Chant. chant. chant. chant. chant. The Public Image Ltd. album-by-album thread.

[surfingelectrode]

With the live debut of John Lydon's latest incarnation of PiL happening next week, along with the reissuing of Metal and Plastic Box, what better time is there for this?

Here's the list of albums:

First Issue
Metal Box / Second Edition
Paris au Printemps
The Flowers of Romance
Live in Tokyo
This is What You Want... This is What You Get and Commercial Zone
album
Happy?
9
That What is Not
The Greatest Hits, So Far
Plastic Box

So, we begin with...

First Issue



Released in on 8 December 1978 in the UK on Virgin Records and to this day remains unreleased in America.
Lineup: John Lydon/Vocals, Jah Wobble/Bass and fire extinguisher, Keith Levene/Guitar, Jim Walker/Drums
Produced by: Public Image Ltd.
Public Image Ltd would like to thank absolutely no body, thank you.

Tracklisting:

A1 Theme
A2 Religion I
A3 Religion II
A4 Annalisa

B1 Public Image
B2 Low-Life
B3 Attack
B4 Fodderstompf

Music Video: Public Image

I'll post my thoughts in the morning. Hopefully we'll have a good amount of contributors for this...

[aswyth]

Half great. Half a little leaden in feel. I thought I'd posted here earlier about the US remake of the album, which I heard . . . but it was on a different website. So here's what I wrote, rather than having to think about it again!

I can confirm the above, plus two otherwise unheard tunes, a new vocal version of "Fodderstompf," a stellar take on "Annalisa," a bubbly instrumental version of "Lowlife" and a short, psychedelic "Theme." I don't recall the version of "Religion," but there was a more "serious" version of "Cowboy Song" (the b-side of the "Public Image" 7") and one more I don't recall at all, except that it wasn't too great. I remember thinking "Public Image" was about the same as the original. One of the unheard tunes did show up, in part, on Jah Wobble's "Betrayal" album, minus a great guitar part and Lydon's vocals. Overall, this album - inasmuch as it was complete - was a giant step up from the original debut, and a worthy partner to "Metal Box." I'd love to hear it again.

[vonwegen]

Originally Posted by aswyth

I thought I'd posted here earlier about the US remake of the album, which I heard . . . but it was on a different website. So here's what I wrote, rather than having to think about it again!

I can confirm the above, plus two otherwise unheard tunes, a new vocal version of "Fodderstompf," a stellar take on "Annalisa," a bubbly instrumental version of "Lowlife" and a short, psychedelic "Theme." I don't recall the version of "Religion," but there was a more "serious" version of "Cowboy Song" (the b-side of the "Public Image" 7") and one more I don't recall at all, except that it wasn't too great. I remember thinking "Public Image" was about the same as the original. One of the unheard tunes did show up, in part, on Jah Wobble's "Betrayal" album, minus a great guitar part and Lydon's vocals. Overall, this album - inasmuch as it was complete - was a giant step up from the original debut, and a worthy partner to "Metal Box." I'd love to hear it again.

Sounds like a great 2 CD deluxe edition, if Virgin is smart enough to do a re-issue campaign right.

[ronankeane]

Originally Posted by aswyth

Half great. Half a little leaden in feel. I thought I'd posted here earlier about the US remake of the album, which I heard . . . but it was on a different website. So here's what I wrote, rather than having to think about it again!

I can confirm the above, plus two otherwise unheard tunes, a new vocal version of "Fodderstompf," a stellar take on "Annalisa," a bubbly instrumental version of "Lowlife" and a short, psychedelic "Theme." I don't recall the version of "Religion," but there was a more "serious" version of "Cowboy Song" (the b-side of the "Public Image" 7") and one more I don't recall at all, except that it wasn't too great. I remember thinking "Public Image" was about the same as the original. One of the unheard tunes did show up, in part, on Jah Wobble's "Betrayal" album, minus a great guitar part and Lydon's vocals. Overall, this album - inasmuch as it was complete - was a giant step up from the original debut, and a worthy partner to "Metal Box." I'd love to hear it again.

Wow.

I always believed Wobble's version i.e. that only the re-recording of Fodderstompf amounted to anything. I would kill to hear those recordings.

I found your posts on headheritage, but if you have any other memories of this stuff, please share.

