God Save the Queen

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Wikipedia:God Save the Queen (disambiguation)

"God Save the Queen" is a song by the English Wikipedia:punk rock band Wikipedia:Sex Pistols. It was released as the band's second single and was featured on their only album, Wikipedia:Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols. The song was released during Wikipedia:Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee in 1977.

The record's lyrics, as well as the cover, were controversial at the time, and both the Wikipedia:BBC and the Wikipedia:Independent Broadcasting Authority refused to play the song.

The song reached number one on the Wikipedia:NME charts in the United Kingdom (UK) (WP), but only made it to #2 on the official Wikipedia:UK Singles Chart as used by the BBC. This led to accusations by some that the charts had been "fixed" to prevent the song from reaching number one. In March 2001, the BBC wrote that the single "reached number one in the UK in 1977 despite being banned by the BBC".

While Wikipedia has it first and foremost that the song "was regarded by much of the general public to be an assault on Queen Elizabeth II and the monarchy" John Lydon (Johnny Rotten) offers a nuanced retort:

"You don't write '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 with them being mistreated…"

—John Lydon, Johnlydon.com

In other words, "God Save the Queen / We mean it, man! / We love our queen / God saves..." ("man" delivered with a drawn-out sneer) speaks of Republicanism? in the United Kingdom and hatred of Hippies, and "When there's no future / How can there be sin / We're the flowers in the dustbin / We're the poison in your human machine / We're the future, your future" is both sympathy for and exhortation of the English working class (WP).

God Save the Queen cover: A visual portmanteau of :
1. The bars covering the eyes used to protect the anonymity of persons pictured in mass media
2. The random assortment of letters from different typefaces glued onto communications made by kidnappers and others who wish to hide their identities for other reasons, and
3. A gag tied over the mouth to silence prisoners, which last image has seen a resurgence in the dollar bills taped over the mouths of Occupy protestors as a street theatre representation of corporate ALEC and .
Really pretty darn clever

There is some controversy over whether the song is a comment on contemporary events. It has been denied outright by Paul Cook that the QEII Silver Jubilee pageantry had anything to do with God Save the Queen's release, and John Lydon seems content to let Cook's statements stand, in discussions that come near the issue, Paul Cook says 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."

But most who listen to the lyrics, "God save the queen /'Cause tourists are money / And our figurehead / Is not what she seems / Oh God save history / God save your mad parade / Oh Lord God have mercy / All crimes are paid..." hear a reframing of the Silver Jubilee as a concoction, mixed for the masses, of a tourist trap and a happy deadening of the senses with nostalgia and Patriotic Correctness

Overview

Around 1977, the punk subculture began to diversify with the proliferation of factions such as Two Tone (WP), Oi! (WP), pop punk(WP), New Wave, and No Wave (WP).

At the same time, punk rock was to gain the same amount of notoriety, fame, followers, and wannabes that the Beatniks and the Hippy Movement had, and the Grunge scene later would.

The notoriety of a London band, the Sex Pistols, had grown considerably in the preceding two years, with many incidents that had made news, but their release of a single attacking the monarchy's extravagant and out-of-touch frippery at a time of grinding hatred for the status quo was exactly what a good-sized section of the population wanted to hear.

The single was released on 27 May 1977. The title is taken directly from the Wikipedia:national anthem of the United Kingdom (UK) (WP): "Wikipedia:God Save the Queen". At the time it was highly controversial, firstly for its equation of the Queen with a "fascist regime", and secondly for its claim that England had "no future".

The 6th of February 1977 was the Wikipedia:Silver Jubilee anniversary of Wikipedia:Queen Elizabeth II's coronation, and the ceremonial machine of the Wikipedia:British Royal Family was gearing up, and continued to gain momentum, culminating in June with the official "Jubilee Days," held to coincide with the Wikipedia:Queen's Official Birthday.

A riverboat concert, blasting their version of God Save the Queen (WP) at the Wikipedia:Palace of Westminster, and the subsequent 11 arrests, generated enough additional publicity to get the single to number 2, and probably a lot more. As far as these thousands of new fans were concerned, the Sex Pistols reigned, and so punk reigned. But when the Sex Pistols split up, then punk must surely be dead also.

On 7 June 1977—the Jubilee holiday itself—the band attempted to play the song from a boat named The Queen Elizabeth on the Wikipedia:River Thames, outside the Wikipedia:Palace of Westminster. After a scuffle involving attendee Wikipedia:Jah Wobble and a cameraman, eleven people, including several members of the band's entourage, were arrested when the boat docked.

This article contains content from Wikipedia. Current versions of the GNU FDL article God Save the Queen (Sex Pistols song) on WP may contain information useful to the improvement of this article

WP

The song peaked at number 2 (behind Wikipedia:Rod Stewart's "Wikipedia:I Don't Want to Talk About It" released as a Wikipedia:double A-side single along with "Wikipedia:The First Cut is the Deepest") on the official Wikipedia:UK Singles Chart used by the Wikipedia: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. On at least one singles chart for the period, (TOP 20 POPS) the song's No. 2 slot is represented with a blank line. It did hit number 1 on the unofficial Wikipedia:NME singles chart. It was banned by the BBC and the Independent Broadcasting Authority which regulated Wikipedia: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. In 2001 in a unrelated article about the best record covers of all time, the BBC website published the following "God Save The Queen reached number one in the UK in 1977 despite being banned by the BBC and marked a defining moment in the punk revolution". There has been no official statement from the BBC (before or after this article was written) regarding this admission and thus the issue as to whether the song did make it to the top of the British charts still remains unresolved.

The phrase "no future", the song's closing refrain, became emblematic of the punk rock movement. The lyric provided the title of Wikipedia:Jon Savage's award-winning 1991 history of the Sex Pistols and punk rock, England's Dreaming.

