Glastonbury 2023: Generation Sex cover Frank Sinatra song ‘My Way’
Featuring Billy Idol and former Sex Pistols members, Generation Sex, covered Frank Sinatra’s iconic song ‘My Way’ during a performance at Glastonbury Festival.
Featuring Billy Idol – the former Generation X frontman – and the band’s bassist Tony James, as well as ex-Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones and drummer Paul Cook, the group performed on the Other Stage between 15:45 and 16:45. During their show, they played a rendition of the Frank Sinatra classic, ‘My Way’.
Famously, ‘My Way’ has been recorded by various artists, including Elvis Presley, but Frank Sinatra popularised it in 1969. His version was set to the music of the French hit, ‘Comme d’habitude’. The English lyrics were written by Paul Anka and are unrelated to the original French version.
There is a deeper Generation Sex connection to ‘My Way’. The late bassist of Sex Pistols, Sid Vicious, did a punk version of the song in 1978 where a significant section of the lyrics were changed, with the arrangement sped up.
Vicious and his partner, Nancy Spungen, changed the words when recording it, using profanities such as “c**t” and “f**k”. Vicious also referenced Sex Pistols frontman Johnny Rotten, who was fond of wearing hats found at jumble sales, “prat who wears hats”. When interviewed in 2007, Paul Anka was asked about Sid Vicious’ rendition of ‘My Way’. He revealed that he was “somewhat destabilized by the Sex Pistols’ version. It was kind of curious, but I felt he [Sid Vicious] was sincere about it.”
Elsewhere, Leonard Cohen was a big fan of Vicious’ rework. He said: “I never liked this song 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.”
Continuing: “I can’t go round in a raincoat and fedora looking over my life saying I did it my way — well, for ten 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.”
Watch Generation Sex play ‘My Way’ at Glastonbury Festival 2023 below.
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