I just wanna do it all surprise!
January 3, 2016 2:39 PM Subscribe
Frankly, that Anarchy in the UK cover is pretty good.
I mean, you can find plenty of points of contrast between it and the original, but basically, if they matter to you, you are not punk rock.
If I heard the Los Punk Rockers cover in 1978, it would have resulted in exactly the same feelings as hearing the sex pistols original.
posted by 256 at 3:03 PM on January 3, 2016 [2 favorites]
I mean, you can find plenty of points of contrast between it and the original, but basically, if they matter to you, you are not punk rock.
If I heard the Los Punk Rockers cover in 1978, it would have resulted in exactly the same feelings as hearing the sex pistols original.
posted by 256 at 3:03 PM on January 3, 2016 [2 favorites]
One of the few actual genius moves that Malcom did was getting one of the best pop producers in the business to work with the Pistols which is why the original is just so damn epic and timeless.
This is fun mind
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:23 PM on January 3, 2016 [1 favorite]
This is fun mind
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:23 PM on January 3, 2016 [1 favorite]
Oh and better bass than Sid, obviously
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:24 PM on January 3, 2016
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:24 PM on January 3, 2016
The bass was played by Glen Matlock on most of the pistols stuff.
posted by marienbad at 3:25 PM on January 3, 2016
posted by marienbad at 3:25 PM on January 3, 2016
Oddly coincidental, I was just listening to this Anarchy in the UK cover earlier today.
posted by kafziel at 3:29 PM on January 3, 2016
posted by kafziel at 3:29 PM on January 3, 2016
Okay, so wiki says Steve Jones played bass on most of it! I stand corrected.
posted by marienbad at 3:34 PM on January 3, 2016
posted by marienbad at 3:34 PM on January 3, 2016
Okay, so wiki says Steve Jones played bass on most of it! I stand corrected.
Matlock - singles, Jones - album, Vicious - pose
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:44 PM on January 3, 2016 [2 favorites]
Matlock - singles, Jones - album, Vicious - pose
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:44 PM on January 3, 2016 [2 favorites]
why the original is just so damn epic and timeless
That and it's just a really really good song (like...what?..6 of the tracks on the album?).
posted by howfar at 4:00 PM on January 3, 2016
That and it's just a really really good song (like...what?..6 of the tracks on the album?).
posted by howfar at 4:00 PM on January 3, 2016
How much more punk rock can this get?
None. None more punk rock.
posted by the bricabrac man at 4:01 PM on January 3, 2016 [2 favorites]
None. None more punk rock.
posted by the bricabrac man at 4:01 PM on January 3, 2016 [2 favorites]
It simply does not get any stupider, stranger, more poorly played, funnier, or nigh-psychotic (and possibly -psychedelic) than this record.
I have heard far, far worse playing than these covers.
posted by Dip Flash at 4:03 PM on January 3, 2016
I have heard far, far worse playing than these covers.
posted by Dip Flash at 4:03 PM on January 3, 2016
Las Vulpess did it beter (Me gusta ser una zorra vs. I wanna be your dog). See also Aviador Dro vs. Joy Division and Duncan Dhu vs The Smiths.
posted by sukeban at 4:16 PM on January 3, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by sukeban at 4:16 PM on January 3, 2016 [4 favorites]
If these were off-kilter amateur versions by punk rock Spaniards, I might be able to share more in the affection for them. As the links explain though, that's not what this is.
What happened is the Spanish equivalent of K-Tel Records wanted to cash in on Sex Pistols-mania, but licensing the originals was either a legal hassle or an expense they weren't willing to incur. So they hired some non-punk ringers (most likely the prog rock band Asfalto) and farted out a whole album cover in minimal time with packaging they hoped might be vague enough to convince people it was the real thing.
I guess what some people are hearing as "true punk rock" roughness is coming across to me as crass commercial shitheads figuring hey, this stuff sounds like shit anyway, so why bother with things like singing anything beyond a vague, absurd approximation of the words or approaching even the rudimentary sound quality of the original record.
There's probably a digression waiting for someone there about how the Sex Pistols were equally crass and indifferent and/or how sloppy cash-in commercialism is a neat parallel for McLaren's presentation of punk. That's a bit facile, but I'm enough of a career contrarian to see the appeal of that argument.
