I Like the Cover Better - Rock Around the Clock

The deal with this series is that it's a song that I like in the original - or the most popular version you'd know of, in some cases . . . but I like a cover, better.

The original? Bill Haley and His Comets, Rock Around the Clock.


Rockabilly classic.

The version I like better? Both of these versions by Tenpole Tudor / Edward Tenpole - one from when he was getting flogged as a possible replacement for John Lydon in Sex Pistols, the other a different version off of a Stiff Records compliation. The first is also the first place I heard Tenpole Tudor.

Pistols version:


Listen to that fantastic Steve Jones guitar over classic Paul Cook drumming.

Stiff version:




And fuck, I should just do a post on Tenpole Tudor. Underrated band.

Favorite Punk Guitar Riffs

Someone I follow on Instagram asked for favorite punk guitar riffs. I had opinions. This isn't exhaustive, but it's what came to mind at the moment I saw it:


The Ramones - Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment
The Damned - New Rose
Rancid - Avenues and Alleyways
Buzzcocks - Ever Fallen in Love
Television - See No Evil
Misfits - Last Caress
Dead Boys - Sonic Reducer
The Saints - Stranded
Sex Pistols - Anarchy in the UK
The Undertones - Gotta Getta



With some more thought I'd have included:

The Dead Kennedys - Holiday in Cambodia
The Clash - Should I Stay or Should I Go
The Blue Hearts - Owaranai Uta

and of course, the song this blog is named for:

The Dictators - Who Will Save Rock and Roll?

PiL - Anarchy in the U.K.

I guess this is technically a cover - it's Public Image Limited playing Anarchy in the U.K. by Sex Pistols.

Except of course that the lead singer/core member of PiL is John Lydon. Can you cover your own stuff? I don't know how technically this counts.

But it's pretty awesome.

Anarchy in the U.K. covered by Rie Tanaka

So, this:



It's a unique take, for sure. I kind of like it. It's different.

Sex Pistols - Soundcheck at Winterland

Wow, the internet has everything:



Probably for Pistols completionists only - like me - but it's very cool.

Sham Pistols - Natural Born Killer

At one point, the Sex Pistols had broken up and then Sham 69 broke up.

So Steve Jones & Paul Cook (Sex Pistols) joined up with Dave Tregunna & Jimmy Pursey (Sham 69) teamed up and made music.

Here is Natural Born Killer.



It's not clear what they were called, if anything, but they've been retroactively named the Sham Pistols. Which is as accurate as it is ironic, really. They really rock in a way that's very much a blend of the two bands. You can hear so much of the Jones/Cook blend you got in the post-Rotton pistols music with that later Sham 69 vocals.

Steve Jones - Silly Thing (live)

I always liked this Cook/Jones track from "The Great Rock and Roll Swindle." Post-Rotten Pistols stuff isn't quite the same, but seen as a Cook/Jones solo track, it's just a good rock tune. Steve sings better in 2016 than in 1978, too.

Sid Vicious - My Way

John Simon Ritchie would have been 60 today.

God Save the Sex Pistols

Over on the Observer, there is an excellent article about the Sex Pistols:

The Sex Pistols "Anarchy in the U.K." is More Relevant Now Than Ever

It's a really good look at the classism that drives the song

Plus if you always wondered who the MPLA, UDA, IRA and the "the enemy" (the NME, I found out many years on) are it discusses that too.

It's not my favorite version of the song - I love this live version more:



"GET OFF YOUR ASS!"

Who Killed Liddle Towers?

Yesterday, I heard this song for the first time in a really long time:

Justifiable Homocide, by Dave Goodman and Friends. Dave Goodman was closely connect to the Sex Pistols, if that name seems very familiar. If you've heard either Spunk or No Future UK, you've heard early Pistols recordings produced by Dave Goodman. Two of the "Friends," uncredited, are Paul Cook and Steve Jones of Sex Pistols.

In any case, this song mentions Liddle Towers, a man who died after abuse in police custody:



This reminded me that there is another song I like about the same man: The Murder of Liddle Towers by the Angelic Upstarts:



The Dave Goodman song seems to directly refer back to the Angelic Upstarts song. Both are really good, and both remind me of the other song. Can't hear one without hearing the other, basically.

I wasn't aware until today of the Tom Robinson Band's song "Blue Murder," though. And that's not even the end of the songs about Liddle Towers.

God Save the Queen

Thanks to WFUV for reminding me, with this song, that it's the Queen's birthday day.

Some songs change your life. This is one. I remember hearing it playing from my sister's room when I was a young teenager. I snuck into her room when she wasn't home (sorry, sibling - but also, thank you) and looked for the album with the song on it. I found The Great Rock and Roll Swindle and listened to that, but it wasn't what I was looking for. Eventually I'd get my own copy of Never Mind the Bollocks and listen to it (and many tapes of it) repeatedly. To this day, this song gets me going. I blast it, I play it once and then again a second time. I crank the radio all the way up. I sing loudly along with it, because there's no future for you, no future for me. We're the flowers in the dustbin, we're the poison in your human machine.

