Public Image Limited - Album

tate

Brown Sugar
Also known as Cassette and Compact Disc, depending on the format.

What do people around here think?

Came out in '85, so falls just out of the purview of RIUSA, (there may well be a reference to Album in RIUSA, but I couldn't find it a moment ago when I looked).

It's an odd record, with an interesting cast of players. Atkins was gone at this point so Ginger Baker played drums. Ryuichi Sakomoto is on a bit of it. Steve Vai, then an unknown who'd worked for Zappa (and played on Zappa's Them or Us in '84) and self-released a couple of weird home recordings, is all over the record. Bill Laswell produced and according to some, played bass. Swedish bassist Jonas Hellborg, the 1980s fusion darling and John McLaughlin sideman/revamped-Mahavishnu bass player, also played fretless bass on the record.

The title provoked controversy. Legendary San Francisco band Flipper claimed that the generic title and cover art had been stolen from them, so titled their next release, a double live affair, Public Flipper Limited, haha.

I am guessing that most people around here hate the record or at best feel lukewarm, especially given the guitar playing. I bought the record as a kid b/c I had read at the time of its release that it was a weird one. Was curious what you thought, esp the UK people.
 

crackerjack

Well-known member
I always loved this album, esp. FFF (his fuck-you to keith Levene). As for the generic titles, I assumed it was ripped offf from Repo Man (where people eat out of tins labelled Food etc), but it could be Flipper got there first
 

Woebot

Well-known member
i got it when it came out, (does math) i must have only been 14!

i was completely blown away by the single "rise" it really shook me to the core. i suppose i went from reading smash hits and listening to capital radio to checking out a whole different universe.

the other thing i liked passionately/improbably back then was grace jones "la vie en rose".

funnily the next pil record i bought was "this is not a love song" and that pretty much stymied my love of the band :-/

i actually spoke to ginger baker on the phone once at some length. it was in 1993. he kept going on that his wife has disappeared?!?
 

PeteUM

It's all grist
I loved it at the time but I haven't gone back to it much. Remember liking FFF and Ease (is that right?) a lot, but I imagine the big 80s drums would piss me off now. Fuck it, I have got it, I'll go and put it on.

I DJ Rise sometimes and it's definitely one of those records that people come up and talk to you about, or have done once or twice anyway.

Hmm... some serious ROCK lead guitar is the thing that probably most stands out...
 

mms

sometimes
I loved it at the time but I haven't gone back to it much. Remember liking FFF and Ease (is that right?) a lot, but I imagine the big 80s drums would piss me off now. Fuck it, I have got it, I'll go and put it on.

I DJ Rise sometimes and it's definitely one of those records that people come up and talk to you about, or have done once or twice anyway.

Hmm... some serious ROCK lead guitar is the thing that probably most stands out...

yeah i loved it when i were a kid
brilliant lyrics, anger is an energy etc, lush disgraceland guitars.
 

henry s

Street Fighting Man
I bought the cassette version a coupla years after it came out, and was a bit put off by Steve Vai's guitaring...I mean, at the same time he was prancing around like a doofus in David Lee Roth's "Paradise" video...(I sorta dug that song, but Steve Vai and his Nancy Wilson-esque leg kicks!)...and Bill Laswell, I just kinda groan when I see his name attached to something...(which, in the 80's, was a lot of things)...avant-muso bollocks...a bass player whose work is defined as "fretwork" is just not gonna get a lot of truck with me...I did/do like that "anger is an energy" line, though...
 
I still have this in my collection but rarely play it, to be honest. and then usually i'll just play Rise and then stop. so i guess that means i don't really like it, although i still think it was a nice design concept with the sleeve.
speaking of mid-80s - and vague Don Letts link - i've been back to the old B.A.D. albums recently. Up to and including Tighten Up Vol.88. Wonderful stuff, still. I'm determined to blog about it at some point...
 
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