DOCSLIB.ORG

God Save the Queen (1977) Sex Pistols

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
God Save the Queen (1977) Sex Pistols MUSC-21600: The Art of Rock Music Prof. Freeze God Save the Queen (1977) Sex Pistols LISTEN FOR • Simple riff-driven form with new music at end • Fast tempo, driving pulsing eighths in bass • Monotone vocal delivery • Lyrics’ nihilistic view of Britain’s future + insulting view of Britain’s monarch CREATION Songwriters Sex Pistols Label Virgin, A&M Musicians Johnny Rotten (vocals), Steve Jones (guitar, bass), drums (Paul Cook) Producer Christ Thomas Engineer Bill Price Recording Wessex Sound Studios (London); October 1976, March 1977; stereo Charts UK 2 MUSIC Genre Punk rock Form AABA with full reprise and coda Key A major Meter 4/4 MUSC-21600 Listening Guide Freeze “God Save the Queen” (Sex Pistols, 1977) LISTENING GUIDE Time Form Lyric Cue Listen For 0:00 Intro (4+8) • Fast tempo, loud dynamics, and driving rhythms (eighth-notes in bass, guitar and syncopated rhythm in drums). • Main guitar riff begins. 0:19 A 1 (8) “God save the queen” • Vocals enter. Note Johnny Rotten’s monotone, speech-like delivery. • Call and response between vocals and guitar/bass. 0:32 A 2 (8) “God save the queen” • As before. 0:44 B (8) “Don’t be told what” • Intensity picks up for the contrasting section, with fast rhythms in the bass and guitar and a higher range for the vocals. 0:58 A 3 (8) “God save the queen” • As before, with altered ending and vocal sneer. 1:10 A 4 (8) “God save the queen” • As before. 1:23 A 5 (8) “Oh God save history” • As before. 1:36 B (8) “When there’s no future” • As before. 1:49 A 6 (A) “God save the queen” • As before, but with ride cymbals added to every beat and occasional crash cymbal hits. 2:02 Break (8) • Guitar solo with stereophonic cymbal crashes. 2:17 A 7 (8) “God save the queen” • As before. 2:30 C 1 (8) “No future” • New music on short, descending motive that repeats in unison in vocals, electric guitar, and bass. 2:43 C 2 (8) “No future” • As before. 2:57 C 3 (10) “No future” • As before. 2 MUSC-21600 Listening Guide Freeze “God Save the Queen” (Sex Pistols, 1977) LYRICS God save the queen When there’s no future The fascist regime How can there be sin They made you a moron We’re the flowers in the dustbin Potential H-bomb We’re the poison in your human machine We’re the future, your future God save the queen She ain’t no human being God save the queen There is no future We mean it man In England’s dreaming We love our queen God saves Don’t be told what you want Don’t be told what you need God save the queen There’s no future, no future, We mean it man No future for you And there is no future In England’s dreaming God save the queen We mean it man No future, no future, We love our queen No future for you God saves No future, no future, No future for me God save the queen ’Cause tourists are money No future, no future, And our figurehead No future for you Is not what she seems No future, no future For you Oh God save history God save your mad parade Oh Lord God have mercy All crimes are paid SOURCES • Katherine Charlton, Rock Music Styles: A History, 6th ed. (New York: McGraw Hill, 2011), 238. • Roberta Freund Schwartz, Course Notes for MUSC-309 at the University of Kansas. 3 .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • I Wanna Be Me”
    Introduction The Sex Pistols’ “I Wanna Be Me” It gave us an identity. —Tom Petty on Beatlemania Wherever the relevance of speech is at stake, matters become political by definition, for speech is what makes man a political being. —Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition here fortune tellers sometimes read tea leaves as omens of things to come, there are now professionals who scrutinize songs, films, advertisements, and other artifacts of popular culture for what they reveal about the politics and the feel W of daily life at the time of their production. Instead of being consumed, they are historical artifacts to be studied and “read.” Or at least that is a common approach within cultural studies. But dated pop artifacts have another, living function. Throughout much of 1973 and early 1974, several working- class teens from west London’s Shepherd’s Bush district struggled to become a rock band. Like tens of thousands of such groups over the years, they learned to play together by copying older songs that they all liked. For guitarist Steve Jones and drummer Paul Cook, that meant the short, sharp rock songs of London bands like the Small Faces, the Kinks, and the Who. Most of the songs had been hits seven to ten 1 2 Introduction years earlier. They also learned some more current material, much of it associated with the band that succeeded the Small Faces, the brash “lad’s” rock of Rod Stewart’s version of the Faces. Ironically, the Rod Stewart songs they struggled to learn weren’t Rod Stewart songs at all.