It's certainly fun and listenable as its own demented artifact though. If you only made it through the YouTube video, definitely check out the mp3 links, too. They get weirder and weirder.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 4:27 PM on January 3, 2016
What happened is the Spanish equivalent of K-Tel Records wanted to cash in on Sex Pistols-mania, but licensing the originals was either a legal hassle or an expense they weren't willing to incur. So they hired some non-punk ringers (most likely the prog rock band Asfalto) and farted out a whole album cover in minimal time with packaging they hoped might be vague enough to convince people it was the real thing.
I guess what some people are hearing as "true punk rock" roughness is coming across to me as crass commercial shitheads figuring hey, this stuff sounds like shit anyway, so why bother with things like singing anything beyond a vague, absurd approximation of the words or approaching even the rudimentary sound quality of the original record.
There's probably a digression waiting for someone there about how the Sex Pistols were equally crass and indifferent and/or how sloppy cash-in commercialism is a neat parallel for McLaren's presentation of punk. That's a bit facile, but I'm enough of a career contrarian to see the appeal of that argument.
It's certainly fun and listenable as its own demented artifact though. If you only made it through the YouTube video, definitely check out the mp3 links, too. They get weirder and weirder.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 4:27 PM on January 3, 2016
DirtyOldTown: This is exactly what I'm talking about though. The facsimile is close enough that, to me, 100% of the important punk rock message comes through. I feel that any complaint about the cover not being punk rock essentially requires knowing the history and context of the recording. And knowing that is far less punk rock than is hearing the cover and being inspired.
posted by 256 at 4:41 PM on January 3, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by 256 at 4:41 PM on January 3, 2016 [1 favorite]
Well, this also comes from a tradition dating from Francoist times where foreign hits had their foreign-ness removed (because you weren't supposed to read or listen to things from abroad) and were translated to Spanish inocuousness like this or this.
Mind you, there was probably something in the water back in the 80s.
posted by sukeban at 4:44 PM on January 3, 2016 [2 favorites]
Mind you, there was probably something in the water back in the 80s.
posted by sukeban at 4:44 PM on January 3, 2016 [2 favorites]
(OTOH, at least translating the lyrics avoids the problem of not actually speaking English at all, of course. There's been worse.)
posted by sukeban at 5:00 PM on January 3, 2016
posted by sukeban at 5:00 PM on January 3, 2016
My nomination for the worst punk-type song ever is Queen's Sheer Heart Attack, in which they treated punk as another genre to try out. (And I'm not normally a Queen hater.)
I believe that no thread on Spanish-speaking punk is complete without Los Saicos' Demolición from Peru in 1965.
posted by tallmiddleagedgeek at 5:12 PM on January 3, 2016 [1 favorite]
I believe that no thread on Spanish-speaking punk is complete without Los Saicos' Demolición from Peru in 1965.
posted by tallmiddleagedgeek at 5:12 PM on January 3, 2016 [1 favorite]
I'm sure it wasn't everybody's experience of punk, but for me one of the great ideas was "You don't have to care about what they tell you you have to care about. You don't have to value what they tell you you have to value. What do you actually care about, asshole*?"
So for me it's no nothing that this was a rip-off from the word go. It's jangly, I like how his nasal voice rips through the lyrics, whatever they are, and maybe some angry teen in Seville got this into her hot little hands and she decided she could tear her clothes and wear them around town. So people are certainly free to feel offended, though I'm not completely sure on whose behalf they're feeling that way. Me, I thank you for posting this and look forward to listening to more of the tracks.
I mean fuck it's only music.
-------------------------------
*Obscenity added for genuine punk energy.
posted by benito.strauss at 5:17 PM on January 3, 2016 [1 favorite]
So for me it's no nothing that this was a rip-off from the word go. It's jangly, I like how his nasal voice rips through the lyrics, whatever they are, and maybe some angry teen in Seville got this into her hot little hands and she decided she could tear her clothes and wear them around town. So people are certainly free to feel offended, though I'm not completely sure on whose behalf they're feeling that way. Me, I thank you for posting this and look forward to listening to more of the tracks.
I mean fuck it's only music.
-------------------------------
*Obscenity added for genuine punk energy.
posted by benito.strauss at 5:17 PM on January 3, 2016 [1 favorite]
I'd never heard Sheer Heart Attack before and now I don't know whether to favourite tallmiddleagedgeeks comment or item's.
posted by 256 at 6:44 PM on January 3, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by 256 at 6:44 PM on January 3, 2016 [1 favorite]
What? Sheer Heart Attack came out in 1974, predating punk by a couple of years.
