SID VICIOUS – SID SINGS LP –  Nr MINT UK 1979 PUNK SEX PISTOLS

Sid Vicious – Sid Sings
(Virgin Records  1979  V2144)
Matrix No’s: A5/B7 – UK Pressing

Sleeve in Excellent/Very Good+ condition
– some wear to edges/corners
Inner Sleeve in Nr MINT condition
No Poster

Vinyl in Nr MINT condition
(there are some light surface marks visible on the vinyl when held up to the light but they don’t affect the sound quality)

Sid Vicious, born John Simon Ritchie, later named John Beverley (10 May 1957 – 2 February 1979), was an English bass guitarist and vocalist, most famous as a member of the influential punk group the Sex Pistols, and notorious for the murder of Nancy Spungen.

Vicious joined the Sex Pistols in early 1977, to replace Glen Matlock, who had fallen out of favour with the rest of the group. Due to intravenous drug use, Vicious was hospitalized with hepatitis during the recording of the band’s only studio album Never Mind the Bollocks. Accordingly, his bass is only partially featured on one song from the album. Vicious would later appear as a lead vocalist, performing three cover songs, on the soundtrack to The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle, a largely fictionalized documentary about the Sex Pistols, produced by the group’s former manager Malcolm McLaren and directed by Julien Temple.

During the brief and chaotic ascendancy of the Sex Pistols, Vicious met eventual girlfriend and manager Nancy Spungen. Spungen and Vicious entered a destructive codependent relationship based on drug use. This culminated in Spungen’s death from an apparent stab wound, while staying in the Hotel Chelsea, Manhattan, with Vicious. Under suspicion of having committed Spungen’s murder, Vicious was released on bail; he was later arrested again for assaulting Todd Smith, brother of Patti Smith, at a night club, and underwent drug rehabilitation on Rikers Island. In celebration of Vicious’ release from prison, his mother hosted a party for him (at his girlfriend’s residence in Greenwich Village) which was attended notably by the Misfits bassist Jerry Only.

Vicious’ mother had been supplying him with drugs and paraphernalia since he was young, and assisted him in procuring heroin late that night. Vicious died in his sleep, having overdosed on the heroin his mother had procured.

Nearly four weeks after Vicious’ death, the soundtrack album of The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle was released. Later that year, on 15 December, a compilation of live material recorded during his brief solo career was packaged and released as Sid Sings.

Sid Sings is the first released solo live album by English punk rock musician Sid Vicious. It was released posthumously on December 15, 1979 and peaked at number 30 on the British album charts.

The album features the two singles “My Way” and “Something Else“. These songs also appeared in the film and album The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle along with “C’mon Everybody”, which did not appear on this album. Most of the album features cover versions of other artists songs whilst only one original by Vicious is featured on the album, that being “Belsen Was A Gas“, originally a Sex Pistols song that Vicious regularly performed and so far the only known Sex Pistols song that has a solo version done by him.

Track listing

All tracks are live, with the exception of “My Way”.

1. “Born To Lose” (Johnny Thunders)
2. “I Wanna Be Your Dog” (The Stooges)
3. “Take A Chance On Me” (The Heartbreakers)
4. “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone” (Tommy Boyce/Bobby Hart)
5. “My Way” (Paul Anka/Claude François/Jacques Revaux) (alternate version without strings)
6. “Belsen Was a Gas” (Sid Vicious/Sex Pistols)
7. “Something Else” (Sharon Sheeley, Bob Cochran)
8. “Chatterbox” (Johnny Thunders)
9. “Search And Destroy” (Iggy Pop, James Williamson)
10. “Chinese Rocks” (Dee Dee Ramone/Richard Hell)
11. “My Way (I Killed The Cat)” (shorter live version Of “My Way”)

Tracks 2, 3, 10, 11 – 1st set, Max’s Kansas City, New York, September 29th;

Tracks 4, 6, 8, 9 – 1st set, Max’s Kansas City, New York, September 28th;

Track 7 – 1st set, Max’s Kansas City, New York, September 30th.

There are talking bits edited in from both the 28th & 29th sets, including quite a few from the second set of the 28th, although no music is included from that set. This helps at least make sense out of the fact that the LP’s inner sleeve shows a copy of Boogie’s notes from the second set of the 28th used during compiling the LP.

Personnel

• Sid Vicious – vocals, bass (track 1)
• Paul Cook – drums (track 1)
• Steve Jones – guitar and backing vocals (track 1)
• Arthur Kane – bass
• Steve Dior – guitar
• Jerry Nolan – drums
• Claude Engel – guitar (track 5)
• Sauveur Mallia – bass (track 5)
• Pierre-Alain Dahan – drums (track 5)