Public Image Ltd

Certain Songs #1681: Public Image Ltd – “Rise”

November 14, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Album
Year: 1986

. . .

But of course, Johnny Lydon was too damn restless to stay in any place for very long, and so after Jah Wobble left, 1981’s The Flowers of Romance, was less bass-heavy, and 1984’s This is What You Want…This is What You Get, where Lydon wiped Keith Levene from the finished tracks and added shitty horns, and while it sported a relative hit, that relative hit was the dreadful “This Is Not A Love Song.”

So imagine my surprise a couple of later when Lydon released my favorite song of his entire solo career, the unlikely “Rise”, which somehow melds one of the greatest jazz drummers in history with one of the most overplaying guitarists with an old Irish folk saying and utterly anonymous mid-1980s production.

Certain Songs #1680: Public Image Ltd – “Poptones”

November 13, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Metal Box
Year: 1979

“We’re not a band, we’re a company”

In late 1979, Public Image Ltd released their second album, initially called Metal Box after the packaging, and later called Second Edition when it was released in a slightly more, er, accessible format. They also made two amazing appearances on American TV; one somewhat expected, and the other so far beyond the pale that it still defies explanation.

Certain Songs #1679: Public Image Ltd – “Public Image”

November 12, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Public Image: First Issue
Year: 1978

. . .

After the Sex Pistols broke up following their U.S. tour — wait, that’s not right. Start again.

After Johnny Rotten left the Sex Pistols following their U.S. tour, he almost instantly formed a band while his former bandmates caroused with bank robbers, made films and did smack, desperately trying to get their focus, which, of course they never did. Because they’d lost it.