Belsen Was A Gas (Official) - Taken from Never Mind The Bollocks, 35th Anniversary Box Set
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- Опубліковано 9 вер 2012
- The legendary demo with Johnny Rotten on vocals, only rumoured to exist but never verified until now. Taken from Never Mind The Bollocks Here's The Sex Pistols - 35th Anniversary Box Set. Out 24th Sep 2012 and available for Pre-Order here: bit.ly/OsNxOr
Sid's comment at the end: "still too fast, I can't keep up".
I honestly like this version of the song to be honest. The vocals have more of a ghostly feeling which sets the mood since the song is about a concentration camp.
Exactly how I felt, could have used some volume, but it was a demo…..
The guitar sounds pretty wicked, and I think that’s just one track. The vocals are haunting, and I think I can make out that some were different.
Well said😉
This was taped at Denmark Street, in 1977, and is represented as the tape was found, this is how it appears on the master and cannot be cleaned up, or vocals made clearer. I am just glad we have it now, If you dont like it, then dont buy the box set. you got it for free here, so why are you moaning??
Sex Pistols Maniac I like it sped up a lil more PuNk wouldn’t ya say 😈😎😉👍🏴🇬🇧😜🍻🍻🍻
I aint moanin, I loves it, thanks.was it done at Denmark st studios(TPA)?
@@giulioluzzardi7632 yes it was, October 20th 1977
Love it !!!! Cmon those lyrics are soooo poignant!!! What a gas!! lol
This is most certainly NOT from the Ronnie Biggs Brazilian sessions. The chord progession was changed for the Biggs version. This is from Denmark Street, late 77.
+blondegraemey Yup, and this is the best version
This has clearly put together quite recently.
If you know anything at all about the Sex Pistols that is very obvious. Johnny NEVER ONCE sang those lyrics (Oy Vey etc) for Belsen Was A Gas before the Crystal Palace gig in 2002.
I have heard every single live version available of this song by the Sex Pistols and PiL from 77/78, and not one has lyrics even remotely similar to this, and the lyrics of the live versions don't deviate much at all from each other, whether with PiL or the Pistols. However, all the recent Pistols versions of Belsen Was A Gas have the "Oy Vey" etc lyrics.
That, the purposely distorted vocals and the weird sound, which doesn't sound anything like the other Denmark Street recordings.
Go figure. The Swindle continues.
I'd rather have seen a release of the live Pistols version of Chinese Rocks with Sid on vocals, no matter how crap it is.
@@andershjemdahl6547 It was recorded a year after the other Denmark Street recordings.
@@frankirons9337 Allegedly. But unlikely, due to the lyrics, vocals, and sounding very dissimilar to all other Pistols demos from that time.
I wish they had never been separated ... a second album would be killer, with songs like this.
The great rock n roll swindle? Pirates of destiny? Same old bollocks? Spunk?
@@angusb2439 What's that supposed to mean?
@@mjh5437 all there other albums
@@angusb2439 I know the Spunk one but not Pirates of destiny and Same old bollocks...are they studio recordings?
@@mjh5437 I believe pirates of destiny was some of there first songs they did in 76 such as schools are prisons so I believe a few of them are and also same old was not a studio but nevermind the demos had a few of studio recordings
I love both versions...Thanks Sid !
Fantastic!
For all of you tonedeaf people who thinks this has anything to do with the Biggs version... You're forgetting a couple of key aspects.. Firstly the chord progression in the Biggs version was changed, this is the real chord progression. Secondly, Sid didn't play on that version, here he clearly does. Thirdly, this is clearly a live take in a studio, being a musician myself I can clearly hear that. And lastly, John's vocals sound nothing like PIL, if anything it's similar to his vocals in "Submission"..
well said
what makes it so clear that sid is playing on this?
It's a demo, recorded live in studio. Who else could it be? Also, he wrote it. Also, it's terrible.
@@stitchgrimly6167 Shame on you! This is one of the very best Sex Pistols songs, and Sid Vicious was a great man with lots of talent!
@@WarthDader74 He diden't get a chance to be a man.....nor show or develop what talent he had the poor bastard
There's nothing like a nice feel good song.
Ausgezeichnet! Sehr gut!
BRILLIANT!!!!!
Amazing!!!
I had a copy of this back in ‘89 - ‘90.
It was one of those bootlegs that was floating around.
Rare and hard to find. But once it was had, it was flaunted.
Love it.
Cheers. A wee bit of history revealed.