[ronankeane]

On the actual album as released:

I love this album though it's very problematic. Religion I is a PITA, Fodderstompf is irritating, and while Religion II and Annalisa are great, I sometimes feel like they go on a little too long.

Despite its faults I never get tired of this album because there are so many different things to love about it. Theme is a doom-rock epic, Public Image is quite poppy punk, Annalisa is an aggressive repetitive riffathon with shredding guitar.

I listen to the original album on vinyl sometimes, but when I got Plastic Box, I used it to create what I call First Issue [Redux] in my PC music library:

1 Theme
2 Public Image
3 Low-Life
4 Attack
5 Religion II
6 Annalisa
7 Fodderstompf (½ Mix Megamix)

[ronankeane]

Also, the cover art is both brilliant and repulsive.

[surfingelectrode]

Originally Posted by aswyth

Half great. Half a little leaden in feel. I thought I'd posted here earlier about the US remake of the album, which I heard . . . but it was on a different website. So here's what I wrote, rather than having to think about it again!

I can confirm the above, plus two otherwise unheard tunes, a new vocal version of "Fodderstompf," a stellar take on "Annalisa," a bubbly instrumental version of "Lowlife" and a short, psychedelic "Theme." I don't recall the version of "Religion," but there was a more "serious" version of "Cowboy Song" (the b-side of the "Public Image" 7") and one more I don't recall at all, except that it wasn't too great. I remember thinking "Public Image" was about the same as the original. One of the unheard tunes did show up, in part, on Jah Wobble's "Betrayal" album, minus a great guitar part and Lydon's vocals. Overall, this album - inasmuch as it was complete - was a giant step up from the original debut, and a worthy partner to "Metal Box." I'd love to hear it again.

When did you get to hear it? I know that an acetate of the WB version of the album was sold on eBay a while back for 630.00. I'm surprised that it hasn't made its way online yet.

But, anyways... "First Issue". It's got to be one of the most difficult and harsh debut albums of all time, especially coming after "Never mind the bollocks here's the Sex Pistols", and I love it for being like that.

I've never understood why people hate "Fodderstompf" so much. Considering that the rest of the album is so serious, it's a perfect way to end the album... by showing that they have a sense of humor.

Trivia: According to John Lydon, some psychiatrists have actually played "Theme" for their patients with depression copies of the album to show them that they're not alone and to give them hope. Weird, huh?

Also, here's Sounds Magazine's review from 78:

"PUBLIC IMAGE LTD:
'Public Image'

(Virgin V2114) **

by PETE SILVERTON

And the boy looked at Johnny. And he shouted: "Look, ma, the Emperor's got no clothes."

Scene One; Christmas Day. Unbounded joy as the wrapping paper is ripped apart to reveal this Yuletide's model, the Public Image album. Straight on to the deck with it and it's great, of course. Different, mind you. Kind of spacy, lots of weird noises and no rallying anthemic sneers like on last year's gift 'Never Mind The Bollocks'. But it's still great, of course just different and anyway it's his right as an artist to try new . Things

Scene Two; Boxing Day. Ten o'clock at night and 'Public Image' still hasn't been played yet this day. Oops, nearly forgot, put it on quick. Great, innit? Different though. Experimental you could call it, I suppose. But he's an artist, isn't he, so why should he keep on doing all those great snarling slices of venom. Why should he have to spit at the world and dance at the same time? Why shouldn't he just spit?

Scene three; First shopping day after Christmas. Three days since the last time 'Public Image' got played. So on it goes. And just to make a comparison, y'understand, a quick flit through 'Bollocks'.

Scene Four; Second shopping day after Christmas. 'Public Image' still hasn't made it back on to the turntable. 'Bollocks' has stuck there like glue. Wondering about what other new records are out, down to Cheapo Cheapo with 'Public Image' and they won't buy it off you. The racks are already bulging with it and they can't sell it even at the knockdown price of £1.25. Sorry, sucker, you lost again.

