Sex Pistols
The Original Recordings
UMC 455 953. CD, Vinyl x 3, Cassette x 5
A
new Pistols compilation for a new generation. It's long overdue and it
makes sense. With a Jubilee to commemorate and the biopic Pistol
hitting our TV screens, it's an opportunity too good to miss. Likewise,
the re-issuing of God Save The Queen is always welcome, and has gained
much traction in the media, all of it celebratory. Even staunch
royalists have embraced it, telling us it's a very British thing to do.
How times change!
Visitors
to this website will know all the tracks and will own them many times
over so can judge the
content for
themselves. This doesn't mean this 20
track, double vinyl extravaganza shouldn't be examined a little deeper.
First off, I get why 20 track compilations are a thing, it's a neat
number, but it would have been a nice touch to have 6 songs per side of
vinyl, just like the old days. No matter, sides one and two are a
brilliant listen, although annoyingly No Fun fades
out as it
reaches its climax. A Pistols song should never fade out! It's always
refreshing to experience the band's music
in an order you are unfamiliar with, and Holidays In The Sun is an
exhilerating way to round off a side of vinyl.
Overall
the collection draws nine songs from NMTB, although I'm a little
puzzled as to the omission of EMI. It's a vital track, and surely
Substitute on side 4 could have made way? The b-sides of the band's
first 4 singles are included as are 5 Lydon-less songs from the Swindle
soundtrack, spread over sides 3 and 4. Steve's Lonely Boy is here, as a
tie-in to the TV series based on Steve's autobiography of the same
name. So is Silly Thing. This is a cracking song in its own right,
although the compilers have gone for the Paul Cook vocal from the
Swindle LP, not the re-recorded single. It's another head scratcher;
the
single has an extra spring in its step as well as a strong vocal by
Steve Jones. I guess they have their reasons.
The
three Sid Vicious singles were big sellers back in the day keeping the
name Sex Pistols riding high in the charts long after the group's
demise. Side four kicks off with Sid's C'Mon Everybody.
The compilers have selected the track from the 2012 CD re-release of
Swindle, on which the start of the song was overlapped with the end of
No-One Is Innocent. Why this was done for the earlier remastering is
unknown, but it should not have been used here, it loses
its clean
start. The fact that it kicks off a side makes it more noticeable. This
should have been spotted
prior to release. Sid's rendition of My Way rounds off the collection
as a whole, a song that's gone down in Sex Pistols, and music, history
as a personification of the man himself.
Overall,
The Original Recordings is a much needed and timely release. It's the
first such compilation in two decades, aimed primarily at those
discovering the Sex Pistols music for the first time. It could well be
the last such physical release. It just could have been better with a
little bit of extra diligence. The errors are puzzling. I guess new
fans won't know any
difference so what does it matter? Who cares what an old train spotting
dinosaur like me thinks? Not UMC obviously!
Review
by Phil
Singleton (June 2022)
Tracklist:
Side 1: Pretty Vacant
/ God Save The Queen
/ Bodies
/ No Feelings /
I Wanna Be Me
Side 2: Anarchy In The UK
/ Submission
/ No Fun
/ (I’m Not Your) Stepping Stone / Holidays In The Sun
Side 3: New York
/ Problems
/ Lonely Boy
/ Silly Thing
/ Something Else
Side 4: C’Mon Everybody
/ Satellite
/ Did You No Wrong
/ Substitute
/ My Way
Formats:
CD /
2LP (Black vinyl)
2LP / (Transparent Green)
/ 2LP (Transparent Yellow)
Cassette – 5 with individual artwork
Digital
©Phil
Singleton / www.sex-pistols.net 2022
All rights reserved. Not
to be
reproduced without permission