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God Save the Queen (Sex Pistols song)
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"God Save the Queen" was the second single released by the punk rock band Sex Pistols. It was released during Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee in 1977. It reached number one on the influential NME charts in the UK, but -- controversially -- only made it to #2 on the official UK Singles Chart as used by the BBC. The record's lyrics, as well as the cover, were controversial at the time, and the BBC refused to play the song.
single was released on 27 May, 1977, and was regarded by much of the general public to be an assault on Queen Elizabeth II and the monarchy.
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"God Save the Queen" was the second single released by the punk rock band Sex Pistols. It was released during Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee in 1977. It reached number one on the influential NME charts in the UK, but -- controversially -- only made it to #2 on the official UK Singles Chart as used by the BBC. The record's lyrics, as well as the cover, were controversial at the time, and the BBC refused to play the song.
Overview
The single was released on 27 May, 1977, and was regarded by much of the general public to be an assault on Queen Elizabeth II and the monarchy. The title is taken directly from "God Save the Queen", the British national anthem. At the time it was highly controversial, firstly for its equation of the Queen with a "fascist regime", and secondly for the apparent claim that England had "no future".
Although many believe it was created because of the Jubilee, the band denies it, Paul Cook saying that, "It wasn't written specifically for the Queen's Jubilee. We weren't aware of it at the time. It wasn't a contrived effort to go out and shock everyone." Johnny Rotten has explained the lyrics as follows: "You don't write a song like 'God Save The Queen' because you hate the English race. You write a song like that because you love them, and you're fed up of seeing them mistreated." His intentions were apparently to evoke sympathy for the English working class, and a general resentment for the monarchy.
On June 7, 1977 - the Jubilee holiday itself - the band attempted to play the song from a boat on the river Thames, outside the Palace of Westminster. After a scuffle involving attendee Jah Wobble and a cameraman, eleven people were arrested when the boat docked, including several members of the band's entourage.
The song peaked at number 2 (behind Rod Stewart's I Don't Want To Talk About It) on the official UK Singles Chart used by the BBC, though there have been persistent rumours - never confirmed or denied - that it was actually the biggest-selling single in the UK at the time, and was kept off number 1 because it was felt that it might cause offence. It did hit number 1 on the unofficial NME singles chart. It was banned by the BBC and the Independent Broadcasting Authority which regulated Independent Local Radio, effectively denying it any media exposure. It was also not stocked by some shops. Since the official singles chart at the time was compiled using sales returns from a number of outlets amongst a wider participating roster, it is in theory possible that the single's number 2 position was not the result of disregarding sales figures as such, but of the selection for that week's chart source data of a number of stores which were not selling the record.
The phrase "no future", the song's closing refrain, became emblematic of the punk rock movement. The lyric provided the title of Jon Savage's award-winning 1991 history of the Sex Pistols and punk rock, England's Dreaming.
Before the group signed to Virgin, a small number of copies of "God Save the Queen" had been pressed on the A&M label. These are now among the most valuable records ever pressed in the UK, with a resale value as of 2006 of between £500 to £13,000 a copy, depending on condition of the disc.
The song also features on the album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols, and several compilation albums.
Rolling Stone ranked "God Save the Queen" number 173 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, one of the group's two songs on the list along with "Anarchy in the U.K.". Sounds magazine made it their Single of the Year in 1977. In 1989 it was 18th in the list of NME writers all time top 150 singles. Q Magazine in 2002 ranked it first on their list as "The 50 Most Exciting Tunes Ever..." and 3rd in their list of "100 Songs That Changed The World" in 2003. In 2007 NME launched a campaign to get the song to number 1 in the British charts and encouraged readers to purchase or download the single on October 8. However it only made #42.
Cover Artwork
The record cover, depicting a defaced picture of Queen Elizabeth II, was designed by Jamie Reid and in 2001 was named #1 in a list of 100 Greatest Album Covers of All Time by Q Magazine.
Cover versions
- The song was covered by Anthrax on their Armed and Dangerous EP in 1985.
- Motörhead did so on their We Are Motörhead album, and as a single in 2000.
- Part of the song was played by the Foo Fighters in the 2007 MTV Europe Music Awards.
- It was also covered by Bathory on their final box set.
- UK indie band The Enemy performed the song live as part of their two homecoming gigs at Coventry's Ricoh Arena in 2008.
- In 2008, on a Music Immersion program run by St. Joseph's College Gregory Terrace in Brisbane, Australia, a band of Year 10 students called Citizens Arrest covered the song.
External links
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