God Save the Queen (B-side Did You No Wrong) was the second single by punk band the Sex Pistols.

Overview

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The single was released on May 27, 1977, and was taken by much of the general public as an assault on Queen Elizabeth II and the monarchy. The title is directly taken from God Save the Queen, the de-facto British national anthem. At the time it was highly controversial, firstly for its equation of the Queen with a "fascist regime", and secondly for a perceived claim that England had "no future".

The Sex Pistols originally wanted to call the song No Future, but their manager Malcolm McLaren knew the Queen's Silver Jubilee was approaching. He convinced the band to change the song's name to God Save the Queen and delay the song's release to coincide with the Jubilee. Although many would believe it was created because of the Jubilee, the band denies it, Paul Cook saying "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 saying "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 sick of seeing them mistreated." clearing his intentions to be sympathetic for the common British working class, and a general resentment for the monarchy.

Many observers argue that God Save the Queen sold more copies in Jubilee Week than the official number 1, Rod Stewart's cover of The First Cut is the Deepest, and that it was held at number 2 for political reasons. This has been denied by some insiders, including Richard Branson, then head of Virgin Records. When it was released, it was banned by most radio stations and those broadcasters who did play it, never played it during the day.

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, the band and some of their entourage were arrested.

The phrase "no future", the song's closing refrain, became emblematic of the punk movement, although its use in the song was ambiguous, the lyrics claiming that "there is no future in 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 the going rate as of 2006 being around £13,000 a copy. There are only 9-12 known copies left.

The song also features on the album Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols, and several compilation albums.

The song was covered by Anthrax on their Armed And Dangerous EP in 1985, and by Motörhead on their We Are Motörhead album in 2000.

External link

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• Lyrics from Lyriki

1977 singles | 1977 songs | Sex Pistols songs | Singles banned by the BBC

God Save the Queen (Sex Pistols) | God Save the Queen (piosenka Sex Pistols)