Love Listening to demo's by pistols, the rawness & all that. No what I mean 🎸🎤
that false start 🔥
Cool. Thanks.
Everyone who thinks the vocals are 'tinkered with' or 'designed to sound the way they do' need to understand, the vocals are being picked up by another mic, most likely the one in front of the guitar amp. They weren't recording the vocals because like most bands they obviously intended to dub them on later. What you're hearing is leakage from the studio monitors. If Johnny's mic had have actually been recorded onto a track it wouldn't have all that ambience and they would have pushed the fader up a tad for this mix don't you think?
"Everyone who thinks the vocals are 'tinkered with' or 'designed to sound the way they do' need to understand, the vocals are being picked up by another mic, most likely the one in front of the guitar amp."
Or doctored to sound like that, to mask the fact that this is Lydon singing it in 2011. Not hard to do. Also, the lyrics are wrong (but strangely the same as Lydon's recent versions of the song), and it sounds nothing like any of the other songs recorded at Denmark Street. Fake.
@@andershjemdahl6547 The lyrics aren't "wrong". If you're familiar with the old live version(s), you'll recognize the first 2 verses actually. The third and fourth verses haven't been performed live on the old versions, but he probably didn't even remember them on stage..
@@Stigmatix666 I believe I've heard all live versions of Belsen Was A Gas, both by PiL in 1978 and Pistols in 1977. The lyrics were very consistent throughout those performances. The lyrics in this version clearly shows that tjis was recorded fairly recently, not only from the bogus "rehearsal/demo" sound, which sounds nothing like any other SP session/demo/rehearsal recordings (and yes, I have them all), but most especially from the new lyrics, which were first introduced at the SP Crystal Palace gig (which I attended, and have recordings of from three different sources). Ever since that gig, Lydon has been signing almost exactly the same (new) lyrics for Belsen Was A Gas, whenever it's been played, but _never_ before that, at any time.
This is obviously fake.
It's still a genuine SP track though, as it was released officially by the band, so there is that.
@@andershjemdahl6547 There is no fucking way the vocal was recorded in 2011. It's clearly 1977 Johnny. He's not singing like a chicken.
@@andershjemdahl6547there's no fucking way this is a recording from 2011, Rotten voice changed A LOT from 1977 to 2011
Lovely
I agree with your comment here, but the LP of Bollocks you refer to is the one with Liar mentioned twice, and Belsen Was A Gas on the sleeve also...This was an early 1980's "Export" edition, not an original pressing. I am a collector, the reason was so Virgin could sell more when people saw the mis-pressed sleeve. But to add to agree with you, this was recorded at Denmark Street by Boogie Tiberi in 1977. as you say, this is no fake.
That's the first copy I ever bought in 1988. Still have it...
sounds perfect 🙂
I love it.
Music is great, but also photo of cover of the tape is so attractive!
i remeber being a kid and just staring at album coverz 4 hours at the record stores in the 70z & 80z what a time of life
The flyers hanging how do you explain it.
I c your post was 9 years ago just look at the changes now
SWEET!
Yes, I have that, it was the Export Edition, Liar was on the cover twice, too
Trainspotter
Un pur bonheur 🔝🔝. J'avais jamais entendu cette version... God save the sex pistols
Definately is a version without the excessive reverb on Rottens vocals. Not sure why it says lost though - I downloaded this from Limewire maybe 10 years ago but the final studio mix. I'll try and dig it out and then post. Just to clarify - The version I have is not the foul version with Biggs on vocals nor is it SId.
Do you still have it?
The guitar riff was written by Keith Levine (PIL) at the request of sid reading out aloud the lyrics to the song he was so proud of , sod in heaven of course would later become Religion . so it seems this song has been floating around since 1976 in one way or another configuration. Also it was covered by at least 4 half decent bands during the second wave of Punk
Love the lyrics.
"Hey Keith, you know Belsen was a gas." So I used to say to him, "What the fuck is that?" and he'd just say, "Yeah Keith, Belsen was a gas" So I said, "Belsen was a gas huh? Well, I'll show you Belsen was a fucking gas; THIS is how it goes man." and I banged out the riff to the tune, which later The Pistols covered. PIL also played it too." Keith Levene
Kind of reminds me of the "deleted" lightsaber construction scene in Return of the Jedi...
Weird, I just brought that scene up in a reply to another post. That's what it reminds me of too, Hammil swore they never filmed that scene then the footage turned up,decades later.
Thanks
wow!!!!
The Pink and Green was the USA edition. Yeah, the one you had was deffo the Export Edition, released in 1985, I just looked through my vinyl copies, and i have two of them.
