My Way

## Single by Sex Pistols

"**My Way**" is a song written by Gilles Thibaut, Jacques Revaux, and Paul Anka, that was popularized by Frank Sinatra in 1969. Sid Vicious did a cover that was included in the Sex Pistols' soundtrack album, *The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle* (1979) and his own live album, *Sid Sings* (1979).

## Background

Regarding the film's iconic scene where Vicious blows up the audience, director Julien Temple remarked in a 1979 *NME* interview that he "really like[d] the bit". He continued, "It's a very good example of the Sex Pistols' attitude. Especially given Sid's character as a kind of social actor, or whatever he was, with the annihilation of that song. To me it is tremendous. All the egotism and the individualism and the hypocrisy involved in that song and the audience lapping it up and getting shot to pieces is just wonderful to me".

Anka commented that he felt "somewhat destabilized by the Sex Pistols version".

However, Leonard Cohen was much more positive of the rendition, and said of the song:

> "I never liked this song ['My Way'] except when Sid Vicious did it. Sung straight, it somehow deprives the appetite of a certain taste we'd like to have on our lips. When Sid Vicious did it, he provided that other side to the song; the certainty, the self-congratulation, the daily heroism of Sinatra's version is completely exploded by this desperate, mad, humorous voice. I can't go round in a raincoat and fedora looking over my life saying I did it my way—well, for 10 minutes in some American bar over a gin and tonic you might be able to get away with it. But Sid Vicious's rendition takes in everybody; everybody is messed up like that, everybody is the mad hero of his own drama. It explodes the whole culture this self-presentation can take place in, so it completes the song for me."
>
>

## Lyrics

**Lyrics**
[Verse 1]

And now, the end is near

And so I face the final curtain

You cunt, I'm not a queer

I'll state my case of which I'm certain

I've lived a life that's full

And each and every highway

And that, much more than this

I did it my way

[Verse 2]

Regrets I've had a few

But then again, too few to mention

I did what I had to do

I saw it through without exemption

I've planned each charted course

Each careful step along the highway

And more, much more than this

I did it my way

[Verse 3]

There were times

I'm sure you knew

When there was fuck, fuck

Fuck all else to do

But through it all

When there was doubt

I shot it up or kicked it out

I faced 'em all and the world

And did it my way

[Verse 4]

I've loved and been a snide

I've had my fill, uh

My share of losing

And now the tears subside

I find it all so amusing

To think, I killed a cat

And might I say

Not in the die way

Oh no, oh no, not me

I did it my way

[Verse 5]

For what is a brat

What has he got

When he wears hats

And he cannot

Say the things he truly feels

But only the words

Of one who kneels

The record shows

I fucked no bloke

And did it my way

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Grow, Koby (2 February 2019). "Flashback: Sid Vicious Blows an Audience Away Singing 'My Way'". *Rolling Stone*.
2. ↑ Snow, Mat (February 1988). "Cohen's Way". *The Guardian*.