Public Image Limited - Live at The Ritz (NYC) May 15, 1981
I recently bought the reissue of Flipper’s “Generic” album. Aside from having one of my favorite lyrics ever on the song Ever (“Ever look at a flower and hate it?”), the other thing I noticed was the similarity of the album cover to Public Image Limited’s “Album”. After a little searching I also found another album by Flipper called “Public Flipper Limited” which pretty much confirmed the Flipper / PiL link. But the question remains, why is Flipper paying homage to a band that were essentially their peers at the time? The answer (I think) is that they’re not paying homage at all. They’re fucking with them. Calling them out on their bullshit. And basically saying fuck you, we’re better. They’re probably right too. But here’s where I stop talking about Flipper and move on to PiL.
John Lydon (nay Rotten) is an asshole. He inspires hatred in people to an extent that rivals almost ever other musician ever. He’s arrogant, obnoxious, and just a straight asshole. Or is he? Maybe he just likes fucking with people. And to an extent I don’t think that makes someone an asshole. It’s almost endearing in an odd way. Like when Lee Ving tells that chick to not “bite so hard when he cums” in “The Decline”. Being an asshole was then and is now pretty fucking punk rock. I might catch a lot of shit for this. And I’m not saying that you have to be an asshole to be a punk or anything like that. But part of being punk is letting everyone else know to fuck off. John Lydon built a career around this and is just really fucking good at it. I mean pissing people off is his art in a way.
So after two paragraph’s you might be wondering what in the hell is the point of this review. And here it is. The first concert in the FSS Bootleg Series is Public Image Limited live at the Ritz, NYC, May 15, 1981 with bonus tracks from their appearance on the Tomorrow Show on June 27, 1980. Both recordings consist of John Lydon pissing people the fuck off. The Ritz show turns into a fucking riot. At one point you hear someone scream “RUSH THE STAGE!”. People show up I think to see him doing his Sex Pistols shtick and instead end up being treated to a barrage of insults and music that couldn’t be further from his previous band. You can hear people screaming at him on the recording, booing him. You hear people throwing shit at the stage and trying to destroy their equipment. You hear people trying to get on the stage to beat Lydon and crew up. Johnny may be acting, but they are not. They want to kill him. They’ve paid their hard earned money to see him and now he’s fucked with them so much that they actually want to fucking murder him and get their money back. The music on this recording is terrible. I don’t even know if you can call it music at all. It’s more noise, feedback, and experimental bullshit than anything else. The real reason to seek this recording out is to hear the frenzy Lydon builds up around him. Again, music isn’t his art. It’s pissing people off.
The Tomorrow Show recording is somewhat similar with the only difference being there is no music. It’s just Lydon and crew straight pissing off Tom Snyder for the eleven or so minute segment. Lydon acts annoyed with every question asked, like they are the dumbest fucking questions ever asked of anybody. His answers are confrontational, flippant, and insane. He goes on for sometime about how PiL isn’t a band. They’re a company. If Tom Snyder wasn’t a professional he probably would’ve went to commercial and tackled Lydon. But that’s what Lydon would’ve wanted anyway so why give it to him? Lydon thrives on the reactions he inspires in people. If you take the bait you’re probably more fucked than if you just sat there and took it with a straight face. Listening to him do this to other people for me is pure entertainment. Although I’m not sure how I would’ve felt about it if I was on the receiving end of things. So, my recommendation is to search both of these recordings out and decide for yourself how you feel about him. No matter which side you come out on though, you can’t argue this with the fact that he will get a reaction out of you one way or the next.
Popularity: 8% [?]
