God Save the Queen (chanson)

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God Save the Queen (Sex Pistols song)

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God Save the Queen

Single de Sex Pistols
extrait de l'album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols

Sortie	27 mai 1977 8 octobre 2007 (réédition à l'occasion du 30e anniversaire)
Enregistré	Londre, Angleterre
Durée	3:20
Genre	Punk rock
Format	45 tours : Dans le monde entier
Auteur	Sex Pistols
Compositeur	Sex Pistols
Producteur	Chris Thomas Bill Price
Label	Virgin Records
Classement	#2 (Royaume-Uni)

Singles de Sex Pistols

"Anarchy in the U.K."
(1976) "Pretty Vacant"
(1977)

God Save the Queen est le deuxième single du groupe britannique de rock punk les Sex Pistols. Il sortit durant le vingt-cinquième anniversaire de l'accession au trône de la reine Élisabeth II (appelé Silver Jubilee) en 1977 et atteignit la deuxième position du hit-parade britannique. Les paroles, tout comme la pochette, faisaient polémique à l'époque, et la chanson fut retirée des ondes de la BBC.

Vue d'ensemble

Le single sortit le 27 mai 1977, et fut considéré par beaucoup parmi le grand public comme une agression envers la reine Élisabeth II et la monarchie^{[réf. nécessaire]}. Le titre est directement emprunté à God Save the Queen, l'hymne national britannique. À l'époque, cela prêtait notoirement à controverse, premièrement à cause de l'identification de la reine à un « régime fasciste », et deuxièmement à cause de l'affirmation apparente que l'Angleterre n'avait pas d'avenir (« no future »).

Bien que beaucoup pensent qu'il fut créé à cause du jubilé, le groupe réfute cette croyance : selon Paul Cook, « Nous ne l'avions pas écrit spécialement pour le jubilé de la reine. Nous n'en étions pas au courant à l'époque. Il ne s'agissait pas d'un effort volontaire en vue d'être diffusés et de choquer tout le monde. »

[À traduire et adapter (références, liens internes...) à partir d'ici (juste après everyone).] [...]and shock everyone." Johnny Rotten has explained the lyrics as follows: "You don't write a song like '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 of seeing them mistreated." His intentions were apparently to evoke sympathy for the English working class, and a general resentment for the monarchy.

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

The song peaked at number 2 (behind Rod Stewart's I Don't Want To Talk About It) on the official UK Singles Chart used by the 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. It did hit number 1 on the unofficial NME singles chart. It was banned by the BBC and the Independent Broadcasting Authority which regulated 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.

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

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 song also features on the album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols, and several compilation albums.

Rolling Stone ranked "God Save the Queen" number 173 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, one of the group's two songs on the list along with "Anarchy in the U.K.". Sounds magazine made it their Single of the Year in 1977. In 1989 it was 18th 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 3rd 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 October 8. However it only made #42.

During the 80's, Toronto art student Todd Graham (Apocalypse Pooh, Blue Peanuts) created a video with the song playing over edited clips of The Archie Show to make it look like the characters are singing the song. The last scene features the Archie character, Betty, with an audio clip of Nancy Spungen on her boyfriend, bassist Sid Vicious. The video was made using a editing program for VHS cassettes, which was a common computer tool during the 1980s. It has recently been removed from Youtube for copyright offences.

Cover Artwork

The record cover, depicting a defaced picture of Queen Elizabeth II, was designed by Jamie Reid and in 2001 was named #1 in a list of 100 Greatest Album Covers of All Time by Q Magazine.

Cover versions

• The song was covered by Anthrax on their Armed and Dangerous EP in 1985.
• Motörhead did so on their We Are Motörhead album, and as a single in 2000.
• Part of the song was played by the Foo Fighters in the 2007 MTV Europe Music Awards.
• The Swedish crossover thrash outfit Inbördeskrig released a faster version of the song on their first demo.
• It was also covered by Bathory on their final box set.
• UK indie band The Enemy performed the song live as part of their two homecoming gigs at Coventry's Ricoh Arena in 2008.

External links

• "God Save The Queen" Songfacts entry