Love this‼️😍💸🔥
There was a music journalist by the name of Lou O' Neil who wrote a music column for The New York Post. He wrote a whole article right before Belsen Was A Gas was to be released. I remember him saying how The Sex Pistols USA label Warner Brothers was wrong in putting this out because of the lyrics, He also mentioned Virgin Records UK. The first time I've seen and heard this song was a live bootleg 45rpm with Belsen Was a Gas(Live) with Anarchy In The USA(Live) on the b-side.
Another studio version of this is going to be released shortly, lets hope the vocals are better!
Unfortunately, I don’t think there is another one. Apparently, this was done at Denmark St, where recording gear was mostly for demos, and rehearsals, and this is the master copy, found almost by accident. I’m spite of what’s written on it. It wasn’t done at Wessex Studios, where they recorded what they were going to release.
There are some cool live versions, the one on the infamous Winterland Last Stand on 14th of Jan 1978, the best quality version is on the “Great R&R Swindle, and there’s a killer version now that they have released the whole Dallas Tx gig from 10/1/1978, and now one from the Ivanhoe gig on Xmas 1977, the last gig in England with Sid, it was a free concert for striking firemen, a matinee for the kids during the afternoon and a Adult gig at night.
PiL’s version sucks, as does the Ronnie Biggs version on the TGR&RS. (IMHO of course) 🙂
The best version by far is the live version from the Longhorn gig
Love love love rock 2022
And to think it ended up being recorded in a proper studio with Ronnie Biggs on vocals instead of Rotten with different guitar chords for the verse and an X-ray Spex sax solo on it.
Was it the planned next Pistols single?. If so it would surely have been banned too.
Found a boot of PiL's first gig @ the Rainbow. This is the forth or fifth song on the set list. I'll give it a listen.
Love love rock 2022
I'm suprised too, but It's great to finaly hear it. I think Boogie recorded it (Sid Sings).
wonderful track from Sid Vicious !
Dont forget Keith Levene...
@@ninjannewhat did Keith come up with the music for this?
I always thought it weird that Sid for a guy who could just about learn the Pistols repotoir parrot fashion could actually come up with this song all on his own. Tune and lyrics.
So was it a Flowers of Romance song?
PiL played it for their first few early gigs in 1978 and then dropped it.
@@twistedspanner they wrote it together at the flowers of romance time
@@ninjanneI love PiL's version. It sounds like the early Banshees with Jim Walker on drums
PiL also did Problems during their first few gigs. Not too complicated for Wobble.
I think they used the same method to record the vocals as Bowie used in the last verse of Heroes, namely, to pick up the voice from far away by placing the microphone down the corridor or somewhere. The Beatles did this a bit, too!
be interested to see the lyrics from this version .. they see to differ from the Winterland one?
This kind of sounds like there was a bit of studio tinkering to make this appear as a "lost" studio track. The echo and hollowness of the vocals appears that it might be from a live recording. While the instrumental parts might actually be an out-take from the Ronnie Biggs re-recording. It might not be, but it does appear that way.
When was released this song? At Chris Spedding's sessions, at Dave Goodman's, another?
I love how everyone in the comment section is an armchair sound technician..
This is clearly live and raw in the studio, for one.
Regarding the vocals, they are obviously *temp vocals* or place holder vocals, if you prefer. They’re not recorded by themselves, but bleeding into everything else. Being picked up by the mics for the drums, bass and guitar.
It would clearly have sounded better if they had been more prominent.
Also, that’s definitely Sid on the bass.
NICE
@philquinton Interesting! Who was Keith Levine speaking to there? Sid would be my guess.. :-)
does anyone have the lyrics to this version?
dahora!
Problems is reasonably good in the version that Spedding did with them. Worth a listen. Did You No Wrong ended up as a non-album B-side, so I think we know everybody's opinion there!
Fuckin Great!
where I can download it?? You can upload the audio to download??
Yeah I gotta agree I do like this version 🏴🏴🅰️🏴🏴🍺😊💣💥🔥
great fucking great now i can die happy!
you could put a link to download the audio?
💎
THIS I LIKE...
Does that say 8 then 14 (crossed out) mixes on the tape?? I think Boogie claimed to record this, who was close to Sid, he also recorded the sonic masterpiece Sid Sings. Looks like his scribble too. It would be nice to get Tim Young's take on what went down during the remastering etc...
