while lydon and friends deserve mounds of crap thrown at them for their future transgressions, remember this. it ain't a mistake PiL made my list. the orig lineup was one of the best ideas ever. fuck the pistols, this is music.
public image is a great single, but they were riding on pistols fumes for that (still great) first record. 'generic' is what it is, but in my mind, calling it a PiL album is like calling 'back to the egg' a beatles album!
John Lydon and whoever was in the room was essentially the linep for most of PiL's output; can't say that about Macca vis-a-vis Back to the Egg.
And Album/Cassette/Compact Disc is my hands down PiL favorite. and, it just might be, the least dated of the bunch. (Despite Steve Vai's crazy-ass solos.)
i could make a dozen more comparisons, but i'll get back to my original point. the lydon/levine/wobble lineup is the only one that does anything for me. and that was a true collaboration, which yielded its sound. "this is what you want" & anything after is occasionally interesting, but not that far off from what everyone else was doing at the time. by the end, PiL was ridiculous. check out youtube clips of lydon reduced to doing pistols covers.
Will, I'm with you on this topic. I'd only add that this would never have existed had Pere Ubu not done the Modern Dance earlier. They connected the dots between a lot of elements. I must admit I'm soft on the Generic album even if it's not on this level. I flaked and never finished my list but this was on it with the above mentioned Ubu record & their other masterpiece Dub Housing. I was surprised no Mott or Ian solo made the list. That's the true precursor of the Clash. I'd like to have seen Black Man's Burdon by Eric and War. As you mentioned in your debrief, where is the John Cale, the Roxy/Eno, or for that matter Elton's Honky Chateau?
phil, post whatever you have of your list under the comments. would love to see it. you've got amazing taste n insight! (hint ... you and few others would've changed this list considerably)
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I dig PiL but "Public Image" seems like a more potent opening salvo, no?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylOCIP54PIQ
(Btw, I love the "generic" album; arguably the most subversive thing PiL ever did.)
public image is a great single, but they were riding on pistols fumes for that (still great) first record. 'generic' is what it is, but in my mind, calling it a PiL album is like calling 'back to the egg' a beatles album!
Sorry, dude: bad comparison.
John Lydon and whoever was in the room was essentially the linep for most of PiL's output; can't say that about Macca vis-a-vis Back to the Egg.
And Album/Cassette/Compact Disc is my hands down PiL favorite. and, it just might be, the least dated of the bunch. (Despite Steve Vai's crazy-ass solos.)
i could make a dozen more comparisons, but i'll get back to my original point. the lydon/levine/wobble lineup is the only one that does anything for me. and that was a true collaboration, which yielded its sound. "this is what you want" & anything after is occasionally interesting, but not that far off from what everyone else was doing at the time. by the end, PiL was ridiculous. check out youtube clips of lydon reduced to doing pistols covers.
Will, I'm with you on this topic. I'd only add that this would never have existed had Pere Ubu not done the Modern Dance earlier. They connected the dots between a lot of elements. I must admit I'm soft on the Generic album even if it's not on this level. I flaked and never finished my list but this was on it with the above mentioned Ubu record & their other masterpiece Dub Housing. I was surprised no Mott or Ian solo made the list. That's the true precursor of the Clash. I'd like to have seen Black Man's Burdon by Eric and War. As you mentioned in your debrief, where is the John Cale, the Roxy/Eno, or for that matter Elton's Honky Chateau?
phil, post whatever you have of your list under the comments. would love to see it. you've got amazing taste n insight! (hint ... you and few others would've changed this list considerably)
Both sides of the River, There is Bacteria....
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