Death disco

The song was released titled "Swan Lake" on the band's second album, with slight changes at the end. The change is that in the guitar part of Keith Levin appears a part from Swan Lake, a composition by Tchaikovsky.

In his autobiography, Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs, Lydon stated that the song was written for his mother, who died of cancer, in 1979. In the song, he expressed his feelings about it as a kind of 'cry therapy' .

The songs are named 'Half Mix' / 'Megga Mix' on the label. Side A is an extended 12-inch 'Death Disco' mix named as the 'Half Mix'. The B-side is a new re-registered version of 'Fodderstompf', named as 'Megga Mix'.

David Humphrey plays the drums on both songs. The B-side is the only track to be released from the revised re-recording of Warner Brothers first album. Both tracks were unique to this 12-inch release until they were included in the 'Plastic Box' in 1999.

• The covers for both singles were painted by John Lydon.

• John Lydon: “When I was supposed to deal with my mother’s death, I did it partly through music. I had to watch her slowly die of cancer for a whole year. I wrote 'Death Disco' about it. I played it to her just before she died, and she was very happy. "
• Keith Levin: “We booked a place in Brixton, this place was just an empty room to check out this sound system with three basses, it was a turbo rig I wanted to use in Rainbow. We made new tunes - that's when Death Disco appeared '. "
• John Lydon: "'No Birds Do Sing', lines from Keats's poem. I just borrowed a little because it fits the words about the suburbs."
• Keith Levin: “One of my favorite tunes on the Metal Box. The whole guitar playing is duplicated, but there are effects that I created with the harmonizer. John lay under the piano and sang in a very strange voice. You can hear the piano on the songs. "
• Ja Wobble: "Richard Dudansky extensively and creatively used volumes that were suitable for compositions like 'No Birds Do Sing' and 'Socialist'."
• Richard Dudansky: "Keith knew me from 101ers and just called and said:" We are recording songs in Townhouse, can you come here? And in fact, in the next ten days we recorded five songs. I think the first day we did 'No Birds Do Sing' and 'Socialist', then we did 'Chant' and 'Memories'. After the first session, we got out of the studio twelve hours later to put on the album 'No Birds Do Sing' and start working on other tracks. "

7 "format

1. "Death Disco" - 4:11
2. "No Birds Do Sing" - 4:37

12 "format

1. "½ Mix" - 6:42
2. "Megga Mix" - 6:51

• John Lydon - vocals
• Keith Levin - Guitar
• Ja Wobble - Bass
• David Humphrey - Drums (Side A)
• Richard Dudensky - Drums (Side B)