Dear Friends,
I wrote this one in real time this morning which is something I haven’t done a lot of since the first year of the blog. I couldn’t bring myself to write yesterday. Usually, I have liked to have the blog done the night before. I’m sure my more regular readers have figured this out.
At this point, it doesn’t really matter one way or another. Tomorrow is the last day I am going to write a daily Ergonomic Mischief blog. I don’t know what will happen with this site. I will probably take it down eventually.
I learned this morning when I looked at my phone around 4am that my Aunt Lois died last night. She was in a car accident and the wounds were too much for her 92-year-old body to endure. I have a lot of feelings about this.
First, I am sad for my mom, Granny, and Aunt Julie. The whole family, of course, too, because Lois was definitely well loved. I’m sad for them, though, most of all because they were very close to Lois. I have heard Lois’s voice a few times and spoken to her briefly in the last few months, but I haven’t really interacted with her in a long time.
She was a good Great Aunt, though. We spent a lot of time together when I was a kid and I remember missing her quite a bit when she moved back to Kansas in the 80s. She was the one who first brought Easy Street to our family, buying it in 1977, so I am forever grateful for that.
Lois was quite a character. When I was really young, I often considered her to be this Mary Tyler Moore type. A single career lady who was doing her thing. She had a cool car, this 70s white coupe of some type (I’m not a car guy) and a little condominium over on 12th Street just sound of Dunlap.
Before buying Easy Street, she had worked for IBM, which I thought was cool, but I was young and had no idea what she did there. She was not exactly great at owning a restaurant, but she was smart enough to have my Aunt Julie come work for her within a year or so of buying the place and things certainly improved after that.
She was certainly supportive and nurturing for my mom and I will always have a deep love for Aunt Lois for that. She was a safe place for my mom’s heart when my grandmother couldn’t be and that’s important in anyone’s life. We all need those safe places.
It makes me sad that I won’t be hearing her distinctive voice again. I know my Granny is going to be crushed upon hearing this news.
The lights of Ponca City, Oklahoma are not nearly as bright today.
2024, you motherfucker.
*****
Before I became obsessed with the Butthole Surfers, I was a devout PIL fan. My brother from another mother, Tom S., dubbed me “Tommy Rotten” during the early Religious Skid days and I often shared with people that while I do love the Sex Pistols, my real love for one John Lydon’s work is Public Image Ltd.
I didn’t mind being called “Rotten,” though.
When I found out about the Sex Pistols, really found out about them, PIL already had existed for a while. I was definitely interested in checking them out and somehow, I found my way to Second Edition which is also known as Metal Box. If I remember correctly, the first copy I got of it was used at Zia (and not in the Metal Box, which I have yet to own). Since I didn’t have a ton to throw around on buying records, the used stuff a Zia was always my friend.
I was probably 15 when I picked this up and when I would play it for people, no one liked it. This was always something that I would tend to pick up and wear as a badge of honor. If I liked something that no one else seemed to like, it was even more appealing to me. In the mid-1980s, it seemed like most people I knew did not understand or enjoy PIL and I found that endearing.
Second Edition is something of a post-punk masterpiece. The first PIL record, Public Image, was genre defining but Second Edition took things to another level. PIL said to the world, “Look, punk rock happened but look what we can do now.”
The record moves at its own pace, which is something I love. While I can eat the same meal every day and not complain, when it comes to music, I love to experience all the different flavors I can experience. Hearing Second Edition expanded my musical palate considerably. It was not what I was expecting. It was better.
“Albatross” is over ten minutes long. For much of that time, Jah Wobble’s bass does almost the exact same riff. This had a huge influence on me as a songwriter and is probably why, more than any other influence on me, that I am perfectly fine with finding a good riff and riding it as far and as long as I can. If I were a surfer, I might be way out there hoping to find a big wave I could ride for an hour.
Wobble’s bass lines, as I have previously stated, make the little hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Combined with Keith Levene’s weird, metal (not “heavy metal”) sounding guitar and it created a background for Lydon to just go to work and create some of the coolest sounding lyrics/vocals out there. When Wobble kicks in with the beginning of “Memories,” he sets a wonderful tone for the song.
As I listen to and write about this one, I am realizing how much I have borrowed from this record over the years. It may be the biggest single influence on how I make music. It makes sense, too, as I really did spend a ton of time thinking about how PIL made this record, even from an early age. I knew I wanted to make music when I first started going to concerts and punk rock shows, but this might be the first record that really made me think about how a record could be written. I wanted to know the “why” about this record. Why did they make it the way they did?
I still want to know.
“Swan Lake” is a favorite of mine. Levene’s guitar sounds so great in the beginning of the song. It sucks me right in and there is Wobble just hanging around in the background making it flow. David Humphrey played drums on this one. He was around for the early PIL stuff but only played this and “Albatross.”
I love how “Swan Lake” swells into this really big, almost scary sounding song over the last 90 seconds or so. Levene was experimenting with synthesizers and he clearly came up with something super cool here. Listen closely and you can hear the sound of anxiety and fear swirling back there.
The next two songs are among my all-time favorites. “Poptones” and “Careering” are both huge for me. On the former, Lydon allows Levene and Wobble to create the space for him to just do his thing. It’s a long one, with lots of space between the vocals that creates this delicious tension. It’s really brilliant, actually, and when Lydon’s vocal lines come in, they are so much more powerful.
“Careering” is definitely in my top 10 songs. It was one of the first songs that really became a favorite of mine. As I think about it, I am pretty sure it was the first of these songs I heard because Ben had gotten this really cool compilation from his Uncle Paul when we were in our early teenage years, and it was on there. I could be totally wrong about this because I am not finding any evidence of such a comp on the internet, but it seems right.
I don’t really know what it is about “Careering” that just sucks me in every damn time I hear it, but I can’t help but love it. It isn’t necessarily the words, but the way Lydon delivers them is pretty captivating for me. “Spreading tales life coffin nails/is this living?” That line is so great.
“Socialist” is PIL having fun with some bleeps and bloops and then “Graveyard” is more metallic and abrasive. “The Suit” is Lydon taking down the establishment by saying that most people are simply sheep. “It is your nature” to follow along and he’s not wrong.
“Bad Baby” is the PIL debut of Martin Atkins on drums. This started a really cool collaboration. It’s also one of Levene’s most iconic songs. It’s very simple, but that synthesizer line is great and a total ear worm.
“No Birds” has the wonderful bass line from Wobble. It’s kind of backwards and drunk sounding, but paired with Levene’s guitar work and Lydon’s vocals, it makes for the perfect post-punk performance. Personally, I’m waiting for the next wave of British post-punk bands to finally embrace who great PIL was in their early days. I know they are still creating new music, and I dig it, but stop copying Gang of Four and Wire so much and start looking at Second Edition for inspiration.
“Chant” and “Radio 4” are two sides of the same coin. While “Chant” is an overt and obvious “fuck you” to the establishment, “Radio 4” is a much more subversive way of saying “Fuck off” to the sheeple that Lydon and crew so succinctly despise on Second Edition. I love how “Radio 4” sounds to this day. There are many layers operating there.
Second Edition truly is and was a game changer for me. A top 10 record for me, maybe top three. I am still considering ranking these records, but I don’t want to rabbit hole my brain like that just yet.
I’m content to sit here and let “Radio 4” wash over me and be content in knowing that it is here for me when I need it.
*****
See you tomorrow.
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