SEX PISTOLS – “God Save The Queen” (3″ single)

I’m going to be covering more of my rarities in 2013.  Here’s a neat little item that I picked up back in 1996 for the princely sum of $4.  A guy called me up and said he was bringing in some discs  including a Sex Pistols 3″ single.  I’d never owned a 3″ single before, so I knew right away that I would want it for myself.  He came in right at the end of my shift and we did the deal.

This 3″ single contains 3 tracks, all of them available on Pistols albums:

1.  “God Save the Queen” (from Never Mind the Bollocks)
2. “Did You No Wrong” (from Flogging a Dead Horse, which collected this B-side)
3. “Don’t Give Me No Lip Child” (from some versions of The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle)

I only own one Pistols album, a 2 CD edition of Never Mind the Bollocks, including a bonus disc called Spunk and Spedding Demos.  That one album is more than enough Pistols for me (although I do still want to pick up Filthy Lucre Live) and I really never liked the bonus disc too much.  The album itself is the meat and potatoes.

Having said that, this single was a great way for me to pick up two more Pistols songs that I liked, without having to get more albums that would probably sit collecting dust on my shelves.  And I do like these two tunes.  “Did You Know Wrong” is a particular favourite, “Don’t Give Me No Lip” sounds like it was probably recorded live in the studio.  It’s muddy and you can barely hear Rotten.  You certainly can’t really make out the words!  You can hear tape drop out at 1:47, don’t know if that’s on the album or not.

3/5 stars