Talk:Belsen Was a Gas

This page was proposed for deletion January 2005. The discussion is archived at Votes for deletion/Belsen Was A Gas. Joyous 16:40, Feb 5, 2005 (UTC)

In early track listings of 'Never Mind The Bollocks', I noticed 'Belsen' was included. To see for yourself, go to www.anorakyintheuk.co.uk. It is very hard to see, but look close and you'll find it. I was just wondering if it was recorded for 'Never Mind The Bollocks' and then dumped. P.S. - If anybody has the lost Belsen tape with Rotten on the vocals, please release to the public!!!! PLEASE!!!!! User: Anonymous 19:58, Feb 22, 2005


 * The currently available version of The Great Rock'n'Roll Swindle CD has the song on it, but its title is listed as "Einmal War Belson Bortrefflich". It definitely has Johnny Rotten on vocals. The next track on the CD is "Einmal War Belson Wirflich Bortrefflich" which is essentially a different recording the same song with someone else on vocals and a saxophone solo. It's clear to me that the song was meant to be sarcastic, because the Rotten version ends with the line "Be a man/Be someone/Kill someone/Kill yourself". Druff 07:17, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

If the page stays it should perhaps mention that there were in fact no gas chambers at Belsen, since it was not designed as an extermination camp. Presumably the Sex Pistols just didn't know that? Flapdragon 12:56, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)

A POINT OF NOTE: the page mentions that a studio recording exists of BWAG and implies that it would be a Sex Pistols recording. I have no knowledge of such an event, further the "official truth" is that the last Sex Pistols studio recordings were in August of 1977, ie when they cut the last overdub tracks for NMTB. The known BWAG "session" was on 28th September 1978 -- in other words after SP had un-officially split up -- and was seemingly a multi track recording of a live Sid Vicious set. The details are sketchy and ambiguous, such as some mentions that the session was in 1977, but the track does exist on the "Sid Sings" (Virgin V2144) Town House Studios master tape, and it did (perhaps unfortunately) make it to the "Sid Sings" album. The tape reel even has "Belsen Was A Gas" written on it. The master tape is probably still with either producer John Varnom or manager John Tiberi; Virgin does not (strangely) have a copy of it. No-one has EVER heard of the Sex Pistols attempting to record this piece in the studio. - Anonymous User, 5 Apr 2006



Please verify the Belsen Was A Gas studio recording claim. I strongly suggest a removal from the article unless someone comes up with the goods, ie verifiable sources. There were no mentions at all of the track ever being recorded on the studio sheets for NMTB. - Anon 14:52, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

Well, the claim that John "Boogie" Tiberi recorded a demo of the track, since lost, is in Clinton Heylin's book on NMTB and in the Sex Box booklet. It might be incorrect anyway, of course. Juryen 16:59, 16 April 2006 (UTC)

Keith Levene: Sid always used to have some catchphrase he found funny. He used to go on and on, "Hey Keith, you know Belsen was a gas." So I used to say to him, "What the fuck is that?" and he'd just say, "Yeah Keith, Belsen was a gas" So I said, "Belsen was a gas huh? Well, I'll show you Belsen was a fucking gas; THIS is how it goes man." and I banged out the riff to the tune, which later The Pistols covered. PIL also played it too. We were nihilists in a way, but we were never political in any conventional sense of that word. What we truly were was nihilists, destructive nihilists, but we weren't pessimistic. Fuck no. We were interested in the ruins, the destruction, but then we were interested in what we could build out of the rubble. What light could come out of the darkness? 

John Lydon: (interview in Rock Report magazine, written in czech, my primitive translation back to english) How do you feel today about song Belsen was a gas? --- "It's an extreme, antirasist thing I am proud of. Nacism is brought ad absurdum in it." 

--Vladimír Fuka 18:26, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

Reference Problem
It is it possible to change the reference when explaining what a "gas" is, The Beatles reference is completely out of place on an article about the Sex Pistols, let alone anything about punk. A less direct example would be more appros (i.e. that party was an absolute gas). 156.110.50.6 (talk) 15:20, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

Fuck it I changed it myself. 68.97.34.183 (talk) 00:53, 21 February 2008 (UTC)

"Einmal Belsen war wirklich vortrefflich"
"Einmal Belsen war vortrefflich" / "Einmal Belsen war wirklich vortrefflich": Neither title is actually grammatically incorrect, but they would translate to "[Going through] Belsen once was (really) brilliant." So, maybe the intent was to say "Once, Belsen was (really) brilliant" which would've been "Belsen war einmal (wirklich) vortrefflich" in which case the grammatically corrct title just wouldn't have met the intent.--Sparklex (talk) 14:37, 24 October 2009 (UTC)

Solo Mobile
I removed the part about the Solo Mobile ad. That alleged "controversy" gets like 40 Google hits and the article it once linked to has been deleted long ago for lack of notability. --2.240.6.72 (talk) 09:58, 18 June 2013 (UTC)