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Re: The Reunion and the PIL Factor
Figured I'd try to set a fitting counterpart for the prospect of the Old Guns' reunion. Having listened to Public Image Limited's Metal Box (1979) as of late, I reckoned John Lydon'd make a good case there. Metal Box, by the way, is a whopping album.
PIL was formed some time after Lydon/Rotten recuperated from the acrimonious split with the Sex Pistols in the late 70's. Their initial two albums, self-titled and the aforementioned Metal Box, were conceived mainly by Lydon, guitarist Keith Levene and bassist Jah Wobble. Clash alumni Levene was since hailed (among others) as an inspiration by one Edge, so Bono over here should be curious to check their stuff out.
While PIL was aggressively stated to be a democracy by Lydon and co, Wobble was ejected from the group some time after the release of Metal Box. The official reason was that he was illegally using PIL backing tracks on his solo album. In return, Wobble said the studio he used was indeed booked for the band, but the others were too preoccupied with the rock n roll lifestyle to get anything done anyway.
Levene and Lydon persevered and published a nice (almost entirely bassless) avant-garde album The Flowers of Romance. Wobble's inimitable bass had been an integral part of the PIL sound so far, and, without a proper replacement, they now opted to have none of it.
All was not well, however. Recording of the next album dragged on as Levene was having drug problems and Lydon was trying out a movie career. During a trip to New York, Lydon caught up with a manager who persuaded him to take the stage with a bunch of session musicians, all of whom knew the PIL back catalog inside out. Lydon closed the famous show with the Pistols anthem, Anarchy in the UK, a song he'd vowed never again to perform during the early days of PIL.
And that was it. Levene released his mixes of the fourth album, dubbed Commercial Zone, independently in the States in 1983. Infuriated Lydon rerecorded everything and released the "official" album, This is What You Want, This is What You Get, a year later. A lukewarm reception made Lydon discard all of his collaborators and start afresh a few years later.
PIL is currently on a reunion tour. The lineup consists of people, who - aside Lydon - originally came aboard after all traces of Levene and Wobble had been removed in the mid-80's.
What Lydon did was an essential Chinese Democracy Mk I reunion. He hired the original session players instead of the founding members. One might argue that these people (who recorded the 1986 "Album") qualified for the name, as they did contribute to the discography at one point.
Lydon was able to pull it off since he'd successfully moved beyond Levene and Wobble with the 1986 hit single, Rise, co-written by Bill Laswell (later a frequent Buckethead collaborator), with guitar parts by Steve Vai. Levene and Lydon had written four albums together. Lydon ended up making another four with a rolling door of collaborators. None of them are generally regarded as good as the original PIL, but Lydon could probably care less.
As for the Guns, there are two jokes that've floated around CD ever since its inception. The first one was that the recording took forever. The second one was that it couldn't be Guns without Slash.
Mix mid-80's PIL with the clout of the Sex Pistols, and you get Axl's starting point with CD in the mid-90's. Move the release of Album from 1986 to around the millennium and you put the wait into perspective.
Now, imagine Lydon promoting Album with a group of touring members, as many of the people on the record have since departed. At one show, in walks Jah Wobble, the original bass player.
People are delighted, as Album was so far detached (in terms of both time and personnel) from the golden years to be fully accepted as a PIL record and this proves to be a refreshing jump back to a different era. There'd been no transitory period, no growing into Lydon's new sound through a succession of albums since the mid-80's, merely one, long wait.
Album has finally arrived. However, enough time has passed to escort the original lineup into rock music pantheon. Album had a window of a more fair release 5-10 years earlier. Now, the old band is coming back in style and that's what people are interested in when it comes to the name. Doing shows as the sole founding member is still profitable, but there's more money to be made with a full-blown reunion.
What should Lydon do? If a reunion is out of the question, he should show the current band is there for real, as a solid alternative for the alumni. If the band continues to record, publish and perform new music, people will have to come to terms with the fact that there's no reunion in the horizon.
He should, then, follow Album with a new, erm, album. Let's make it more complicated. Let's put a RRHOF induction ceremony in two years' time after Wobble's guest spot. Makeup with Levene can't be too far off, right?
Unless Lydon scraps the nomination personally, he needs to make a stand regarding the ceremony. Levene would probably be there anyway, and he'd have every right to be there. By copping out, Lydon would leave Levene to represent PIL. Not very good, as Levene hasn't been in the band for 16 years at that point.
The best bet for Lydon could be to perform in the ceremony with Levene, Wobble and a backing band. Do a golden oldie with Levene and Wobble and do the best new song off Album 2 with your current band. Accept the past, be gracious and firmly state you did the one-off simply to put the matter to bed.
Your new band and the best new song from Album 2 would get loads of publicity. Everybody would know your band is out there as an entity separate from the past. The public opinion would be that Levene and Wobble have given you their blessings.
You would be free again.
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