    [Show full text]
  • In Less Than a Decade, DUFF Mckagan Shot
    36-43 Duff feature 3/16/04 2:10 PM Page 36 36-43 Duff feature 3/16/04 2:14 PM Page 37 Bulletproof In less than a decade, DUFF McKAGAN shot from strung-out GUNS N’ ROSES megastar to sober bass-groovin’ dude for VELVET REVOLVER. Bass Guitar’s E.E. Bradman gets the rock-solid bass man in his sight. BG 37 36-43 Duff feature 3/16/04 4:25 PM Page 38 36-43 Duff feature 3/16/04 5:22 PM Page 39 “Every good rock band has to . You need that something that moves people.” uff McKagan knows covers-only Spaghetti Incident and the so-so Live Era didn’t measure up to the band’s HAIR FORCE ONE: about missed opportuni- Duff, with Rose and Slash, debut, and by 1992 Izzy and Adler had been in his GN’R daze ties. He was, after all, the replaced by Gilby Clarke and Matt Sorum. In founding bassist of the 1993, McKagan released his first solo album, legendary Guns N’ Roses, Believe in Me. Guns eventually crumbled, leaving an uncompleted (and still unreleased) whose rock-star excesses, album, tentatively titled Chinese Democracy, volatile live shows and incendiary in the balance. albums made them the biggest band in McKagan’s second effort, Beautiful D Disease, was lost to record company politics, the world before they spluttered to a but he stayed busy producing Betty Blow- messy close a decade later. But McKa- torch, playing several instruments with gan—who after a drug-and-alcohol- Screaming Trees vocalist Mark Lanegan, and related pancreas explosion 10 years ago handling guitar and bass duties for Iggy Pop, was told by doctors that his next drink Ten Minute Warning, Loaded, the Neurotic Outsiders (with John Taylor of Duran Duran would kill him—also knows a thing or and Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols) and the two about second chances.
    [Show full text]
  • Rolling Stone Magazine's Top 500 Songs
    Rolling Stone Magazine's Top 500 Songs No. Interpret Title Year of release 1. Bob Dylan Like a Rolling Stone 1961 2. The Rolling Stones Satisfaction 1965 3. John Lennon Imagine 1971 4. Marvin Gaye What’s Going on 1971 5. Aretha Franklin Respect 1967 6. The Beach Boys Good Vibrations 1966 7. Chuck Berry Johnny B. Goode 1958 8. The Beatles Hey Jude 1968 9. Nirvana Smells Like Teen Spirit 1991 10. Ray Charles What'd I Say (part 1&2) 1959 11. The Who My Generation 1965 12. Sam Cooke A Change is Gonna Come 1964 13. The Beatles Yesterday 1965 14. Bob Dylan Blowin' in the Wind 1963 15. The Clash London Calling 1980 16. The Beatles I Want zo Hold Your Hand 1963 17. Jimmy Hendrix Purple Haze 1967 18. Chuck Berry Maybellene 1955 19. Elvis Presley Hound Dog 1956 20. The Beatles Let It Be 1970 21. Bruce Springsteen Born to Run 1975 22. The Ronettes Be My Baby 1963 23. The Beatles In my Life 1965 24. The Impressions People Get Ready 1965 25. The Beach Boys God Only Knows 1966 26. The Beatles A day in a life 1967 27. Derek and the Dominos Layla 1970 28. Otis Redding Sitting on the Dock of the Bay 1968 29. The Beatles Help 1965 30. Johnny Cash I Walk the Line 1956 31. Led Zeppelin Stairway to Heaven 1971 32. The Rolling Stones Sympathy for the Devil 1968 33. Tina Turner River Deep - Mountain High 1966 34. The Righteous Brothers You've Lost that Lovin' Feelin' 1964 35.
    [Show full text]
  • Wade Gordon James Nelson Concordia University May 1997
    Never Mind The Authentic: You Wanted the Spectacle/ You've Got The Spectacle (And Nothing Else Matters?) Wade Gordon James Nelson A Thesis in The Department of Communication Studies Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts ai Concordia University Montreal, Quebec, Canada May 1997 O Wade Nelson, 1997 National Library Bibliothèque nationale 191 of Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographie Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Weliington Ottawa ON KIA ON4 Ottawa ON KIA ON4 Canada Canada Your hie Votre réference Our file Notre reldrence The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant à la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or sell reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of ths thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfiche/fh, de reproduction sur papier ou sur fomat électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in thi s thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thése. thesis nor substantiai extracts fiom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. ABSTRACT Never Mind The Authentic: You Wanted The Spectacle/ Y ou've Got The Spectacle (And Nothing Else Matters?) Wade Nelson This thesis examines criteria of valuation in regard to popular music.