And, strangely enough, I don't even think Johnny Rotten and his cohorts were intending to deliberately cheat you of you four and a half quid when they put together this arrogantly thin, shallowly free attempt at breaking free of Rotten's past. I even sympathise with Rotten - to a point. He was in an almost impossible situation. Too many people seemed to have been under the impression that when Christ returned, he'd emerge as a spiky haired kid from Finsbury Park with bad teeth who wouldn't admit to his liking for Yeats. It goes without saying that if Public Image Ltd had been a copy of the Pistols they would inevitably have been a pale, lifeless copy without the healthy mutual hatred of the original five musketeers (John, Steve, Paul, Glen and Malcolm).

And anyway John has always realised that he's a rilly talented artist and he's above all that common muck like writing rock and roll songs He's a manchild . Who feels he's had bestowed upon him the gift of the Gods - deep insight.
Or then again maybe he doesn't. Maybe he's just all grown up and very lost with no clear idea where to go. Confused just like Stephen Dedalus, the Irish 'artist' hero of Ulysses. And that's no mere intellectual reference. In the first chapter of 'Ulysses' Buck Mulligan says to, Dedalus: 'The trouble with you Dedalus is that you're a dyed-in-the-wool Jesuit. Only it got injected back to front."

And that applies just as well to Rotten. Who else but a lapsed Catholic (just like junkies, there ain't no such thing as an ex Catholic) would feel moved to launch a venomous attack on such a hollow target as religion. So moved in fact that it's blinded him to the pitiful immaturity of his Iyrics. E. J. Thribb has nothing on this guy. In one foul swoop, Rotten has established himself as the undisputed king of Sixth Form Poetry. Conveniently ignoring rhyme pattern, syntax and sense, on the first acapella version of 'Religion', he deposits silly, ill-considered thoughts like "A bitch spelt backwards is dog... God " (adding the last word as an after-thought when he realises bitch spelt backwards is hctib) or "Bible full of libels. This is religion. The apostles were eleven. Now there's a sod in heaven ". lf it weren't for the fact that a lot of people will take his childish outburst seriously it wouldn't even be worth considering. As it is. it's worth emphasising that those are some of the more evocative lines in the poem. And, incidentally he intones it in a voice like the one I remember a priest using when he was trying to get it through that week's lesson with all possible haste, least possible sense or emotion. A priest by any other name....

....is an idol with a head of clay? Maybe, I don't know. All I know is that everybody I played this to thought it so awful that I almost became convinced we were all missing out on its hidden strength - not everybody can be that right. So I played it again and again, drawing at best a perverted pleasure from seeing people squirm as I approached the deck to plunge into its sparse musical offerings. A producer friend said it sounded like a band gone into the studio for the first time and running riot with all the effects - flanges, delays, echo units, boxes that go bonk in the night. I can only assume they were working on the monkeys with typewriters theory - sooner or later one of them will write Beethoven's Tenth Symphony. Unfortunately that seems to take a lot longer than the amount of time they allotted themselves in the studio.

If you've got the single, you're the proud possessor of the only wholly worthwhile track on the album. Reputedly the next single 'Low Life' could possibly have succeeded in its attack with a healthy dose of structure. Otherwise it's just morbid directionless sounds with Rotten's poetry running just behind it. Mostly the humour is double-edged. You find yourself laughing at the idea that they find themselves witty. On 'Fodderstompf' "We're now attempting to finish this album with the minimum effort possible and succeeding" or "I'll now play with this fire extinguisher " squirt, squirt noises. Hey you guys really crack me up, you should consider writing the next series of 'Mind Your Language'. Only time I was honestly amused was when Rotten snaps out 'Terminal Boredom' at the end of 'Theme'.

Even then, it's clear he thinks he's getting first shot. "This is what you'll say so I'll say it first. " For once, an artist has obviously got the measure of his own work.

Nice cover though."

[aswyth]

Sounds like a great 2 CD deluxe edition, if Virgin is smart enough to do a re-issue campaign right.

Except they probably don't have the tapes, which I assume exist only in America, as they were done specifically for Warner Bros. I heard this in the very early 80's, to the best of my recollection, at WB in Burbank. The sad thing is, I could have made a cassette of it, but I assumed it would be out on vinyl soon, so I didn't! I wish I had more memories of it to share, but it was long ago!

[surfingelectrode]

Originally Posted by aswyth

Sounds like a great 2 CD deluxe edition, if Virgin is smart enough to do a re-issue campaign right.

