Public Image Ltd. Songs - Public Image Lyrics

Public Image Ltd. - Public Image

Public Image Ltd. - Public Image Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Public Image
Released: 1978

Public Image Lyrics

Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello.
Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha.
You never listen to word that I said
You only seen me
For the clothes that I wear
Or did the interest go so much deeper
It must have been
The colour of my hair.

Public Image.
What you wanted was never made clear
Behind the image was ignorance and fear
You hide behind his public machine
Still follow the same old scheme.

Public image.
Two sides to every story
Somebody had to stop me
I'm not the same as when I began
I will not be treated as property.

Public image.
Two sides to every story
Somebody had to stop me
I'm not the same as when I began
It's not a game of Monopoly.

Public image.
Public image you got what you wanted
The Public Image belongs to me
It's my entrance
My own creation
My grand finale
My goodbye

Public image.
Public image.
Goodbye.

Writer/s: LEVENE, KEITH/WARDLE, JOHN/LYDON, JOHN/WALKER, JAMES
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Public Image

Lead singer Johnny Lydon wrote this song while he was still with The Sex Pistols. He was extremely unhappy at the time and thought that he and his fellow Sex Pistols were abused and manipulated by band manager Malcolm McClaren. Public Image, Ltd. was his new group, and it was designed to be a business venture as well as a band (thus the name that sounds like a corporation).

With The Sex Pistols, Lydon was known as "Johnny Rotten." He used his real name for this group. When Public Image Ltd. (also known as PiL) first started, everyone was looking for Sex Pistols version 2.0 and Lydon was not having it. He wanted a completely different image and sound for the new band.

Danish popsters Alphabeat covered this on their 2008 self-titled debut album. Guitarist and chief songwriter Anders Bonlokke explained to Q magazine July 2008: "To me, that song is about being outsiders, and that's how we feel among all the Indie bands in London. I think John Lydon would probably hate it."

This song finds Lydon starting afresh and going deeper after the Pistols. He told Mojo magazine August 2012: "I think it was clear: 'I don't need to repeat where I stand politically, not ever again. Now let's deal with the personal politics, sort myself out, get rid of the wrong things in me.' You can change everything that's wrong with your enemy by changing yourself first."