    [Show full text]
  • The Sex Pistols: Punk Rock As Protest Rhetoric
    UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations 1-1-2002 The Sex Pistols: Punk rock as protest rhetoric Cari Elaine Byers University of Nevada, Las Vegas Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/rtds Repository Citation Byers, Cari Elaine, "The Sex Pistols: Punk rock as protest rhetoric" (2002). UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations. 1423. http://dx.doi.org/10.25669/yfq8-0mgs This Thesis is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by Digital Scholarship@UNLV with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Thesis in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/ or on the work itself. This Thesis has been accepted for inclusion in UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Scholarship@UNLV. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted.
    [Show full text]
  • Punk Preludes
    University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Supervised Undergraduate Student Research Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects and Creative Work Summer 8-1996 Punk Preludes Travis Gerarde Buck University of Tennessee - Knoxville Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_chanhonoproj Recommended Citation Buck, Travis Gerarde, "Punk Preludes" (1996). Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_chanhonoproj/160 This is brought to you for free and open access by the Supervised Undergraduate Student Research and Creative Work at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Punk Preludes Travis Buck Senior Honors Project University of Tennessee, Knoxville Abstract This paper is an analysis of some of the lyrics of two early punk rock bands, The Sex Pistols and The Dead Kennedys. Focus is made on the background of the lyrics and the sub-text as well as text of the lyrics. There is also some analysis of punk's impact on mondern music During the mid to late 1970's a new genre of music crept into the popular culture on both sides of the Atlantic; this genre became known as punk rock. Divorcing themselves from the mainstream of music and estranging nlany on their way, punk musicians challenged both nlusical and cultural conventions. The music, for the most part, was written by the performers and performed without worrying about what other people thought of it.
    [Show full text]
  • American Punk: the Relations Between Punk Rock, Hardcore, and American Culture
    American Punk: The Relations between Punk Rock, Hardcore, and American Culture Gerfried Ambrosch ABSTRACT Punk culture has its roots on both sides of the Atlantic. Despite continuous cross-fertiliza- tion, the British and the American punk traditions exhibit distinct features. There are notable aesthetic and lyrical differences, for instance. The causes for these dissimilarities stem from the different cultural, social, and economic preconditions that gave rise to punk in these places in the mid-1970s. In the U. K., punk was mainly a movement of frustrated working-class youths who occupied London’s high-rise blocks and whose families’ livelihoods were threatened by a declin- ing economy and rising unemployment. Conversely, in America, punk emerged as a middle-class phenomenon and a reaction to feelings of social and cultural alienation in the context of suburban life. Even city slickers such as the Ramones, New York’s counterpart to London’s Sex Pistols and the United States’ first ‘official’ well-known punk rock group, made reference to the mythology of suburbia (not just as a place but as a state of mind, and an ideal, as well), advancing a subver- sive critique of American culture as a whole. Engaging critically with mainstream U.S. culture, American punk’s constitutive other, punk developed an alternative sense of Americanness. Since the mid-1970s, punk has produced a plethora of bands and sub-scenes all around the world. This phenomenon began almost simultaneously on both sides of the Atlantic—in London and in New York, to be precise—and has since spread to the most remote corners of the world.
