God Save The Queen

Album: Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols (1977)
Charted: 2
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  • God save the queen
    The fascist regime
    They made you a moron
    A potential H bomb

    God save the queen
    She ain't no human being
    And there's no future
    And England's dreaming

    Don't be told what you want
    And don't be told what you need
    There's no future
    No future
    No future for you

    God save the queen
    We mean it man
    We love our queen
    God saves

    God save the queen
    'Cause tourists are money
    And our figurehead
    Is not what she seems

    Oh god save history
    God save your mad parade
    Oh lord god have mercy
    All crimes are paid

    Oh when there's no future
    How can there be sin
    We're the flowers
    In the dustbin
    We're the poison
    In the human machine
    We're the future
    Your future

    God save the queen
    We mean it man
    We love our queen
    God saves

    God save the queen
    We mean it man
    There is no future
    In England's dreaming

    No future
    No future
    No future for you

    No future
    No future
    No future for me

    No future
    No future
    No future for you

    No future, no future for you Writer/s: Glen Matlock, John Lydon, Paul Thomas Cook, Stephen Philip Jones
    Publisher: BMG Rights Management, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Songtrust Ave, Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
    Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 30

  • Jnkmamma from UkJust heard this.... 6 May 2023 Co-writer of Sex Pistols’ ‘God Save the Queen’ reveals updated version and lyrics for Charles - brilliant!
  • Sicks6six from NorthumberlandAll songs have multiple meanings. The obvious and hidden. This song doesn't hide the hidden agenda JR was singing about. Me and JR knew then as did many but it took some a little longer to understand what its really about.
  • Dan Gillespy from Courtenay BcI totally love this cool song.
  • Shaun from CarmarthenJohn Lydon is the first punk, anyone could play in a punk band even if they couldn't play or sing.
  • Nancy from Baltimore, MdI don't really like this kind of music, but this song is really good.
  • Mike from Matawan, Nj"....although druggies and drinkers and girlfriend beaters, they were HAWT!"

    I wonder if you'll feel the same way when you grow up. Maybe it's your karma to have a boyfriend like that.

    BTW, it was Sid who was the druggie and the girlfriend beater.
  • Tay from San Deigo, CaI love the song & i find it hilarious how they mock the country's anthem. they even played this song on a boat passing Buckingham Palace.
  • Jess from Townsville, AustraliaZOMG Johnny Rotten && Sid Vicious...although druggies and drinkers and girlfriend beaters, they were HAWT!
  • Dave from Sterling, FlJohn Lydon was pretty cool ,It was like trying to be as horrible as possible,which is good.
  • Brad from Long Island, NyActually Kane, sid died almost 2 years after the band split, he wasnt that important to them musically as he couldnt really play when he was sober anyway. The Pistols induction into the rock and roll hall of fame is hilarious. Johnny (I think he wrote the note) hand writes a one page diatribe as to why the pistols would never show up to Comparing the rock hall to "urine in wine," "We're not coming. We're not your monkeys and so what?..... true punks to the end

