Anarchy in the U.K.

## Single by Sex Pistols

"**Anarchy in the U.K.**" is a song by the Sex Pistols, released as their debut single on 26 November 1976. It has been considered part of the cultural movement, and caused controversy in the nation due to the nature of its lyrics where it wields an anti-authoritarian perspective. Their band manager once stated, "It's a call to arms to the kids who believe that rock and roll was taken away from them. It's a statement of self rule, of ultimate independence."

Bassist Glen Matlock remarked, "Something needed to happen to stir things up back then. It was all quite turgid. If we'd done what everybody else was doing at the time we'd have been a lite jazz rock funk band, kinda like Kokomo... You know that bit in The Blues Brothers where John Belushi says, 'We're getting the band back together because we're on a mission from God'? Now I don't know that we was on a mission from God, but I do think we was on some kind of mission to educate the masses, provide an alternative voice. There was a dearth of music for young people that was of any consequence back then, and I think our mission was to try and stir it up a little bit."

## Background

In the track-by-track, the band explained the process to *Rolling Stone* in 2017:

Matlock: Around the summertime, we were rehearsing and once again I said, "Does anybody got any ideas?" And I had a go at Steve, 'cause I felt I was pushing the band along a bit, but that time he had something, which wasn't much. And he said, "Why don't you come up with something?" And I had half an idea for a big overture, and I just started playing that descending chord progression and everybody picked up on it and said, "Where's it go next?" And I sort of geared it as we went along. John, it happened, had a bag of lyrics – just sheets of paper in a plastic bag – and he pulled something out and he said, "I've been waiting for you to come up with something because I've got this idea." Everybody had been talking about this guy, Jamie Reid, who did our artwork, and he was a bit of an agitprop kind of guy about anarchy. And John had written these lyrics.

Rotten: I have always thought that anarchy is mind games for the middle class. It's a luxury. It can only be afforded in a democratic society, therefore kind of slightly fucking redundant. It also offers no answers and I hope in my songwriting I'm offering some kind of answer to a thing, rather than spitefully wanting to wreck everything for no reason at all, other than it doesn't suit you. I've always got to bear in mind I'm part of a community called the human race and an even tighter community called culture. Why would we want to destroy these things willy-nilly?

I didn't realize how many professional anarchists were out there – and still are. Oh, my God, Marilyn Manson declared himself as an anarchist, this is how absurd it can get. A boy in makeup in a corset don't cut it for me; Alice Cooper did, but that's it. One of them is enough in my life.

Matlock: We'd already recorded it in 1976, and that's how my playing ended upon the album. I remember talking with Duff McKagan, who watched a gig once and came up and said, "Glen, I didn't realize you play all that type of Motown stuff." And on "Anarchy," I'm trying to emulate James Jamerson.

Rotten: The phrase "I am an antichrist/I am an anarchist" really upset Glen Matlock a lot, and I couldn't understand why he picked that. He was, I don't know if "harsh critic" would be the words, but he was always looking for the softer touch. That's what leads to the fractional-ism between Glen and me.

Matlock: It's not true that I didn't like the lyrics. The only line that always made me wince was, "I am an antichrist/I am an anarchist" – they don't rhyme, and it always gets me. Songs that don't rhyme properly gets me somehow. It had nothing to do with the sentiment. But if you then want to go onto a whole sociopolitical argument about whether it is a good thing to have real anarchy in the U.K. and whether that's ever going to happen is another matter. But I was quite proud to be onstage singing that song.

Rotten: On the original demo, at the start of the song, I sang "Words of wisdom" before "right now" and I removed it because there is no point of overdoing it. I always thought if I over-aggrandized it, it wouldn't mean much. When we were rehearsing we always tried to remove what was superfluous; we took out all the extra guitar flurries – Steve willingly did that most sensibly – and Paul would cut a song down to its simple roots. So with the lyrics, it's always for an audience to decide. You can't be dictating, like, "Hello, this is genius, here it comes." [Laughs]. You'll start off at 10.

I prefer the preciseness of opening the song with, "Right now." When we recorded the official version, getting that "Rrright now" was really hard to do. It took me time. They would be telling me to count the beats, and I didn't know what the fuck they meant – what are beats? Paul would always be very helpful with me, but at the same time it was infuriating because I wouldn't know the terminology.

In another interview, Matlock told *Songfacts* in 2018:

"It was quite a lengthy process actually, because initially, we went in with a guy who was our live sound engineer, Dave Goodman, who was kind of good enough. He had never really produced anybody properly, so he didn't have enough clout or wherewithal to tell Malcolm McLaren not to be in the studio. And Malcolm was like the devil at his ear, going, "It's not exciting enough - it's got to be faster." And it was getting faster and faster, and losing all its groove.