    [Show full text]
  • Titel, Text Nr
    Land Titel, Text Nr. Kategorie Aba heidschi bumbeidschi 165 WEIHNACHTEN Abend wird es wieder über Wald und Feld 388 ZEIT Abendlied 323 ZEIT Ach bittrer Winter, wie bist du kalt 17 ZEIT Ach, wie ist's möglich dann 249 LIEBE Ade zur guten Nacht 322 ZEIT Ännchen von Tharau 310 LIEBE All mein Gedanken 31 LIEBE Alle Jahre wieder 347 WEIHNACHTEN Alle Vögel sind schon da 257 ZEIT Alle, die mit uns auf Kaperfahrt fahren 262 SCHIFF Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr 339 CHORAL Alleweil ein wenig lustig 306 LUSTIG Als ich bei meinen Schafen wacht 187 WEIHNACHTEN Als ich ein jung Geselle war 56 LEBEN Als ich einmal reiste 127 WANDERN Als unser Mops ein Möpschen war 377 LUSTIG Als wir jüngst in Regensburg waren 53 SCHIFF Am Brunnen vor dem Tore 295 WANDERN Am Weihnachtsbaum die Lichter brennen 11 WEIHNACHTEN An der Saale hellem Strande 212 LAND As Burlala geboren war 98 JUX Auf der Lüneburger Heide 101 LAND Auf der Rudelsburg 213 STUDENT Auf der schwäb'sche Eisebahne 385 LUSTIG Auf, auf zum fröhlichen Jagen 287 JAGD Auf, auf, ihr Wandersleut 18 WANDERN Auf, du junger Wandersmann 368 WANDERN Auf, Glückauf! Auf, Glückauf! 153 BERGBAU, HARZ Auferstanden aus Ruinen und der Zukunft 393 HYMNE zugewandt Bald gras ich am Neckar 29 LIEBE Bayernhymne 97 HYMNE Beim Kronenwirt, da ist heut' Jubel und Tanz 129 TANZ Beim Rosenwirt am Grabentor 45 STUDENT Bierlein, rinn! 45 STUDENT Bigben 4 Uhr 281 JUX Bolle reiste jüngst zu Pfingsten 148 JUX Bruder Jakob 238 ZEIT Brüder, reicht die Hand zum Bunde 104 HYMNE Bundeslied 223 STUDENT Bunt sind schon die Wälder 318 ZEIT
    [Show full text]
  • Steve Jones Les Paul Custom
    STEVE JONES LES PAUL CUSTOM With just one album, 1977’s Never Mind the Bollocks Here’s the Sex Pistols, Steve Jones revitalized rock guitar—shaking it back to its brutal three-chord roots, and defining the sound of punk. This thrilling, groundbreaking album catapulted the band’s four members into a chaotic ride that lasted all of one tumultuous year. Throughout, a white mid ’70s Les Paul Custom was defiantly slung over Jones’ shoulder as he delivered some of the raunchiest—and surprisingly melodic—playing the first wave of English punk ever produced. Over the years, this white Les Paul Custom with pin-up girl stickers has become one of rock and roll’s most iconic symbols. The Gibson Custom Shop Steve Jones Les Paul Custom is a painstaking recreation of this legendary instrument. The Gibson Custom Shop Steve Jones Les Paul Custom is Gibson’s heartfelt tribute to one of rock’s most unsung and unlikely heroes, and to the guitar he used to make history. STEVE JONES LES PAUL CUSTOM THE CUSTOM SHOP DIFFERENCE Body & Hardware: Passion. Carved Maple top 1 piece mahogany back It burns in the heart of every player who purchases Multi-ply white/black binding on top and back a Gibson Custom Shop guitar... and it burns in the Aged Yellow finish heart of every employee who helps build our Gold – Aged hardware world-class instruments. ABR-1 bridge, stop-bar tailpiece We vow to continue infusing every instrument that Neck & Headstock: passes through our doors with that same passion. 1-piece mahogany neck It’s what makes our guitars the best.
    [Show full text]
  • Punk and Rock Reign at Christie's New York
    For Immediate Release October 28, 2008 Contact: Sara Fox 212.636.2680 [email protected] PUNK AND ROCK REIGN AT CHRISTIE’S NEW YORK NOVEMBER POP CULTURE SALE The Sex Pistols A promotional poster for the 1977 Virgin Records' single God Save The Queen, designed by Jamie Reid. $2,000 - 3,000 New York – Christie’s New York Pop Culture: Punk/Rock sale on November 24 will continue to bring fresh, new markets to auction with a Punk and Rock collection, and a selection of Designer Toys. The various owner collections of Punk memorabilia feature bands from the Ramones to The Clash and The Sex Pistols, and include posters, records, clothing, autographed material and ephemera. Designer Toys feature visionary creators such as Kidrobot, Suckadelic and Frank Kozik. Rock highlights in the auction are rare guitars owned by Bob Marley and Kurt Cobain, studio tapes with written orchestration notes by Jimi Hendrix, and the original artwork for the cover of Beastie Boys License to Ill album. PUNK The sale is highlighted with imagery and artifacts of the late seventies and early eighties Punk explosion from both sides of the Atlantic. The most important venues, bands, designers and writers of the Punk movement are showcased through fanzines, flyers, posters, t-shirts, records and photographs. With over 120 lots, estimates range from $300 to $6,000. Musicians and bands include; Blondie, David Bowie, Lou Reed, Mick Rock, Patti Smith, Page 1 of 4 Richard Hell, Sid Vicious, The Clash, The Cure, The Ramones, The Sex Pistols, The Smiths, and The Velvet Underground.
