I have fond memories of the album because my buddy Mark, who was also a Big Black and That Petrol Emotion enthusiast, would put it on when we were drunk and heading home across the Bay after a night of bar- and party-hopping in San Francisco. This was the mid-'80s. Mark had a early 1960s Volkswagen Beetle in which he had dropped a 1600cc engine. Early-'60s Beetles were manufactured with smaller engines. So the body and chassis on Mark's fire-engine red VW felt very light, almost like we were riding in fiberglass. He had good speakers.
Loaded, late at night, Mark would bat that Bug around turns and barrel us up the ramp to the Bay Bridge. And for some reason at that moment nothing sounded finer than "Under the House":
In preparation for Friday evening's usual Hippies vs. Punks post, I've been immersing myself in Public Image Ltd's first two albums: Public Image: First Issue (1978) and Second Edition from 1980 (which was originally released as Metal Box -- because its three 12-inch 45s came in a film canister -- at the end of 1979). And by immersion I mean I've listened to both albums several times in a row, falling asleep with my ear buds in while on the train in the morning. I am well versed in Second Edition, having owned and played a cassette tape copy repeatedly over the years. There was one summer at the end of the 1990s where it seemed like that's all I listened to for a couple of weeks. Tremendous album with a vibe all its own, it creates a dark, deep, distant space which I find myself happy to occupy. Jah Wobble, Keith Levene and John Lydon did it right in 1979.
And while Metal Box usually gets the accolades, I've enjoyed Public Image: First Issue just as much. Up until this past weekend I had never owned a copy. But most of the songs are familiar. The album must have been ambiently absorbed; it was widely played when I first arrived at the university in the early '80s. At Rasputin's on Telegraph my freshman or sophomore year I remember seeing the video for "Public Image" on one of those old big projection-screen televisions with the three lenses. Great single. It's probably the closest thing to a Sex Pistols song that PiL ever did:
