The Formative Years

Public Image Ltd 

It did not take long after being introduced to the Sex Pistols as a prepubescent that I started to acquire all of their records available at mainstream stores and religiously absorb any information available. Clearly, Sid Vicious was everything one should aspire to when it came to being a punk and served as a role model as far as aesthetics were concerned. Given the superficial shock value of what I loved about John Simon Ritchie and the  immediacy of the Sex Pistols’ musical delivery, I was a bit taken aback when I checked out John Lydon’s post-Sex Pistols endeavour Public Image Ltd. 

While I got the anti-rock sentiment and experimental nature of PiL, I was more looking to graduate to Discharge-style bands than a sound that seemed to draw on krautrock, disco, dub and progressive rock to create something new.

Revisiting PiL a couple of years later, I started to develop an appreciation for how far ahead of his time Lydon was when he confidently trailblazed into uncharted avantgarde territory, fusing world music and reggae, as early as 1978 while technically still fronting the Sex Pistols.

Lyrically and theme-wise, songs like "Public Image", "Egomaniac traitor", "Religion" could have been taken from any Sex Pistols album and the live performances were not far off in terms of confrontational and taunting antics, but musically it seemed unlike anything that had been done before with the band focussing on never delivering what the audience might have expected.

In essence, Public Image Limited was much angrier than the Sex Pistols could have ever been, frustrated by the limitations and expectations imposed by their own environment, the music industry and society at large and infused with internally directed anger, frustration and a keen willingness to experiment took the punk sentiment and raw emotion to the next level.

With the post punk foundations set by PiL boundary pushing explorations, doors were kicked open for bands as diverse as Sonic Youth, Talking Heads and Red Hot Chili Peppers to blossom and bloom, making them a timeless band always worth rediscovering for anyone remotely interested in the history of underground music.