Three Minute Warning

"Public Image" by Public Image. 

It is one of the few tracks from the Punk era of the late 1970's that I still play regularly and loud some 40 years on. It has the same effect on me now as it did then.

It is not from a sense of nostalgia. 

I have no punk rock credentials although at the time that the single reached number 9 in the UK Charts in October 1978 I was aged 15 and keen to find my place in the big wide world. 

This could be achieved through musical allegiances amongst my peer group although I did actually align myself with the Mod Movement making use of one of my Father's two piece suits and winkle picker leather shoes. 

What appeals to me about the track is the combination of angst ridden anti-exploitation lyrics and a beautifully worked melancholy guitar riff above a driving drum and bass rhythm. 

It has a very emotive quality to it, almost reaching a classical phrasing. 

The thought process behind it should not have produced something so evocative. 

The song was originally the work of John Lydon in his days with the tragically destined Sex Pistols. It was a collaboration with co-writers Levene, Walker and Jah Wobble but kept in reserve until he founded Public Image after everything fired off with the Pistols. 

In an interview with Melody Maker in October of 1978 the motivation and driving force behind the track was chaotically explained by Lydon in his own words:

"despite what most of the press seemed to misinterpret it to be, is not about the fans at all, it's a slagging of the group I used to be in. 

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. It was as basic as that, they really were as dull as that.

 After a year of it they were going 'Why don't you have your hair this colour this year?' And I was going 'Oh God, a brick wall, I'm fighting a brick wall!' 

They don't understand even now". 

The launch of the single in the UK included a fake newspaper effect sleeve daubed with mock slogans and a few "in" jokes for those with a more intimate knowledge of the personalities involved. 

The UK singles chart in autumn 1978 was an eclectic mix of artists and songs. Many equally great tracks as Public Image never made it to the top spot as the songs from Grease were still dominant and other acts such as The Boomtown Rats, Boney M, Donna Summer, Electric Light Orchestra and Dean Friedman blocked any progress beyond its 9th best selling. 

It did get airtime on the regular sunday chart show on Radio One although at less than three minutes long it could easily be missed in the rundown if you were required to make a cup of tea, do a chore for parents or go to the loo. 

I, as many of my generation in the pre digital era , did the usual illicit recording of the Chart Show on a hand held Sony tape recorder. It was a very poor quality reproduction and being placed next to the radiogram speaker in the living room there was always the strong possibility of picking up all of the sounds in an active family house. That track just penetrated through everything. 

Public Image remains as a personal favourite. In one of those end of year or end of century polls it got to be the 242nd greatest song of all time and so certainly appealed to many others.

Here is the best rendition to be found; 

Public Image