even recommend the record, but only to fans of the band, because I don't see this interesting anyone who isn't already sold on the Sex Pistols.

Review also posted on Epinions.com

Summary: Fans of the band will want this album for it's rare and unique material. Just beware, its mostly bad