Stuff I'm Listening To - A Week of Covers - Day 3 - My Way

Viewer Discretion Advised because violence, bad words and such. 

Artist: Sid Vicious

Original Artist: Frank Sinatra

Favourite Lyrics (Cover): 
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 the wall and the world
And did it my way

Favourite Lyrics (Original):
Yes, there were times, I'm sure you knew
When I bit off more than I could chew
But through it all, when there was doubt
I ate it up and spit it out
I faced it all and I stood tall
And did it my way

  
Why?: At 14 years old I was learning a lot about music. If it had not been for Duran Duran's bassist, John Taylor, stating in an interview that the Sex Pistols were one of his favourite bands, I would probably have discovered them much later on. So in my pursuit of all of things Duran Duran (which also meant looking for anything they talked about... Don’t laugh! I only listened to Tago Mago by Can because Mark Hollis said to!) I found myself purchasing the Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle. 

I want to tell you that upon hearing Sid Vicious screeching out old blue eyes’ hit song was some kind of epiphany. It was. It was raw, terrible and noisy. I was amazed. Here was the kind of strange weird unsettling angry energy, mixed with the right amount of childish mischief I was feeling as an angsty teenager, reflected back at me through Sid's off-key howling. This was likely my first jump into punk. I had never heard God Save the Queen, or Anarchy in the UK before this, that I could recall. I never heard the Clash, or any number of great punk bands up until that very moment. And the video, the meaningless violence... I've always been a fan of meaningless fictional violence. After all, horror movies are great fun. 

My dad seemed to really like Frank Sinatra (though my brother assures me, not that much. The multitude of Frank Sinatra's records from his collection? A product of joining Columbia House (you know, the 10 records for a penny thing?) back in the day. I’m not sure if he ever listened to Sid's version with me or not. As with most things that I did in my teenage years, my parents accepted things with a kind of quiet patience in hopes (I assume) that I would outgrow my weirdness. 

As I get older, I've come to appreciate Frank much, much more, and Sid, much less. I've become an old bitter lady, yelling at kids to get off my lawn. But at heart, especially while I'm hooligan riding my motorcycle through the streets, I assure you, I'm singing along, off key, not with Frank, but with Sid. Below, Old Blue Eyes belting out his anthem and Bonus: Comme d'Habitude by Claude François - the song that the music comes from, though it was Paul Anka who wrote the English words (unrelated to the French song) that became the hit that it is.