Except they probably don't have the tapes, which I assume exist only in America, as they were done specifically for Warner Bros. I heard this in the very early 80's, to the best of my recollection, at WB in Burbank. The sad thing is, I could have made a cassette of it, but I assumed it would be out on vinyl soon, so I didn't! I wish I had more memories of it to share, but it was long ago!

WB should have the distribution rights for the original album, as they released Second Edition and Flowers over here.

Even if I couldn't get a copy of the re-recorded version, I still think they should put together a nice remastered version with good liner notes. The current CD is lacking a lot.

[surfingelectrode]

Just bumping this...

[alexpop]

As a way of a bump.

What happened to the new Sex Pistols recordings ?

[surfingelectrode]

Originally Posted by alexpop

As a way of a bump.

What happened to the new Sex Pistols recordings ?

As far as I know, the only recording that the Pistols have done within the past few years was re-recording Pretty Vacant and Anarchy for the Skate. and Guitar Hero games.

As much as I love the Pistols, I'd rather them not try to do another album.

Lydon has that he has new PiL songs that he's going to be debuting at the shows starting next week.

[johnnyyen]

I remember the Sounds review, good to read again.

At the time, I can't say I was overly impressed. Theme sounded a complete, if rather interesting, mess and Fodderstompf reminded me of Monty Python backed by a disco beat. However, Public Image was as good as anything the Sex Pistols did. First Issue was the beginning of "post-punk" which I much preferred to "punk" and which had run out of ideas quite quickly. I was more convinced by Metal Box and Flowers Of Romance which sound like complete albums, while First Issue is an inconsistent and mediocre debut.

[dougotte]

Originally Posted by ronankeane

Also, the cover art is both brilliant and repulsive.

Brilliant, I understand. Repulsive...why? It's just interesting shots of the 4 lads done as various magazine covers. What's repulsive about it?

I remember when my college girlfriend got this after its release. We were intrigued, and liked parts of it. I always found Theme boring and depressive. Religion is interesting as a heretical stab, but is musically dull. I really only liked side two - including Fodderstompf for a laugh.

BTW, my original vinyl always sounded muddy. I assume it was due to the mixing, but have I owned a defective copy for the past 30 years?

Doug

[alexpop]

Originally Posted by surfingelectrode

As much as I love the Pistols, I'd rather them not try to do another album.

Not on par with the original no doubt if the new recordings
ever materialised, but I think it would be at least be interesting.

[Dudley Morris]

Somehow I never got around to picking up this album - my PiL collection (aside from "Public Image", natch) starts with the next album...

[alexpop]

Didn't Steve Jones play gtr on Public Image (the single) ?

[ronton99]

All I've got is the UK PI single, which came in a fold out newpaper facsimilie PS IIRC. I didn't like it very much at first but it grew on me - I really just wanted more Pistols and didn't get it.

I thought a buddy of mine was nuts when he bought the Metal Box and we "tried" to listen to it - I thought it was terrible. I'd should revisit it now...

I still think Lydon's one of the great "Rock" vocalists, although many might say I'm nuts too....

[aswyth]

Didn't Steve Jones play gtr on Public Image (the single) ?

Its quite obviously Keith Levine, just from the sound of it. But I also know it is as a fact.

[surfingelectrode]

Originally Posted by dougotte

Brilliant, I understand. Repulsive...why? It's just interesting shots of the 4 lads done as various magazine covers. What's repulsive about it?

I remember when my college girlfriend got this after its release. We were intrigued, and liked parts of it. I always found Theme boring and depressive. Religion is interesting as a heretical stab, but is musically dull. I really only liked side two - including Fodderstompf for a laugh.

BTW, my original vinyl always sounded muddy. I assume it was due to the mixing, but have I owned a defective copy for the past 30 years?

Doug

I don't think "Theme" is depressing at all... it's a hopeful song, which is why psychiatrists have actually given copies of the record to their patients to show that they're not alone. "I wish I could die / I will survive" and all.

I'll admit that I'm not a huge fan of "Religion" or "Attack", but I think that the rest of the album is brilliant. It's a good introduction and transition away from the punk that the three main members (Lydon, Levene, Wobble) were known for.

And the album has always sounded bad. PiL had spent most of their advance on drugs and alcohol so they ended up having to record at the cheapest demo studio they could find.