“Never mind the Sex Pistols, here's the rotting corpse of Johnny Rotten, stinking to high heaven like some maggot brain from the Bryan Ferry School of Design. Rotten has dubbed his new band Public Image Ltd. PiL's first single ‘Public Image’ sounds like a powerful Pistols' reject. And for making a nyah-nyah statement, the single is sufficient...but an entire album of catcalls is pure self-indulgence. Hearing Rotten make music now is like listening in a cathedral to a eunuch chanting in a language which he does not even need to understand.”
The US music magazine Creem’s April 1979 review – extracted above – of Public Image Ltd.’s first album was negative, and in line with a fair wodge of UK reactions to the band. According to Melody Maker’s consideration of the first single “the Pistols made great singles. Maybe Public Image Ltd. will too.” Of the same record, Record Mirror declared “he’s (i.e. Rotten / John Lydon) probably finished. I hope he invested his money well.” The next year, “Death Disco,” PiL’s second single, was reviewed in Los Angeles’ Slash. “It’s career death” was the verdict.
Beyond its entertainment value, the Creem review was significant in another way. The album – Public Image (First Issue) – was given as a Warner Bros. release: Warners, the label which had released the Pistols in the US. In the UK, the Pistols and PiL were on Virgin Records. Someone, somewhere, in America’s record industry was promoting the album to the US music press as a domestic release.
After the Creem review, despite the ensuing non-appearance of a US issue of the album in America's shops, PiL were was still a live topic within Warners. An acetate version of the album, dated 19 July 1979 on its label, subsequently surfaced in collector’s circles (pictured below left). Someone, somewhere, in America’s music industry was still considering a version of the album – albeit with a different track listing to the UK LP – as a domestic release for the US. Quite how far this went is shown, decades later, by the appearance of an album titled Public Image (First Issue) US Mix.
When Public Image Ltd did have an album issued in the US, it was February 1980’s double-album version of November 1979’s UK triple-12-inch Metal Box set under the new title Second Edition (the US labels said 1979 due to the copyright dates of the tracks). Confusingly, this came out on Island Records but the label copy gave Warner Bros. as the copyright holder. Presumably, Island licensed the album from Warners, with the latter no longer wanting to have anything to do with PiL in the US.
All a mess.
After all these years, the most extraordinary Public Image (First Issue) US Mix album has turned up – a real, physical version of what could have been PiL’s first US album: one Warners was considering for release in September or October 1979. The audio source is a master tape found in a US archive. Limited to 5500 copies world-wide, it is marketed as a “previously unreleased version of Public Image Limited’s debut album that was re-recorded and remixed for release (with alternate artwork from original release) in 1979 via Warners in the US and Canada, but ultimately shelved.” Disappointingly, there are no liner notes. The inner-sleeve photo of drummer Jim Walker appearing with the original UK album is excised. The photos which remain on the cover and insert are of Lydon (an alternate cover shot), Keith Levene and Jah Wobble. This release is mind boggling – in ways both good and not-so good.
The original UK Public Image (First Issue) (pictured below right) was – Side One: “Theme,” “Religion I / Religion II,” “Annalisa”; Side Two: “Public Image,” “Low Life,” “Attack,” “Fodderstompf.”
The Public Image (First Issue) US Mix album is – Side One: “Theme,” “Annalisa”; Side Two: “Public Image,” “Low Life,” “Attack,” “Swan Lake” (i.e. the track issued as “Death Disco” in the UK).
The loss of “Fodderstompf” is no problem. It was and is a throwaway, contemptuous of the record label and record buyers. A perception borne out by its lyrics: “We only wanted to finish the album with as minimum amount of effort which we are now doing very successfully… this track is dragging on…do you think it'll ever end?”
The loss of “Religion I / Religion II” is more interesting. Perhaps its anti-faith venting was too strong for the US market? Or too strong to be issued by a major label? Or perhaps its structural similarity to Siouxsie and the Banshees’ "Metal Postcard (Mittageisen)" (from November 1978's The Scream album) had been noticed, so it was concluded PiL should not be comparable to anyone else?
After the excisions, what's left is a resequenced and appended version of Public Image (First Issue) – the addition being “Swan Lake.” There is more though.
What’s left from the UK album is substantially remixed, perhaps re-recorded (it is impossible to tell). The basic drum tracks are as per the original UK album, yet the cymbals are mixed much higher with an added chorus/flanging effect, while the remainder of the drums have a greater punch (due to a sharp reverb effect and separation). Overall, in this spirit, everything is mixed with greater separation than in 1978 for the UK market, and echo and reverb are added to Lydon’s voice. The guitar is sharper; cleaner in a razor-sharp way. The bass guitar is punchier. All in all closer to the Metal Box sound, the sound of the added “Swan Lake.” Who did this work and when is unknown.
This rejigging works incredibly well for “Theme,” “Annalisa” and “Low Life.” They are more lacerating, more punishing than ever. The previously unfamiliar version of “Low Life” is wild, exceptionally extreme. “Public Image” suffers though – it is emptier and less punchy than the familiar version and the effects on the vocals distract. “Attack” sounds flat. “Swan Lake” / “Death Disco” is as per the familiar.
Beyond the distinct reconfigurations to the aural palette, there are other significant differences to what UK record buyers got in 1978. “Theme” is longer than the British album and, consequently, much more oppressive. “Annalisa” has a lengthy, borderline ambient, piano and voice coda along the lines of the piano parts on “Religion II” – this elongated version is amazing. The outro of the odd “Public Image” is longer, but adds nothing in terms of appreciation and understanding of what was recorded.
As a listen overall, this shelved US version of Public Image (First Issue) works. Sonically, it is like a Metal Box-ised version of Public Image (First Issue) – a bridge between the debut album and its follow-up. However, it feels a most un-Public Image Ltd. artefact. John Lydon and co were revisiting their first album, and can only have been doing so at the behest of the US label. In the end, though, this was moot. A US Public Image (First Issue) never happened – probably as the release of Metal Box was, in the UK, on the very near horizon – and no one heard what’s now titled Public Image (First Issue) US Mix. Seek this out. It’s important.
- Next week: Three CDs of Steppin' Out The Roots Of Garage Rock 1963-1965
- More reissue reviews on theartsdesk
- Kieron Tyler’s website
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