Fascinating unedited raw footage of a 1982 JJ Jackson interview of Public Image Ltd’s John Lydon and Keith Levene at MTV’s studio. Jackson’s questions are a lot better than you might expect them to be. I’ve never seen Keith Levene more loquacious in a vintage interview. He even talks briefly about his tenure in the Clash during the second part of the interview. Lydon had just come off filming Corrupt with Harvey Keitel in Rome. At the beginning, and near the end, after a few minutes of silence, you can hear what they were talking about off-camera.
As some of you reading this well know, and others will not, Keith Levene, later of Public Image Ltd., was an early member of The Clash. So why did he leave “the only band that matters”?
“Anyway, my heart wasn’t in The Clash sound at all—I remember going to rehearsals and just being so depressed about their sound. They got it so wrong man, they thought I was depressed because I was having a bad amphetamine come down. So it happened like this :one day, I get to the rehearsal room which is this dark, damp room—the band are sitting around, playing tunes from The Stooges and The MC5 and King Tubby’s Hi Fi on their little cassette machine, waiting for me to arrive cos I’m late as usual. We plug in and start playing, and I remember Joe Strummer poking me in the arm and going, “Look Keith, just what is wrong with you man, are you into this or not”. I’m not into it, so I just leave my guitar up against the amp, feedback howling back like mad, like white noise, and I just walk out. I can still hear that feedback whine as I leave the studio and walk onto the street. Fuck them. And they thought it was a bad speed come down. You wanna know the truth? The truth is I hated their sound. Even though I wrote some of their first album, I can’t listen to it. That’s the truth. There is the printed version of what happened, and then there is the real version of what happened. It didn’t bother me when I left The Clash, not at all. I mean, how could I be in a band which played songs like ‘White Riot’! Fuck off! What did we have to riot about? Then there were the fucking stupid lyrics like “No Elvis, no Beatles and the Rolling Stones.” Fuck off! I didn’t want anything to do with it. Then there was some bullshit like Mick Jones told me he predicted the death of Elvis. Bullshit.”
Tell us how you really feel, Keith!
Below, Levene with PiL performing “Chant” on a TV show called Check It Out before the group storms out of the interview.
As the current iteration of Public Image Ltd. continue to provide an evidently very satisfying P.i.L. experience at a venue near you i happened to stumble upon this 1979 promo clip that I’d never managed to see before. The song title as well as being self descriptive of the music points to the anguished cry of grief over Lydon’s dying mother reflected in the totally non-ironic lyrics. Keith Levene’s guitar and synths, which the 2010 stand-in guy approximates sort of are brittle, grievous subconscious shards of memory decorating the sparse dub-influenced underpinning. Slick it up for the kids all you like, this song is bulletproof.
Keith Levene and Jah Wobble won’t be attending, but, since Metal Box is turning 30 (!), chances look good for a live Poptones (see below). From today’s NYT:
John Lydon, the former frontman for the Sex Pistols, who is better known as Johnny Rotten, told The Guardian newspaper that his band Public Image Limited, or PiL, is back after a 17-year break. Though fans will have to do without two original band members, Jah Wobble and Keith Levene, the guitarist Lu Edmonds returns in the reincarnation, along with the drummer Bruce Smith. A five-date tour is to begin in December with a new member, Scott Firth, and a couple of other changes, it seems. ?
continue to provide an evidently very satisfying 