9 (Public Image Ltd. Album) - Track-by-track Commentary By The Band

Track-by-track Commentary By The Band

"Happy?":

• John Lydon (1989): “'Happy?' was much more militant in its approach, kind of pissed off at the world. That was the attitude. But this one is much more happy, much more open. I think it sums up the sense of optimism that really has to be there for these very serious times we live in There is a theme running through It's not to take life so seriously, actually, and not to expect too much from anyone, which will at least give them a chance. And that is optimism The songs really were written much, much more for live than record. They were completely and totally rehearsed before they went anywhere near the studio. So the actual recording process was very, very quick. Took us a year to write, and very well worthwhile.” “We spent a lot of time writing these songs and perfecting them before we went anywhere near a studio to record them. I think that's the main effort of our work, isn't it?”
  “I had doubts from the start, but nevertheless I flew to New York with a tape of our songs. Suddenly said he hates our songs, the band is crap and I better fire them and work with the songs he wrote for me. His idea for me was to make some kind of U2 album. So we packed our bags and fucked off.” “Originally we were going to do this with Bill Laswell, but he said the band couldn't play and he hated all our songs, so I told him where to go. We moved to Jason Corsaro, and then that all fell through, so I took it all back to England. It was financially impossible after the Laswell fuck-up. Laswell's ego has become ridiculous, I couldn't deal with it. He said he'd written songs and I should sack the band and use his people and come out with a U2-type product! To me that reeks of cliché and cop-out. It's very disappointing I won't be dictated to by producers. That's not their job, as far as I'm concerned, their job is clarity, and if you're doing something wrong, to point an easier way around it. Y'know, useful tools. Steve is a musician, and it's very useful to work with people in that way. Eric Thorngren is more like a mad Hells Angel helped in the writing It's the actual writing of the thing that counts. I'm not going to take anything away from Lu at the moment, life's very hard on him. It's a terrible thing to take a year off of your chosen profession.” “I realise that our new album sounds almost too good and that there's going to be a lot of criticism that we've sold out, but we wanted to make a really professional pop album, so to hell with the critics. Why did we work with guys who produce mainstream acts like Pet Shop Boys and Talking Heads? We didn't have much of a choice, to be honest. We were originally booked to record the album in Los Angeles with another producer, but on the very day we were due to start, he informed us that the songs stunk and that no one could play.”
• Allan Dias (1989/2004): “We miss Lu. It was a shock to have to go in and record without him after he had been involved in the songwriting We put a lot of time into arrangements and melody. This album is more integration of rhythms and melody rather than just really hard grooves on their own.” “We give a cassette, he'll take it away. Two months later you ask him about it, and he'll say 'It's too nice, I don't know what to do with it!' In the final hour he'll come up with something brilliant.” “We would all have cassettes with some ideas and some songs, and then we would exchange them. We would listen to each others stuff, and I'd pick what I like from their stuff, and they'd pick what they like from mine, whatever. And then we'd sit and try to play this stuff or try to structure it. Sometimes we'd use bits and pieces from each others tunes, yeah. We shared everything equally so it didn't matter whose song initially it was. I think McGeoch was probably the more prolific writer. I think if an album had ten songs, usually four or five came from John McGeoch, three of four would come from me and the others, and then John Lydon would have a couple.”
• Bruce Smith (1989): “There were strong characters involved, but it didn't make one character. Rotten's vocals and the music and the compositions have gelled together. On the last record we made, it wasn't there at all I think some of the tracks might suffer from the final mix being a little too smooth, but I certainly would have done it like that.”
• Bill Laswell (producer, 1989): “He's lost it. Ask him why he delivered a bad disco album.”
• John McGeoch (1990/91): “I don't think '9' was a bummer, but looking back with the luxury of hindsight, I'm more content with 'Happy?'. We in fact started to record '9' with Bill Laswell, but Bill was just out of order I'm afraid. Lydon sacked him on the second day. He wanted to make a heavy metal album. He had us round and it was nothing less than a lecture that he gave us, that the American public needed John Lydon to make a tough heavy metal album. The material that we had written for '9' was written on computers, as was the new stuff, and he said 'This is just disco!' He wanted to throw out Allan and Bruce and use his own musicians.” “When we recorded '9', the engineer Dave Meegan recorded a lot of it digitally, but then went and used my noisy old washing machine rack to master it, to get that analog feel.”
• Lu Edmonds (1999): “I think Virgin always wanted Bill Laswell to get involved again, the second time for '9' there was this complete fiasco Virgin negotiated with Laswell on a very flimsy basis to record '9', and Laswell was saying 'Well, the only way I ever record an album is with my own musicians,' and Virgin would go 'Don't worry, we'll send the band anyway, and if you like them you can use them,' and Laswell's going 'It's up to you if you want to take the risk, but if I don't like the band I'm not going to use them!' We went into the studio on the first day, and he made Bruce so nervous by being so cool, he's Mr Cool, and Bruce did all the songs at kind of double speed, he was so nervous. And that night Laswell turned to John and said 'The band won't do!' We'd been there a week - we were committed to be there for three - and Virgin said 'Well, we did think that might happen.' And suddenly the band are $80,000 in the hole, John was absolutely livid!
  After this time when we were in New York with Laswell, we did the Estonian date then after that gig I suddenly realised my ears were just - I'd had a little tinnitus. Then it got really bad and I went to see a doctor, and he said 'You've got to stop playing.' And I just fell into a huge pit of depression, everything in my life just collapsed. I had to get out and I thought it was better I got out before I was on the album I didn't take any advances for '9' but John gave me the royalties They ended up with Stephen Hague, who also is a great producer, but again, '9' was completely sucked dry of any scruffiness and all that beautiful space. So for me those albums are disappointing because I know they could have been better.”

"Disappointed":

• John Lydon (1989/99): “'Disappointed' is what it says, it's just about the many and varied ways people let you down.” “But, you know, that's what people will always do. You can't change the human race. You've just got to accept that as a fact of life.” “Friends will let you down, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't have friends. You should enjoy it for the very fact that they are human beings and fallible, that that very fallibility is what you should enjoy about human contact. Otherwise, really what you're asking for is sycophantic robots that merely compliment your ego. And there's no enjoyment in that.”
• John McGeoch (1991). “I was doing some work at Eel Pie Studios five or six years ago and Townshend had left some guitar cases lying around the place. I opened one up and there was an acoustic guitar with a receipt dated 1969 The tuning on the guitar was D-A-D-A-D-E, bottom to top. That's what I used on 'Disappointed'.”

"Warrior":

• John Lydon (1989/2004): “That's precisely how I see myself - fighting off, instead of the U.S. Cavalry, boredom and oppression.” “I'm making my case quite clear that this is my land and I'm not gonna surrender it easily. I'm sick of damn big businesses just burning up everything, destroying the food, destroying the sea, polluting the air. You know, I've got an actual birthright to these things - I'm damned if I'm gonna surrender it lightly.” “When you look at 'Warrior' there's all kind of MIDI keyboarding but it sounds like a band live.”

U.S.L.S.1":

• John Lydon (1989): “It should be pronounced 'Useless One', it concerns your president. It's about a terrorist bomb on Air Force One. It poses the question, how would Mr. Bush feel if he knew? I don't write anything purely just for atmosphere, that would be boring. Things have to have a point to them.”
• Bruce Smith (1989): “One thing that is good about this new record is that several of the tunes are from what Lydon did at home on machines, really far-out pieces of music, really fucking great.”