Na het uiteenvallen van The Sex Pistols vormde John Lydon samen met bassist Jah Wobble, gitarist Keith Levene (ex-Clash) en drummer Jim Walker Public Image Ltd. De eerste single, “Public Image“, bezat nog een tamelijk conventionele structuur, maar dat zou snel veranderen. De tweede lp, “Metal Box”, is een van de grote, klassieke postpunkalbums, waarop we later in deze rubriek nog terug zullen komen.
Hier als voorgerecht de debuutsingle, waarin Lydon korte metten maakt met zijn voormalige collega’s in de Sex Pistols en met ex-manager Malcolm McLaren. Lydon: “It’s what I went through from my own group. They never bothered to listen to what I was fucking singing, they don’t even know the words to my songs. They never bothered to listen, it was like, ‘Here’s a tune, write some words to it.’ So I did. They never questioned it. I found that offensive, it meant I was literally wasting my time, ‘cause if you ain’t working with people that are on the same level then you ain’t doing anything. The rest of the band and Malcolm never bothered to find out if I could sing, they just took me as an image.”
Hello
(Hello)
Hello
(Hello, hello)
Hello
Ha ha ha ha
You never listened to a word that I said
You only seen me from the clothes that I wear
Or did the interest go so much deeper?
It must have been to the color of my hair
The public image
What you wanted was never made clear
Behind the image was ignorance and fear
You hide behind his public machine
You still follow same old scheme
Public image
Two sides to every story
Somebody had to stop me
I’m not the same as when I began
I will not be treated as property
Public image
Two sides to every story
Somebody had to stop me
I’m not the same as when I began
It’s not a game of monopoly
Public image
Public image, you got what you wanted
The public image belongs to me
It’s my entrance my own creation
My grand finale, my goodbye
Public image
Public image
Goodbye
