Disco Sunday #10: Public Image Limited
Posted on November 5th, 2007 posted by Baron von Luxxury in Disco Sunday, Punks in the Disco
Johnny Rotten and disco in the same sentence? Yes, dear. The real originators of punk rock were not nearly as sonically fascistic as some of its latter day proponents. Indeed, within minutes of uttering his famous kissoff to the audience at the final Sex Pistols show in San Francisco (”Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?”), Mr. Lydon’s well known fondness for reggae had earned him a plane ticket to Jamaica on Virgin’s dime to A+R acts for the label. Within a few weeks he returned with an ear for a new bass-driven sound, and a new band called Public Image Limited in which to use it.
PiL had almost nothing to do with the Sex Pistols musically, but everything to do with carrying on the ideas of punk rock. And nothing could have been a more contrarian move - and thus more punk - than to embrace the enemy sounds of the decadent devil known as disco. So Rotten and crew decided to invade (or recreate) Studio 54 on its own terms, including these two postpunk disco gems from 1979’s “Metal Box” (known in the US as “Second Edition“).
Mp3: “Death Disco” - Public Image Limited
MP3: “Memories” - Public Image Limited
Here’s the video for “Death Disco” - I love how bass player Jah Wobble can’t even be bothered to get out of his chair!
This next song is a classic “contractual obligation? screw you!” tale, purportedly recorded because they were 8 minutes short of what Virgin considered a complete album. Unlike Metal Machine Music though, it’s listenable, danceable, and fucking hilarious. Basically, Lydon and bassist Wobble shriek “We only wanted to be loved!” hysterically in a Python-esque falsetto while a 2 bar drum machine loop, synth drone lock into a white funk bass pattern repeat. For EIGHT MINUTES. The best part is that according to legend, “drag queens and hepcats at New York’s Studio 54 disco reportedly got together to scream along…whenever the DJ played the song.”
“This Is Not A Love Song” has been a staple of college radio and goth clubs for years, but you probably haven’t heard this version. It’s from the uber-rare “Commercial Zone,” an album guitarist Keith Levene released without permission in 1983 after he was fired from the band. Virgin soon stopped the album from being sold, and its songs were completely rerecorded and released with a much slicker rock-sounding production as “This is What You Want…This Is What You Get.” I think this stripped down and dirty version is much better.
MP3: “This is Not a Love Song” - Public Image Limited
xx,
Baron von Luxxury is My Fake Name
November 5th, 2007 2:50 am
Great post with some wonderful songs. Wasn’t aware of the ‘Commercial Zone’ album. Thanks for these!
fab blog, by the way.
Ed, 17 Seconds
November 5th, 2007 5:58 am
Nice post. Pil’s first two proper albums are sui generis, and no two ways about it. Still hard to believe in 2007 that the man who fronted the Sex Pistols could do an about-face and create this kind of artistic statement.
Recommended reading: check out Lester Bangs’ writings on the subject of the Metal Box.
November 5th, 2007 8:20 am
I think you just blew my mind! Jah Wobble was sourced by John Lydon? Insanity!
November 5th, 2007 11:35 am
@ Electrovillain - Yeah mon, along with Lydon, Wobble (née John Wardle) was one of the schoolchums called the “3 Johns” who stepped out of Stepney and into the punk Pantheon (the third was John Ritchie, aka Sid Vicious).
January 1st, 2008 7:07 am
it was actually the 4 johns, the other being John Grey, a wonderful man who i knew in 70’s London and amongst other things made me take Kate Bush seriously!