JUNE 2010 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM

BEHIND THE CLASSICS

UPSTART ENGLISH PUNK BAND SEX Pistols were at work on their debut single, “Anarchy in the U.K.,” in late 1976 when bass player Glen Matlock played his bandmates a riff he’d just created. Guitarist Steve Jones began playing along, and drummer Paul Cook was soon slamming out a beat behind them. Singer John Lydon—known in those days as “Johnny Rotten”—had a set of lyrics in hand that he instantly knew would work nicely. “I didn’t think it would ever fi t to anything,” he said recently. “It was more like a big tirade. It was excellent that it did fi t in with the pattern that Glen had.” When Lydon stepped to the microphone, what came out was “God Save the Queen,” an attack on the glorifi cation of the monarchy at a moment when young people like the Pistols were facing bitter economic prospects. “There is no future in England’s dreaming,” Lydon sang.

By the time the band convened in March at London’s Wessex Studios to record the song properly, “Anarchy” had propelled them to sudden stardom and Matlock had been forced out of the band. He was replaced by Sid Vicious, a friend of Lydon who had the perfect look and attitude for the group—but couldn’t actually play bass. A basic track

was laid down with Jones’ rhythm guitar and Cook’s drums, and Jones layered several more guitar tracks over that. Producer Chris Thomas suggested that Jones also take a stab at the bass. “Steve put this part on playing exactly the same thing he plays on the guitar, only an octave down,” Thomas recounted later. “Bingo! That was it.” The producer maintains that he and engineer Bill Price attempted to use at least a little of Vicious’ work, but to no avail. “We tried to shove something sort of subsonic beneath the actual record on ‘God Save the Queen,’ but by the time it was cut that didn’t even exist,” he said. Lydon’s vocal was recorded using a standard stage microphone. “It had a very punchy sound in the middle frequencies, and it enabled us to get a really hard, tight sound on Johnny that would sit in the track but still have every word audible,” Price explained. “It was fantastic the way he spat out the vocals.”

A&M Records pressed 25,000 copies of “God Save the Queen” in March before abruptly dumping the Pistols due to the members’ raucous behavior. (The records were almost all destroyed, making copies of the A&M pressing extremely valuable.) Into the

fray stepped Virgin Records, which prepared to release the song in May—coinciding cheekily with the Silver Jubilee, the 25th anniversary celebration of Queen Elizabeth II’s ascension to the throne. On June 7 the group sailed down the River Thames playing the song, mocking the Queen’s own upcoming river procession. Many stores refused to carry it due to the anti-monarchical sentiment, and the song was banned by the BBC and most independent radio stations. Members of the group were physically attacked on the street several times, and the Pistols were denounced in the halls of Parliament. The single sold more than two million copies nonetheless.

The tumultuous release of “God Save the Queen” proved the beginning of the end for the Sex Pistols. The group had split by the end of 1978, and in February 1979 Vicious died from a heroin overdose. However, the band has reunited on occasion since 1996, with Matlock back in the fold. And in 2002, the group celebrated the 25th anniversary of “God Save the Queen” with a remix that reached No. 15 on the English charts—their own Silver Jubilee.

–Chris Neal

“God Save the Queen”SEX PISTOLS

WRITTEN BY: JOHN LYDON,

STEVE JONES, GLEN MATLOCK

AND PAUL COOK

RECORDED AT: WESSEX STUDIOS,

LONDON, MARCH 1977

PRODUCED BY: CHRIS THOMAS

VOCALS: JOHN LYDON

GUITAR, BASS: STEVE JONES

DRUMS: PAUL COOK

FROM THE ALBUM: NEVER MIND

THE BOLLOCKS, HERE’S THE

SEX PISTOLS (1977)

BEHIND THE CLASSICS

Paul Cook, John Lydon, Sid Vicious, Steve Jones

Bob

Gru

en

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