There is some controversy over it; while it has been denied outright by Paul Cook that the Silver Jubilee events had anything to do with God Save the Queen's release, it is harder to come to the same conclusion from John Lydon's statement.

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 B-side of the A&M single was "No Feeling" (without an 's'), an early rough mix or performance of "No Feelings". (A later version was released on the Pistols' debut album.) Wikipedia:Record Collector magazine named the A&M single the most collectable record of all time.

"God Save the Queen" was featured on the band's only album, Wikipedia:Never Mind the Bollocks Here's the Sex Pistols, and several compilation albums.

Wikipedia:Rolling Stone ranked "God Save the Queen" number 173 on their list of Wikipedia:The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, one of the group's two songs on the list along with "Wikipedia:Anarchy in the U.K.". Sounds magazine made it their Single of the Year in 1977. In 1989, it was eighteenth 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 third 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 8 October. However, it only made number 42. In 2010, the Wikipedia:New Statesman listed it as one of the "Top 20 Political Songs".

In 2010, the song was amongst the top 10 most controversial songs of all time, in a poll conducted by Wikipedia:PRS for Music.

In 2012 it was announced that the single would be re-released on 28 May, 2012, coinciding with the 35th anniversary of the original release and the Wikipedia:Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II. A Facebook (WP) campaign was also set up, which aims to get the song to reach number one during Jubilee Week. Lydon has voiced his disapproval over the re-release and the campaign, saying in a statement: "I would like to very strongly distance myself from the recent stories and campaign to push 'God Save The Queen' for the number one spot. This campaign totally undermines what The Sex Pistols stood for. It is certainly not my personal plan or aim. I am proud of what The Sex Pistols achieved and always will be but this campaign totally undermines what The Sex Pistols stood for. This is not my campaign. I am pleased that the Sex Pistols recordings are being put out there for a new generation, however, I wish for no part in the circus that is being built up around it."

Cover artwork

Deleted image removed on Wikipedia:

File:Umbrella dallas 1.jpg

the cover of Wikipedia:The Umbrella Academy Dallas #1 was inspired by this single

The record cover, depicting a defaced picture of Queen Elizabeth II, was designed by Wikipedia:Jamie Reid and in 2001 was named number 1 in a list of 100 greatest record covers of all time by Q Magazine.

Cover versions

Motörhead version

Template:Infobox single A cover version by the English heavy metal band Wikipedia:Motörhead was released as a single in 2000 to promote their album, Wikipedia:We Are Motörhead.

The cover art gives further reference to the Sex Pistols by using the same cut-out words to form the title as the Sex Pistols' single cover.

A performance of the song recorded during the band's twenty-fifth anniversary concert at Wikipedia:Brixton Academy, on 22 October 2000, appears on their Wikipedia:25 & Alive Boneshaker DVD.

Single track listing

1. "God Save the Queen" (Wikipedia:Paul Cook, Steve Jones, Wikipedia:John Lydon, Wikipedia:Glen Matlock)
2. "One More Fucking Time" (Wikipedia:Lemmy, Phil Campbell, Wikipedia:Mikkey Dee)
3. "God Save the Queen (Enhanced Video)" (Cook, Jones, Lydon, Matlock)

Personnel

• Phil Campbell - guitar, vocals
• Mikkey Dee - drums
• Lemmy - bass, lead vocals

The SCTV satire

On the 18 March 1983 episode of SCTV in the Mel's Rock Pile segment, Mel Slirrup (Wikipedia:Eugene Levy) has a tribute to punk rock featuring a number by the band The Queenhaters—Wikipedia:Martin Short (lead singer), Wikipedia:Andrea Martin (lead guitarist/back-up vocals), Wikipedia:Eugene Levy (secondary guitarist), Wikipedia:Joe Flaherty (bass), and Wikipedia:John Candy (drummer)—performing "I Hate The Bloody Queen", a sound-alike song that almost matches the original it is spoofing, with references to the Wikipedia:Falklands War ("I'd like to drown the Queen/Off the coast of Argentine/Throw her off a battleship/With her Falkland war machine!") and the problems that Wikipedia:Princess Diana was, and would be soon having with her in-laws ("I feel sorry for you, Lady Di/Having a mother-in-law like that!"). This spoof of The Sex Pistols' "God Save the Queen" even has its own cover version by Wikipedia:Mudhoney on the tribute album Oh Canaduh! 2.

Other covers/uses

• The song was covered by Anthrax on their Armed and Dangerous EP in 1985.
• The last part of the song with Rotten singing "no future" is sampled repeatedly, by Rotten/Wikipedia:John Lydon on his post-Sex Pistols band Wikipedia:Public Image Limited (PIL) song "Acid Drops".
• Part of the song was played by the Wikipedia:Foo Fighters in the 2007 Wikipedia:MTV Europe Music Awards.
• It was also covered by Bathory on their final box set.
• UK rock band The Enemy performed the song live as part of their two homecoming gigs at Coventry's Wikipedia:Ricoh Arena in 2008.
• In 2009, Nouvelle Vague released a cover of the song on their album 3.
• Madonna sampled the song during "Wikipedia:Dress You Up" on her 2009 Wikipedia:Sticky & Sweet Tour.
• A cover version named "God Save The President" serves as the national anthem of the fictional country Wikipedia:Groland.
• Wikipedia:The Bad Shepherds with Wikipedia:Adrian Edmondson do a folk influenced cover of the song on their album Yan, Tyan, Tethera, Metheral.

See also

• Punk (WP)
• Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols (WP)

External links

• "God Save The Queen" Songfacts entry
• Mel's Rock Pile segment with The Queenhaters singing 'I Hate The Bloody Queen'