"In the end, we effectively went on strike, and said, "No, it's fine," and we got a different guy in, Chris Thomas, who has done some fantastic work over the years. We set up, started playing, and he said, "I think we've got it now."

"The first part of the song is from take three, and the second part is from take five. We were waiting for Rotten to turn up and do the vocals, and he didn't rush down because he was like, "You're useless, you can't play. You've been in there for weeks." And we said, "No. We've done it." We were right all along - we just needed the right person to realize it. And then Steve loaded up the guitars over the next few days."

## Cover artwork

The cover artwork for the song depicts a frayed Union Jack held together with safety pins and office clips. It was designed by English artist Jamie Reid in November 1976, who experimented with the "ransom note" typeface at the time.

## Personnel

* Bill Price – producer
* Chris Thomas – producer
* Glen Matlock – bass, backing vocals, writer
* Johnny Rotten – lead vocals, writer
* Paul Cook – drums, writer
* Steve Jones – guitar, backing vocals, writer

## Trivia and cultural references

* MPLA: A political group in Angola - the Movimento Popular de Libertacao de Angola.
* UDA: The loyalist supporters in the Northern Ireland conflict. The UDA (Ulster Defence Association) supported Britain and opposed the unification of Northern Ireland.
* IRA: The Irish Republican Army, who opposed Britain and were in favor of unification in Northern Ireland.
* Guitarist Steve Jones confessed in a *Rolling Stone* podcast he didn't know what 'anarchy' meant at the time, stating, "I was pretty illiterate back then. I'm not proud of it, but that's just the way it was and I never listened to [the] lyrics." He continued, "I mean, I knew he's on about something. But to me, it was all just great. Whatever it is. The music was what I used to get drawn to. With any bands. Even if it was pop songs. It was the catchiness that drew me in or the chorus. I really didn't listen to, like, if I were to listen to Bob Dylan songs, I wouldn't have a clue what he was singing about. It was too intelligent for me."
* In a piece to *The Times*, Lydon reiterated, "Anarchy is a terrible idea. Let's get that clear. I'm not an anarchist. And I'm amazed that there are websites out there – .org anarchist sites – funded fully by the corporate hand and yet ranting on about being outside the shitstorm. It's preposterous."
* They re-recorded this song for the video game, *Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock*. It was revealed that Chris Thomas actually performed bass on the record, since Matlock left and Sid Vicious was in the hospital with hepatitis.

## Lyrics

**Lyrics**
[Intro]

Right now, heh heh heh heh

[Verse 1]

I am an Antichrist

I am an anarchist

Don't know what I want but I know how to get it

I wanna destroy the passersby

[Chorus]

'Cause I, I wanna be anarchy!

No dogsbody!

[Verse 2]

Anarchy for the U.K. it's coming sometime and maybe

I give a wrong time, stop a traffic line

Your future dream is a shopping scheme

[Chorus]

'Cause I, I wanna be anarchy!

In the city

[Guitar Solo]

[Verse 3]

How many ways to get what you want

I use the best, I use the rest

I use the N.M.E

I use anarchy

[Chorus]

'Cause I, I wanna be anarchy!

The only way to be!

[Guitar Solo]

[Verse 4]

Is this the M.P.L.A

Or is this the U.D.A

Or is this the I.R.A

I thought it was the U.K

Or just another country

Another council tenancy

[Outro]

I wanna be anarchy

And I wanna be anarchy

Know what I mean?

And I wanna be anarchist!

I get pissed, destroy!

## References

1. ↑ "The wisdom of Malcolm McLaren". *NME*. 9 April 2010.
2. ↑ "Anarchy in the UK: How the Sex Pistols’ snarling manifesto changed the face of punk". *Independent*. 24 November 2021.
3. ↑ Grow, Kory (27 October 2017). "Sex Pistols Break Down 'Never Mind the Bollocks' Track by Track". *Rolling Stone*.
4. ↑ Prato, Greg (20 August 2018). "Glen Matlock of Sex Pistols". *Songfacts*.
5. ↑ "Behind the Imagery of "Anarchy in the UK"". 6 October 2020.
6. ↑ "Steve Jones on the Sex Pistols' Real Story". *Apple Podcasts*. 9 June 2022.
7. ↑ McGrath, Nick (31 May 2022). "John Lydon: 'I've no animosity against any of the royal family'". *The Times*.