It’s almost 45 years ago that I was asked to rejoin PiL to work on what would become The Flowers Of Romance album. If PiL’s First Edition album in 1978 was a break from punk – utilizing Jah Wobble’s bass and Keith Levene’s guitar. Then, with the departure of Wobble and pushing music concrete experimentation, and basically early industrial ideas to the front was its complete destruction (except of course it wasn’t). To be left alone by a strategic Lydon and an addicted guitarist was pure luxury. To have the experimentation happen in the same studio as Queen recorded, We Will Rock You and use the hallowed ground of the same drum room as Phil Collins’s In the Air Tonight was another level. That’s what Lydon’s notoriety gouged for us really, that. Engineer Nick Launay was ten weeks into a career that is still going. My (stripper powered) right foot, so heavy I was bending bass drum beaters. Cans of WD-40 hiss replaced hi hats, my Mickey Mouse watch (purchased at DisneyLand the day after we played American Bandstand to 18 million people) looped for one song (Four Enclosed Walls), slowed down Perrier gargle another (the lost track Vampire). Widely criticized, misunderstood, but still weirdly here. Used in the opening ceremony of the Olympic games in the UK (Under The House). Cited as being horrible, influential, groundbreaking or unlistenable – but those drum sounds, ahhhhhh.
All kinds of things have been written about this album, the strategies of creation, the planning etc. but the truth is there wasn’t any. Nick and I worked, bounced off each other while John hovered unseen until he would walk in with words on the back of a Marlboro cigarette packet, and sing in one (sometimes but rarely), or two takes.
There’s some minutiae to get into, my credit for the song Flowers Of Romance itself has finally been corrected and the B-side too – Home Is Where The Heart is (wrongly credited to first drummer Jim Walker). But perhaps we will leave that to the book.
The album was described by Wikipedia …… “It was initially challenging for record labels and listeners alike but has since been acknowledged as a landmark experimental post-punk record.” Critics struggle to frame the instrumentation – as decisions – and Lydon loves to pretend that his miraculous, transformative vocals were somehow more than added on at the end – but, as to the lack of bass…..Jah Wobble left! Jah fucking Wobble left – a smart move, I think, to not try to replace him at that point. It allowed some sonic room, some vacant frequency bandwidth and Nick and I took it.
To see the album listed on a sheet of Kurt Cobain’s top 50 albums (in his handwritten scratch) made me simultaneously thrilled and horribly sad.
There are so many anniversaries to celebrate this year it seems – we just honored Extremities last November and this is the 35th anniversary of Pigface and, I think the 25th of The Damage Manual but, 45 years of this album feels important. Too important to ignore it.
Chris Connelly and I will be joined by Orville Kline on loops, Robert Byrne on guitar, Leyla Royale on cello, Alicia Gaines on bass, and Alan Lake on occasional percussion to revisit and celebrate this important album along with interpretations of the missing songs at Reggie’s Chicago on Saturday April 11th with a possible dress rehearsal in the round at The Museum as part of our 5th anniversary celebrations on April 10th (the actual day of the albums release).
This feels like being an extraordinary year to say the least.