  • Nady from Adelaide, AustraliaSid Vicious had wayyy serious problems....hot though
  • Musicmama from New York, NyTo me, this is the best punk song besides the Dead Kennedys' "Kill The Poor." Both songs are great examples of how the essence of satire is verisimiltude. After I heard "God Save The Queen," I realized that in some way, punk had more in common with old-style jazz: It broke with what the tastemakers said was "fine" music because it was born of harsh experience. Although this song seems to be an act of rebellion, which we associate with youth, it takes an older soul (as jazz does) to come up with this than with all but that very rare rock-n-roll song.
  • Ed from Phoenix, AzThere is/was a great punk band from LA in the 80's named "Mad Parade" who took their name from a line in this song "God save your mad parade". Pretty cool...
  • Kane from Vancouver, WaPretty much, it seems that all The Sex Pistols song were mainly about how to practice nihilism successfuly and how they all felt like crap being pushed around all the time. Jonny was TRYING to offend all the people he thought was keeping him from being someone. In the end came Sid's death and the end of the band.
  • Josh from New London, MnThe thrash metal band Anthrax covered this on their Armed and Dangerous album, excellent song!
  • Nathan from Bruges, BelgiumOf course they were a little bit anarchistic, but not extremistic. Great song, by the way (but I still prefer The Beatles).
  • Nathan from Bruges, BelgiumDid you know the image of The Sex Pistols was all set up by their manager (McLaren)? He said: "Punk is only a manner to sell trousers."
  • Spencer from Mcbride, Canadathis is an awesome song...I wish they wouldnt have been arrested so they could play this on the river for the queen hahaha
  • Pete from Nowra, Australia"well may they say God say the Queen , because nothing will save the Governor General"...sorry just had to say that........ now where was everyone ...
  • Nathan from Defiance, OhThe Sex Pistols should be famous just for having the balls to mock royaltly let alone making good music.
  • Stefanie Magura from Rock Hill, ScIt seems sort of laughable today how much hysteria surrounded the sex pistols. I mean to have the song and artist sensored from the charts? That's actually pretty funny! That songfact that says Glen matlock was fired from the band because he was too nice, is also funny!
  • Matt from Toronto, CanadaSince the song was banned from pretty much all radio stations, in an effort to promote the song, the band set up on a boat and followed the queen's boat in her Silver Jubilee parade on the Themes river. They played this song at full blast and eventually got arrested, but it worked like a charm and helped bring it to number 1.
  • Richard from Bastrop, TxI'd heard about the Sex Pistols for a few months before I heard this song, just like I'd heard about the Beatles for a few months before they appeared on Ed Sullivan. I first heard it on the radio in Chicago in the Spring of 1977. It totally, irreversibly blew my mind! The guitar intro came on and I just stared at the radio with my mouth open, and then the lyrics blasted out (obviously I knew what the song was immediately) and I was in heaven! I thought right then, and still think, it's one of the greatest rock 'n roll songs ever recorded. (I've never understood these geeks who say the Sex Pistols couldn't play!) I immediately jumped on the bus and went to the reocrd store and bought it as a single, along with White Riot and 1977 by the Clash, whom I'd heard about but never acutally heard. The next year and a half in Chicago was complete Punk Pandemonium, and rock 'n roll hasn't been the same since. What's more, I think Never Mind the Bollocks is the greatest rock 'n roll record ever recorded, by far.
  • Lazer from Buffalo, NyI heard that Glen Matlock left the band because his mother thought the lyrics were to vulgar.
  • Megan from Portsmouth, Englandi still do feel alienated by the monarchy. sex pistols, were r they wen ya need em.
  • Dave from Cardiff, WalesThe Sex Pistols split up not long after the release of this song. John Lydon went on to form Public Image Ltd. in 1978 with Jah Wobble (he of Jah Wobble and his Inavaders of the Heart fame in the 1990s), and so went on to further success during the 1980s. PIL had 11 hit singles in the UK before disbanding in 1992. Lydon subsequently featured on Leftfield's 1993 hit "Open Up", before briefly reforming the Sex Pistols in 1996, but the reunion did not last long.
  • Spyder from Someplace, MdThe blank spot on the charts was because of the uproar the Sex Pistols had made, remember at the time it was unheard of for anyone to do anything this blatant. I believe they hold the distinct honor of having the only song at #1 where the name of the song and the artist were both censored from the charts :)
  • Si from London, EnglandThe title was actually "No Future" but this was changed to "God Save the Queen" when the release date was found to be close to that of the queen's silver jubilee in 1977.

    The irony, of course, is that the song doesn't actually insult the queen at all, it actually attacks the government of the UK. The newspaper hysteria of the time, stating that the song "calls the queen a moron" was incorrect. If you listen to the lyrics, they actually say "your fascist regime, they MADE YOU a moron".
  • John from Seattle, WaThe band was dropped from EMI after a public uproar because Steve Jones said "f--k" during an interview on the Bill Grundy talk show. Siouxsie Sioux was one of the groupies on the set with them. The band was later dropped from A&M, reportedly, after either Jones or Paul Cook threw up on an old woman at Heathrow airport.
  • Chad from Huntington Station, Ny"In the UK, this outsold the #1 song at the time, Rod Stewart's "I Don't Want To Talk About It," but it mysteriously and controversially stayed at #2." - actually there was a blank spot where no. 1 was supposed to be on the british charts. Rod waqs shown as no.2
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