C&L's Late Nite Music Club with Public Image Ltd.
By MaxMarginal Tuesday Sep 08, 2009 7:00pmJohn Lydon will always be best known as Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols, but after the Pistols incredibly short and much hyped rise and fall, Lydon had a much longer (and arguably more interesting) run with Public Image Ltd. Their debut Public Image was a couple years ahead of their new wave soon-to-be contemporaries whose synths and deep basses would flood the airwaves in the 1980s. Compelling second acts are not the most common thing in rock and roll, and Lydon's with PiL makes the short list.
PiL has been on hiatus since 1992, but Lydon is reforming the group for a short UK tour in December. It's difficult to not hold one's nose a little at the sporadic Pistols reunions that have taken place since the mid-nineties. Music so firmly rooted in the attitude of being certain age at a certain time doesn't always seem as authentic thirty years later. PiL's music, happily divorced from youthful abandon, stands to hold up far better. Come to the US, please.
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Old dude must have some bills to pay.
Or they're just doing what they love...
Even if they did have bills to pay, what's wrong with cashing in on their own work, and giving the fans what they want?
The first Sex Pistols album is the greatest rock and roll album of all time. PIL were uneven, and the Second Edition was unlistenable droning lazy din. Some of the new wavey stuff done in the late 80s was good -- the album called Compact Disc, or Album, or Cassette or whatever. These days he just seems like a windbag caricature of himself, always trying to think of something pithy and edgy to say, but more often than not just passing oral gas.
which is actually called Metal Box and was distributed in the US under the wrong name as Second Edition, is one of the greatest albums ever made. ever.
I've always thought that Public Image Limited were much better than the Sex Pistols. Their first album is really striking, scary, and quite brilliant. Second Edition is just as good, and The Flowers of Romance is one of the most aurally surreal albums ever made.
Sex Pistols had that youthful FTW attitude and energy.
PIL showed Johnny Rotten all grown up (and without the horrible teeth).
Depends on what you want from your music. I listen to both, and I certainly don't fit the stereotype of the kind of person who listens to their music (a middle aged hispanic man), but when I was a kid, the sex pistols, and PIL spoke to me in loud angry words... and I liked it.
Both bands are great.
Leftfield Lydon - Open Up (original video B&W)
Leftfield Lydon - Open Up (the not safe for kiddies collage political version)
Leftfield - Open Up (Dervish Overdrive Mix)
I still have a TDK Finavinx cassette of Pistols from KSTM Apache Junction 1986... Boomy is bass, shrill the memory.
john lydon on the ahole tom snyder's show
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BZ2UoBZzEI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQGCYlhlu7Y&fe...
wasn't an ahole.
The Sex Pistols were a fake band anyway, the first British pre-fab boy band.
the monkees of punk
Isn't Green Day the Monkees of punk?
ah, yes, from the "the beatles were so overrated" school i see. i guess if you were one of the first dozen into CBGBs to see the ramones, maybe you'd have a leg to stand on, but otherwise, give it a rest. the pistols were effin' brilliant.
and second edition is one of the best albums i ever heard.
they were real...they were not created
although my friend from sd created the first hanky hat long before jonesy
I remember hearing "Bad Baby" on the college radio in 1979 while sitting in my car waiting for my ex to get off of work as a nursing instructor in Cleveland Ohio.
PIL travelled well down the timestream.
Can and Amon Duul.
There was actually a lot of good music around the time Rise came out. Here's one by the Blow Monkey's:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rmtd1YI0fL8
Love PIL I would love to see'em live.
I was a little late to the New Wave scene in the late 80's but this song was a staple at a couple of clubs I frequented. "World Destruction" and "This Is Not A Love Song" were also rotating favorites. I've spent a lot of time collecting songs from my club days (listening to "A New Day" by Killing Joke right now) and "Rise" is always the first song I add to any 80's playlist.
I'm about 3 months older than Lydon, and was in college at the time of the mid-70s punk explosion, and it was the most thrilling time to be young and a pop music fan. I loved the Pistols, but to label their album the greatest rock album of all time is not even close to the truth, although it certainly is among the great rock albums. PIL were a better, thornier band, expanding the parameters of rock music, while the Pistols largely reiterated what had gone on before, albeit with an electrifying front man who was also a smart, sharp lyricist.
I was fortunate to see PIL a couple of times--after Wobble had left, but during Keith Levine's tenure--and they were powerfully magnificent. Lydon had that all too rare quality, charisma, and it hit you like a shock when he walked on stage. Sadly, Lydon's ego and/or natural combativeness led to the ousting of Levine, after which PIL were never the same, and frankly, barely worth hearing. But, their small body of work remains, still beautiful, still relevant.
I hadn't heard of PIL's imminent reunion; if it is without Levine, it will be a waste of time. If it includes Levine AND Wobble, it will be the tour of the year.
I just checked online...neither Wobble nor Levine will be involved in the PIL reunion. In other words, it won't be worth a wet fart.
the FreedomWorks & "Stop Obama Socialism Now" ads in the margins.
may the road rise with you...
I loved Second Edition/Metal Box. Levene was great. But I really hate reunion tours. Especially when it's really just one guy.
Had their logo scrawled in black marker on my backpack in high school. Definitely the best things Lydon has done in his career was with this band. There is a video out there with PIL performing on American Bandstand. One of the most bizarre pieces of musical theater ever broadcast on television.
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