Public Image Limited : Second Edition	Related Readings:
Genre: Anti-Rock and Roll	Dates: 1979

After the self-destruction of the Sex Pistols, who Johnny Rotten claimed “were only trying to destroy everything”—specifically including rock and roll—Rotten was left with a big dilemma: the Pistols were dead, and he and rock and roll were still very much alive. On this record, Rotten, under his given name John Lydon, tried again to kill the beast—with anti-rock, with death disco (the original title of “Swan Lake”). Though the record tails off badly at the end, tracks 1-5 are some of the weirdest, most evocative and original dance music ever cut:  Jah Wobble plays the deepest reggae bass in white man history, Keith Levene makes his guitar imitate a back alley knife fight, and Lydon’s vocals are possessed, haunted, and accusatory, repudiating everything music history had thrust upon him. Unfortunately, the group would go on to make only one more fantastic recording (the perfectly named “This Is Not a Love Song”), but Lydon came damned close to his goal before fading away.

Playlist:

1. Albatross
2. Memories
3. Swan Lake
4. Poptones
5. Careering
6. Socialist
7. Graveyard
8. Suit, The
9. Bad Baby
10. No Birds
11. Chant
12. Radio 4