Funny you said that, the first thing that came into my head on hearing this is that it wouldn't have sounded out of place on PIL's first album.. So it's really Keith Levene's riff?
not bad but why has it taken so long to find this recording???? its funny how it came to light just in time for nmtb 35th anniversary!!!!!
Fucking brilliant,
At last the near mythical demo of belsen, personally I couldnt give two shits about the quality of vocals its just good to hear it at last, I will have to think twice about buying it now though cos this track was one of the reasons I was going to.
Miss the manic laughing ala Winterland, interesting seeing them try something different, Sid does a good job on bass too. Makes you wonder what a second LP would have sounded like.
The Great Rock n Roll Swindle LTD ?
There may well have been a Chris Thomas version of this too, recorded for NMTB, as there are 2 or 3 mockups of the album cover with the song included.
Seems to be some confusion as to whether the 2CD set of the new release (£15 mark) has the demos/rarities as Disk 2, or the live Disk 2, or if there are 2 versions of it or what. HMV, for one, says the former; Universal the latter.
I'm certainly not shelling out £95 for it! What a rip off.
In 1986 I had a copy of the album. On the back, Holidays In The Sun was omitted from the artwork. In its place was Belsen Was A Gas. Anyone else have that version?
Shame this lacks the fire of the San Francisco version. That one was evil.
The Longhorn version is miles better and in your face
The chord changes remind me of the ramones
Yeah it does sound like something that could've been on "Road To Ruin."
Sid was a Ramones mark
Eh.. no. The Ramones never played dissonant chords/illogical chord combinations. D - C - D - D# is dissonant.
I don't know about this version, but I know there was a live version on the 2002 box set.
The guitar tone even predates the scuzzy buzz saw sound on Never Trust a Friend by Chaotic Discord and later Darkthrone Blaze/UaFM. Must be that Fender Twin and Gauss Speakers.
Ok...Thanks.
I wonder if the vocals are supposed to sound like this... They sound quite similar to what Lydon went on to sound like with Public Image Ltd to me.
If anyone bothered reading anything related to this song, Sid "plays" bass on this track.
BRILLIANT FINEST 📎🖇😎🔗🔒
Gee, thanx. I thought it was.
someone could use this instrumental and mix with another vocal from a live show or whatever ...
Зашибись! Панки ХОЙ!!!
I had to sell some family china to get this bloody box set ....but the good news is the Spunk demos are at the right speed and the Thomas out takes sound amazing...it's what you want......the price of the box set is disgusting
WOW!!! THE ORIGINAL!!!
８８年頃ピストルズの海賊版を買い集めてたけどコレ持ってたわ。でもこんなにエコーかかったような声だったかな?という印象。
Here the pistols jeje more more more live in longhorn best final
I'm have a feeling that this 'leaked' preview will not be the mix that ends up on the final release. Sometime an engineer will record the vocal track and the vocal effects track (reverb in this case) on two different tracks of the multitrack. Maybe we're just hearing a mix with the vocal reverb track featured and the finished mix will be much better, ie we'll hear the singing a lot clearer. Well, I can live in hope...
maybe your just hearing a vocal reverb track? ummm yeah.
The lyrics are likely obscured today for the same reason the song was never released in the first place. Subject matter. A good number of people in the world (And a good deal of them own the music complainies) are still not ready to hear a DJ ever play this on the radio.
Sid on bass?
Это улёт
Still pretty good though whether it's them or not,
The Dallas version is the best version
According to Wikipedia, two demos have been released. One in 2012, one in 2014 ("demo 2").
However, I can only find one version. (The audio of this video from 2012, which I guess is the first demo.)
Where exactly can the other demo be found?
Wikipedia: The lost demo version of the song was rediscovered during a recent move from Virgin Records to Universal Music Catalogue. It was included in a Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols box set that was released on 24 September 2012. This demo version features very faint, reverbed vocals.[8] A different version of the song - titled simply "Belsen Was a Gas Demo 2" - was released as part of a single box on 19 April 2014.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belsen_Was_a_Gas
this is demo 2 actually
that was only by Lydon, Pistols dont play on it, but i agree it is good and we should hear it fully
Who played the bass then?
Great song anyway.
Steve Jones gutair is visceral
What lyrics? They're buried in the mix. For the record, this wasn't written by the Pistols. Sid and Keith Levene put it together.
now we know punk's not dead!
Steve's guitar tone...
This sounds like something of the first pil album it's smart as was tossers complaining about the sound quality it sounds clear on my I pad , only shame is how expensive the box set is
Lyrics??
GODS
Sex Pistols for ever
Punk's not Dead