The genius of John Lydon
There are a lot of stupid listicle videos out there on The YouTubes, suggesting moments where culture predicted the future. As in, "Twenty times The Simpsons predicted the future!" Or some bullshit.
But in light of my post yesterday about Damon Krukowski's solution to streaming, it got me thinking about Johnny Rotten, i.e. John Lydon.
In addition to the Pistols, I've always loved Public Image Ltd both from a musical and conceptual standpoint. Their first album was so raw and made John Lennon's primal scream phase seem cheesy. Actually, most of their music agitates more than most bands. If the Pistols were a machine gun, Public Image Ltd was a weapon of deconstruction. A giant bludgeon. Or even bloody bare fists.
Beyond the music, the Lydon of 1980 was also a sage. Watching his first band disintegrate under bad management and inter-band turmoils left an already jaded person even more wary.
The most striking thing about an interview with Tom Snyder at the time isn't how standoffish and intimidating Lydon is; the guy was punk, it would have been weird for him to be using a doily and sipping from a china cup. No, the most striking part is how prescient he and Keith Levene are.
Consider the opening:
Snyder: Now joining me are Mister John Lydon who used to be known as Johnny Rotten, and mister Keith Levene, and they are both associated now in something which is called Public Image, Ltd... what is that? Is it a band, is it a public relations firm? What does it do and what is it?
Lydon: We ain't no band, we're a company.
The name Public Image Ltd, predates by several decades our social media culture, the old 'personal brand' mantra that has now become cliché thanks to my buzzword junkie advertising colleagues.
It also suggests in many ways the true potential power bands have when it comes to becoming their own company: marketing themselves, finding and communicating with their audience, not to mention rethinking what it means to be a band in the first place. Becoming self-reliant and wearing many hats.
What's remarkable about this idea is that is took two historical aspects and combined them to create something uniquely honest.
The performer-as-brand is far from a new idea. Oscar Wilde and Andy Warhol were as carefully crafted as Truman Capote. Lou Reed became Lou Reed™ in front of any journalist. A lot of this performance nothing more than that. For others, the persona was a defense mechanism. For all I know, John Lydon circa 1980 was also engaging in this during interviews as a defense against vulnerability that surely must come when your star rises so quickly. But then again he could just as easily been performing and fucking with poor old Tom.
There was also some precedence with this band-as-art-concept idea. David Byrne is said to have started the band as an art concept, questioning the notion of what it meant to play rock and roll, or at least music. Considering a few of them went to RISD, I have no doubt this was true.
But what kind of artist are you if your band has five gold albums and two platinum ones if not mainstream? Speaking only in terms of economics and not detracting anything from Byrne and company (whose music both with the Heads and solo I still love) but in terms of respectability and name recognition and accessibility, Talking Heads is Jeff Koons while John Lydon remains Francis Bacon. Perhaps this is a bit unfair of a comparison in terms of artist choice, but my point is the average suburban mom would rather be pleased to see a Koons dog and disturbed at Bacon's head. So too, with the choice of listening to The Heads and Lydon.
Again I am not knocking these artists, either musical or visual. I'm also not knocking the mainstream. It's just interesting that one band is now heard Ralph's and Whole Foods, whereas the other never is. Although I would pay good money to see the looks on people's faces if Albatross were ever played in Whole Foods.
Getting back to the point. In the interviews I've read (and autobiography I've listened to, although sadly not read by the author) Lydon has always seemed to be a tale of kicking against the pricks to get where he got.
So when I watched this video and I heard their description of what Public Image, Ltd was, I can't help but read between the lines of what wasn't articulated and apply it to today's musical landscape in which more and more bands are operating as their own companies. And keeping in mind this was in 1980 when the number one songs came from bands like KC and the Sunshine Band, Pink Floyd, and Kenny Rogers who seem so firmly rooted in the recording industry it's almost unfathomable to consider a band like PiL even having albums released, let alone predicting the future.
Even if it was an idea spat out in half-jest, it was brilliant.