The Sex Pistols

Another one of the head-scratchers when it comes to the flood of Sex Pistols semi-legal releases, The Swindle Continues attempts to be some sort of counterpart to the official Great Rock & Roll Swindle album, and only partially succeeds. Assembled once more from soundman Dave Goodman's poorly annotated archives -- indeed, there's no description anywhere as to where any of the tracks came from -- it's a dog's breakfast-and-a-half of earlier demos and alternate cuts. The first half consists of Johnny Rotten-sung numbers and barring slightly stronger bass on a few songs like "Problems," and some more specific New York Dolls-naming lyrics on "New York," it's not much more than alternate takes for hardcore fans. There's one nice extra, though -- a full take on the Stooges' "No Fun," which, when originally released, got cut off near the end. Here the same take runs all the way to the conclusion, an okay if not deathless bonus. The remaining songs -- credited to the Ex-Pistols -- supposedly feature various Steve Jones and Sid Vicious-sung efforts. There are a couple of honest rarities on here, admittedly, but not exactly crucial ones -- and more to the point, a number of out-and-out frauds. "Revolution in the Classroom," "Dancing on the Dole," and "Judging Minds" are all non-Pistols numbers created by Goodman years later with some friends, and can be duly ignored as the idiocy they are, vaguely catchy at best. The attempt at an acoustic cover of "Anarchy in the UK" is more successful while an alternate (and for once legitimately by the real group) take on "Silly Thing" is an okay extra. There's a funny counterpart to the bemusing "Black Arabs" medley on Great Rock & Roll Swindle -- "Sex on 45," a cover-version attempt to stitch various Pistols songs into a disco megamix that's half successful, if not exactly any threat to Larry Levan or François Kevorkian. ~ Ned Raggett, All Music Guide