Enjoy, but enjoy LOUD.

The Jam: In the City -> Sex Pistols: Holidays in the Sun

Same riff. I never realized it until I read this article on Diffuser.


The Jam: In the City


Sex Pistols: Holiday in the Sun

(video is the album track, but set over concert video)


Great artists steal, they say. I love both songs - that song by The Jam really rips. It has a very The Clash-like feel to it, more than other Jam songs. And I love how abruptly it seems to end.

Holidays opens up with that same riff but it's powered up. It really sets the tone for Nevermind the Bollocks.

It's hard to not hear the In the City riff and I'm kind of surprised I didn't notice all these years.

Happy Birthday John Lydon

John Lydon turns 60 today.

Happy Birthday!

Here is what's probably my favorite P.i.L. song, to celebrate. May the road rise with you, Mr. Lydon. Thanks for all of the music.



And here is a shot of him much earlier, in some recently unearthed shots of the Pistols playing in Caerphilly.


(left to right - Glen Matlock, John Lydon, Paul Cook, Steve Jones)

Sex Pistols - Huddersfield, Christmas Day 1977

No holiday song today.

Instead, a holiday concert from my favorite band.

Sex Pistols - Huddersfield, 12/25/1977

In 1977, in Huddersfield, England, Sex Pistols put on a pair of free concerts - one during the day for the kids of striking firefighters. Another at night in the same venue, again, a benefit for the firefighters. These would be their last two shows in England before their band-ending US tour. It wasn't planned, exactly - it seems to have come out of a combination of the desperation of the band to play anywhere and the desperate need of support by the strikers and their families. But it's still something else.

The video daytime one is pretty amazing - kids dancing in their Never Mind the Bollocks t-shirts, John "Johnny Rotten" Lydon handing out cake (and smiling as kids smear him with it), Sid clowning it up for the kids, Steve Jones and Paul Cook goofing off in the back - all great stuff.

You can imagine the Pistols must have seemed quite a spectacle to kids. What might seem threatening to the rest of the UK looks a lot different when it's done in from of 7-year olds. It's contrary to the Sex Pistols' public image, but it's not hard to see how much they're enjoying it. John Lydon grew up poor and working class, as did the other three. Doing this benefit must have felt pretty amazing - something you can hear in their voices when they talk about it even today.



Here is some video smashed together into a music video.


There is also a Julien Temple documentary:


In it you can see Johnny Rotten belting out "Pretty Vacant" while kids smash cake on his head.


And finally, here is the audio of the whole show:



If I could go back in time and see one historical concert, this would probably be it. Both halves - afternoon and evening. At least now, thanks to archival footage and the internet, I can listen to it on Christmas. God save the Sex Pistols, and Merry Christmas to all.

Two articles on John Lydon

I recently read two interesting articles on John Lydon:

Former Sex Pistol John Lydon pops off on loving, living, and having been Rotten

John Lydon Unveils 'Antireligious' Art for New Public Image Ltd. Album

I'll check out the new PiL album. I'm a big fan of John Lydon, as a musician and as a person.

I Like the Cover Better: Substitute

This one is for Ed, who mentioned The Ramones cover of Substitute from "Acid Eaters" the other day.

I like The Who song "Substitute." Great lyrics, catchy guitar hooks.

But nothing compares to this studio performance of it by Sex Pistols. As far as I can tell, this is all of them live in the studio, much like their performance of The Modern Lovers song "Road Runner."



What I like is how apologetic the original song is - it's really a shrug and sorry, I'm not the real thing or I'm not what you were hoping for, and you aren't either. But the Sex Pistols version is extremely aggressive and in your face angry. It's, basically, too bad, this is what you get. It's got that aggressive guitar sawing of Steve Jones, too, off of simple and sharp Paul Cook drumming. All that "Sex Pistols couldn't play their instruments" stuff is utter marketing broadsheet crap, and if this performance doesn't show you that nothing will.


There is also this mix, which is pretty interesting in an of itself.
Sex Pistols: Substitute Monitor Mix

Sex Pistols: Live at the Longhorn Ballroom, 1978

This is why Youtube is awesome.

Back in the mid-90s a senior co-worker of mine passed a bootleg tape of the Sex Pistols live, in Texas, during their short and infamous (and final) US tour.

It wasn't a great copy, and my 2nd generation copy of it wasn't even that good. But I played that tape nearly to death. I can tell you about it note for note, line for line.

Fast-forward to years later, and the official Youtube Sex Pistols channel comes along, and puts the show up:

The Sex Pistols Live - The Longhorn, Dallas, TX (USA) - 10.01.1978

That's January 10th, for us in the US.

It's not the best Sex Pistols show ever. It's not even that great (although the version of No Fun rocks.) But for years it was the only complete show I had (instead of pieces of live shows, like Original Pistols Live). It was a real treat to finally see the show I'd heard so often.

I love the internet. It's only too bad there doesn't seem to be complete video of either Huddersfield Christmas benefit show.