    [Show full text]
  • The Birth of Lounge Punk
    Filthy Lucre Tour. The Sex Pistols, Reviewed by Sam Smith Published on (August, 1996) Last night at Red Rocks the Sex Pistols played ing battle of one-upsmanship. Who can swear their frst American show in eighteen years. That more, outrage more, damn the establishment last American show, in 1978 as I recall, was the more? Even if the band came out and perfectly band's swan song (or so we thought), coming at recreated the sort of spectacle that got them the tail end of a tour that was, if I might misapply banned in the late 70s, so what? Been there, done a few words from Dave Marsh, a bad idea gone that. There are dozens, maybe hundreds, of bands wrong. The way Johnny remembers it, the whole out there who are at least as disgusting and vile as tour--the whole band, even--had become some‐ the Pistols ever were. <p> Apparently, the Sex Pis‐ thing horribly different from what he expected. tols--or maybe I should call them the New and Im‐ The defining moment of the tour was perhaps its proved Sex Pistols--realized all of this, because last: a wasted, defeated Johnny Rotten kneeling on they didn't even try. <p> You knew something was stage, staring into the crowd and uttering those up when Steve Jones took the stage wearing some now-infamous words: "ever feel like you've been VERY shiny pants--my best guess at the fabric is cheated?" <p> So when the band's original lineup silver lame. Johnny, though, would have put (Johnny Rotten, guitarist Steve Jones, bassist Glen Spinal Tap to shame.
    [Show full text]
  • Die EU-Mitgliedstaaten Und Ihre Nationalhymnen
    Geschichte – Kultur – Politik und 28 Länderporträts Die EU-Mitgliedstaaten und ihre Nationalhymnen plus Audio-CD mit allen Hymnen Geschichte – Kultur – Politik und 28 Länderporträts Die EU-Mitgliedstaaten und ihre Nationalhymnen ZUM AUTOR Harry D. Schurdel Geboren 1946 im nordfriesischen Husum, arbeitet als freier Journalist und Publizist vornehmlich für Tages- und Wochenzeitungen sowie für populär wissen- schaftliche Magazine mit Schwerpunkt auf politischen, historischen und landes- kundlichen Themen. Sein besonderes Interesse gilt der Staatssymbolik, wozu er zahlreiche Arbeiten veröffentlicht hat. — Impressum — Zeichenerklärung — Herausgeberin: Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung / bpb, 1985 = fett gedruckte Zahl: Adenauerallee 86, 53113 Bonn, www.bpb.de Jahr der amtlichen Einführung Redaktion: Iris Möckel, bpb (verantwortlich), Simone Albrecht, bpb M = Musik Redaktionelle Mitarbeit: Dr. Gernot Dallinger, Köln T = Text Autor Teil 1: Harry D. Schurdel, Glücksburg (Ostsee) ( ) = in Klammern stehen die Lebens- Zusammenstellung der Daten für Teil 2: Simone Albrecht, bpb daten des jeweiligen Dichters# oder Komponisten#. — Gestaltung: Leitwerk. Büro für Kommunikation, # = steht für die weibliche Form Köln, www.leitwerk.com des vorangegangenen Begriffs Illustrationen: Anika Takagi, Jana-Lina Berkenbusch, Anke Brodersen, Stefanie Großerichter, Ann-Kathrin Hochmuth, Cornelia Pistorius, Katharina Plass (alle Leitwerk) — Druck: Werbedruck GmbH Horst Schreckhase, Spangenberg — Audio-CD: Musik: Stabsmusikkorps der Bundeswehr unter der Leitung von Oberstleutnant Walter Ratzek Aufnahmeleiter: Georges Moreau, Zutendaal / Belgien Toningenieur: Roland Stuppin, wind records, Cloppenburg Vervielfältigung: interdisc media, Alsdorf 1. Auflage April 2014 ISBN: 978-3-8389-7105-6 Bestell-Nr. 1.943 — Bestellung und weitere Infos unter: www.bpb.de/falter 4 VORWORT Die Europäische Staatengemeinschaft wuchs, baute die Schlagbäume zwischen ihren Mitgliedern ab, schuf eine übernationale Währung, und im Zuge der Osterweiterungen ab 2004 traten ihr elf ost- europäische Länder bei.
    [Show full text]