The earliest Public Image Ltd material in 1978 and 1979 was commercial and new wave enough to deliver a few hit singles and retain much of the Sex Pistols fanbase as well as other dedicated followers of new wave. But all the time in interviews, John Lydon made it clear that his band was moving in an entirely different direction and he gave plenty of warnings that the next record, which would be recorded without the departed and highly influential bassist Jah Wobble, was one that would be different.
So different that many have said it remains to this day the least commercial record ever handed over to and then subsequently released by a record label. I can't comment as it is not an LP I own. I was really put off by the reviews at the time which were very unkind and for the most part said the record was unlistenable.
In fact it wasn't until 1990 that I finally recall hearing the title track from the LP thanks to its inclusion on a P.I.L. Greatest Hits CD that I picked up - I really don't recall any of my friends from my student days having the record or if they did I cant ever remember them playing it. My first reaction was that it was a track that was uneasy listening , certainly when surrounded by the various other singles on the CD, but not anything as bad as I had been expecting. I suppose that in the intervening period the sort of drumming sounds had become much more familiar listening - think for instance of how Adam & The Ants went for tribal drumming to conquer the charts.
So when I spotted a 12" copy of the single in a shop a while back, I couldn't help but buy it. I suppose it's the sad collector in me. I've a lot of the P.I.L. singles on vinyl in the cupboard and this would fill a hole in the collection. So I handed over £3. And I'm pleased to share the results with you today:-
mp3 : Public Image Ltd. - Flowers Of Romance (extended version)
mp3 : Public Image Ltd. - Home Is Where The Heart Is
Now the b-side is VERY uneasy listening. Please don't ever confuse it with the song of the same title released by Soft Cell a few years later. Almost seven and a half minutes long.....it just meanders along and gets a bit wearying all too soon.....the one thing I will say is that I wish I had an expensive listening system with huge speakers to hear it through. It sounds as if there is a lot going on in there.
Happy Listening
6 comments:
I would take a listen. The bass on "Banging the door" will blow your socks off.
i thought home is where the heart is was genius. very easy listening
Odd, I thought Flowers of Romance was more commercial than Metal Box.
Great single. HIWTHI is kind of like the last PiL song of that kind of thing.
I genuinely do not find HIWTHI uneasy listening either. Fractured dub paranoia, love it.
Nick Launay (producer) - via Wiki:
"I had just started as a very new assistant engineer at the Townhouse Studios in London, which back then belonged to PIL's label, Virgin. They came in to work on a song, which I could have sworn had the working title 'Doom Sits in Gloom'. John wanted a triplet delay on a particular vocal line, and the engineer Steve Lillywhite didn't seem to understand what he meant. I was really into dub reggae at the time, so I set it up and it worked well. The engineer eventually gave up and disappeared, so me and John spent the rest of the day messing around with every effect imaginable. The following Saturday I went in early and started setting things up. No one turned up for hours, so I started mixing. After a while I got something that I thought sounded good. Still no one had turned up, so I thought what the hell, I'll just do my own personal mix and keep it as a souvenir! And two hours later I was done. Just as I'm packing things up, in walks Keith Levene. Nervously I told him I'd done a mix, but wasn't sure if he'd like it? The song had a reggae feel so I had used lots of delays and made it very dub. I played it, and Keith listened very intensely. I was sure he was going to say it was crap. The song finished and he said 'That's fucking great, let's hear it again!' He listened on other speakers and said 'I like it, can you do me a copy and send another to Virgin tomorrow?' And that was it"
Post a Comment