2000 Great Songs #1290: Silly Thing

Though credited to the Sex Pistols, the track off the posthumous 1979 film soundtrack The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle isn't really a proper Pistols song; at this point, it was just guitarist Steve Jones and drummer Paul Cook, with both Johnny Rotten/Lydon and Sid Vicious having fled the band. Rather, it's more an introduction to The Professionals, the short-lived band Jones/Cook would helm for a bit. Though if that band had more songs this fun, they might've lasted a little longer.

And let's be clear, it's not the most original song, and certainly lacking the bite of anything on Never Mind The Bollocks (or the Rotten-sung leftovers found on Swindle). But it's a perfectly fun power pop track, beefed up with Jones' furious guitars and Cook's layered vocals, dense and full of reverb, a Phil Spector-styled Wall of Sound punk-pop track. It could've been just a footnote in the band's history but for that chorus, a chewy earworm I still can't get out of my head.

From the Swindle movie:

Steve Jones live 2015:

Cover by Psychopunch:

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