And it's a killer song.
The album Sheer Heart Attack came out in 1974 but did not include a song with that title. The song "SHA" is on News of the World, released in 1977.
posted by FelliniBlank at 7:47 PM on January 3, 2016
And it's a killer song.
The album Sheer Heart Attack came out in 1974 but did not include a song with that title. The song "SHA" is on News of the World, released in 1977.
posted by FelliniBlank at 7:47 PM on January 3, 2016
But of course, the song had been (at least partially) written in '74; I think they demo-ed it, but it wasn't recorded for the album. Why do I know this crap?
posted by FelliniBlank at 7:49 PM on January 3, 2016
posted by FelliniBlank at 7:49 PM on January 3, 2016
What happened is the Spanish equivalent of K-Tel Records wanted to cash in on Sex Pistols-mania, but licensing the originals was either a legal hassle or an expense they weren't willing to incur. So they hired some non-punk ringers (most likely the prog rock band Asfalto) and farted out a whole album cover in minimal time with packaging they hoped might be vague enough to convince people it was the real thing.
Yes, but the crass commercialism ensured that the costs of putting out the record were so low, that "the band" (whether they were according-to-Hoyle "punk" or not is beside the point) could play however the fuck they wanted as long as it made some money. As a psych collector, some of the best psych records in my collection are "exploito" records that were done by anonymous studio musicians screwing around in the studio with a "what the hey" attitude. Before forming the Velvet Underground, Lou Reed used to crank out hundreds of these cash-in exploitation records while working as a songwriter for Pickwick Records. If you've heard some of Reed's compositions from that era (The Roughnecks, "You're Driving Me Insane"; The Beachnuts, "Cycle Annie"; The Primitives, "The Ostrich"), they have a propulsive, primitive vitality that matches watch you'll find on Velvet Underground demos. If penny ante crass commercialism leads to "do anything you get away with as long as it makes money," then I'm all for it. I'll take that low-budget entrepreneurial crass commercialism over corporate homogenization any day.
posted by jonp72 at 8:45 PM on January 3, 2016 [7 favorites]
Yes, but the crass commercialism ensured that the costs of putting out the record were so low, that "the band" (whether they were according-to-Hoyle "punk" or not is beside the point) could play however the fuck they wanted as long as it made some money. As a psych collector, some of the best psych records in my collection are "exploito" records that were done by anonymous studio musicians screwing around in the studio with a "what the hey" attitude. Before forming the Velvet Underground, Lou Reed used to crank out hundreds of these cash-in exploitation records while working as a songwriter for Pickwick Records. If you've heard some of Reed's compositions from that era (The Roughnecks, "You're Driving Me Insane"; The Beachnuts, "Cycle Annie"; The Primitives, "The Ostrich"), they have a propulsive, primitive vitality that matches watch you'll find on Velvet Underground demos. If penny ante crass commercialism leads to "do anything you get away with as long as it makes money," then I'm all for it. I'll take that low-budget entrepreneurial crass commercialism over corporate homogenization any day.
posted by jonp72 at 8:45 PM on January 3, 2016 [7 favorites]
Not actually Spanish (meaning not from Spain), but I've always liked this cover.
posted by lagomorphius at 6:44 AM on January 4, 2016
posted by lagomorphius at 6:44 AM on January 4, 2016
Call me old school, lagomorphius, but I always preferred my hyperlinks to have an
posted by benito.strauss at 9:59 AM on January 4, 2016
href attribute.posted by benito.strauss at 9:59 AM on January 4, 2016
I wonder if there are any German covers? I can picture Dieter from Sprockets somberly intoning
"Ich bin an antichrist!
Ich bin an anarchist!
…und now ve DANCE!"
posted by TedW at 10:14 AM on January 4, 2016 [1 favorite]
"Ich bin an antichrist!
Ich bin an anarchist!
…und now ve DANCE!"
posted by TedW at 10:14 AM on January 4, 2016 [1 favorite]
Since we're on punk and hilariously bad translations I have 6 words to say: "Yo! ¿Me frío o lo soplo?"
posted by signal at 10:31 AM on January 4, 2016
posted by signal at 10:31 AM on January 4, 2016
Spanish Bombs was already a bit wonky in the grammar and pronunciation although we appreciate the effort.
posted by sukeban at 2:34 PM on January 4, 2016
posted by sukeban at 2:34 PM on January 4, 2016
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