John Lydon's first, best known band, The Sex Pistols, were recently the subject of a four-disc live box set. But Lydon's most lasting ensemble, Public Image Ltd., will celebrate two of their most beloved albums as newly expanded deluxe editions this fall.
On October 28, PiL and Universal will release expanded editions of 1979's Metal Box and 1986's Album. Each will be presented as 4CD or 4LP boxes, featuring the remastered albums, B-sides, rare live tracks, alternate mixes and outtakes.
Metal Box, featuring Lydon, guitarist Keith Levene and bassist Jah Wobble, who'd all played on PiL's debut Public Image: First Issue the year before, found Lydon further retreating from the traditional punk sentiment he'd helped spearhead in The Sex Pistols. Free-form, occasionally improvised lyrics, dub-quality bass lines and aluminum guitars (to provide a more abrasive tone) were the hallmarks of the record. "Death Disco," a challenging blend of modern dance music and hellish guitar (written, in fact, at the request of Lydon's dying mother, who wanted an upbeat song for her funeral), became a U.K. Top 20 hit, as did the album itself (which was initially packaged in an unorthodox but efficient and inexpensive metal canister and presented across three 12" records.
The expanded Metal Box is presented in a new square metal tin design and featuring 72 pages of liner notes and postcard or art print inserts. It features a disc of non-LP material (including B-sides, remixes, and live sessions for John Peel and The Old Grey Whistle Test), a famously unplanned live concert recorded in Manchester before a TV engagement, and a disc of 10 unreleased mixes and rough takes.
Wobble and Levene soon left the band before PiL's next two albums (1981's The Flowers of Romance and 1984's This is What You Want...This is What You Get), giving way for an unusual list of collaborators on Album. Over a three-week period, Lydon and producer Bill Laswell hired a diverse group of session players that included Ryuchi Sakamoto and Bernie Worrell on synths and organ, virtuoso guitarist Steve Vai and drummers Tony Williams (Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock) and Cream's Ginger Baker. The wild end result, coupled with a distinctive, minimalist packaging style (where each format of the record was the name of the record, i.e.: Album, Cassette, Compact Disc and "Rise" (a U.K. No. 11 hit) being released in sleeves marked "Single" and "12 Inch Single"), made for a record unlike anything in Lydon's discography.
Album will feature a similar box package designed consistently with the original release, with debossed artwork and another 72-page book of liner notes and postcards/art prints. Bonus material includes a live set from Brixton Academy, demos recorded with the This is What You Want-era lineup, and B-sides and remixes, including the single "World Destruction" by Time Zone, a collaboration between Lydon, Laswell and electro pioneer Afrika Bambaataa.
While the 4LP editions of each reissue feature only some of the bonus material due to space issues, download codes will feature all the bonus material so fans can get the complete experience. PiL, which emerged from a 17-year hiatus in 2009 and released its most recent album, What the World Needs Now..., last fall, will England and Belgium in November.
Check out the full specs on each set below. Amazon pre-orders aren't yet live on either side of the Atlantic, though Universal's official store is offering limited pre-orders of each reissue and format with an exclusive insert signed by Lydon.
Metal Box: Super Deluxe Edition (Virgin EMI/UMC (U.K.), 2016)
CD 1/LP 1-2: Original album (Virgin METAL 1 (U.K.)/Warner Bros. 2W5 3288 (U.S.), 1979)
- Albatross
- Memories
- Swan Lake (Death Disco)
- Poptones
- Careering
- No Birds Do Sing
- Graveyard
- The Suit
- Bad Baby
- Socialist
- Chant
- Radio 4
Disc 2: B-sides, mixes and radio sessions (* denotes inclusion on LP 4)
- Death Disco (7" Edit) (single A-side - Virgin VS 274, 1979)
- Death Disco (1/2 Mix) (12" A-side - Virgin VS 274-12, 1979))
- Megga Mix (12" B-side - Virgin VS 274-12, 1979)
- Death Disco (Top of the Pops - 7/12/1979)
- Memories (12" A-side - Virgin VS 299-12, 1979)
- Another (B-side to "Memories" - Virgin VS 299, 1979)
- Poptones (John Peel Session - 12/17/1979) (from Plastic Box - Virgin PILBOX 1, 1999) *
- Careering (John Peel Session - 12/17/1979) (from Plastic Box - Virgin PILBOX 1, 1999) *
- Chant (John Peel Session - 12/17/1979) (from Plastic Box - Virgin PILBOX 1, 1999) *
- Poptones (The Old Grey Whistle Test - 2/5/1980)
- Careering (The Old Grey Whistle Test - 2/5/1980)
- Pied Piper (from Machines - Virgin V-2177, 1980)
Disc 3: Unreleased mixes (* denotes inclusion on LP 4)
- Poptones (Verison 3)
- Swan Lake (Monitor Mix) *
- Albatross (Monitor Mix) *
- Swan Lake ("Master" Alternative Mix)
- Unknown INST Jam 1 (Chant)
- Unknown Jam 2 (Megachant)
- Music From An Oven (aka Memories)
- Radio 4 ("Symphony Suite")
- Home is Where the Heart Is (Original Mix)
- Unknown INST 2
CD 4/LP 3: Live @ Russell's Club/The Factory, Manchester - 6/18/1979
- Chant
- Swan Lake (Death Disco)
- Memories
- Public Image
- Annalisa
- No Birds Do Sing
Album: Super Deluxe Edition (Virgin EMI/UMC (U.K.), 2016)
CD/LP 1: Original album (Virgin V-2366 (U.K.)/Elektra 60438 (U.S.), 1986)
- FFF
- Rise
- Fishing
- Round
- Bags
- Home
- Ease
CD 2: Live @ Brixton Academy - 5/27/1986
- Kashmir
- FFF
- Low Life
- Fishing
- Poptones
- Pretty Vacant
- Banging the Door
- Flowers of Romance
- Bags
- Round
- Home
- Public Image
- Rise
- Annalisa
CD 3/LPs 3-4: Various, mixes and outtakes
- Things in E (aka Ease) (Alternative Laswell Mix)
- Rise (7" Edit) (single A-side - Virgin VS 841, 1986)
- Rise (Instrumental) (single B-side - Virgin VS 841, 1986)
- Home (7" Edit) (single A-side - Virgin VS 855, 1986)
- Rise (Bob Clearmountain Remix) (from The Greatest Hits, So Far - Virgin V-2644, 1990)
- Home (The Old Grey Whistle Test - 5/20/1986)
- Round (The Old Grey Whistle Test - 5/20/1986)
- World Destruction (12") - Time Zone (12" A-side - Virgin VS 743-12, 1984)
- World Destruction (Industrial Remix) - Time Zone (12" B-side - Virgin VS 743-12, 1984)
CD 4/LP 2 *: Original 1985 Album Demos
- Animal *
- Black Rubber Bags (aka Bags) *
- European Cars (aka Round) *
- Fairwell Fairweather Friend (aka FFF) *
- Pearls Before Swine (aka Fishing) *
- Things in E (aka Ease) (Instrumental) *
- Ben Hur (Instrumental)
- Cats (Instrumental)
- Have a Nice Day (Instrumental)
- Untitled 3 (Instrumental)
- Pearls Before Swine (aka Fishing) (Alternate Mix)
Billy D says
Looks like the only way I'll get these is on cd. Lp prices are way too high for me.