Public Image Ltd. “Public Image: First Issue” released on this date, December 8th, 1978. PiL’s debut album is widely considered to be the first post-punk release, issued the same year as the Sex Pistols demise. It went to #22 on the UK album charts but, based on the criticism of the record at the time, I suspect a lot of those sales were more to do with Johnny Rotten’s reputation than for a love of PiL’s new kind of music. It’s a challenging and difficult record (arguably a lot like John Lydon himself) though I really love it. One critic called it “morbid directionless sounds with Rotten’s poetry running just behind it.” History has been much kinder, however, hailing First Issue as a breakthrough in rock music and influencing a new generation of alternative artists. The only song that is truly pop-accessible is the title track “Public Image” which hit #9 in the UK. “Religion I” (just Lydon reciting his lyrics) and “Religion II” (same lyrics, great bass line courtesy of Jah Wobble) are harsh and confrontational: “Fat pig priest/Sanctimonious smiles/He takes the money/You take the lies.” Lydon wrote “Religion” during the disastrous Pistols tour of the US in ’78 and the band as well as Malcolm McLaren refused it so onto Public Image it went, controversy be damned. “Fodderstompf” is disjointedly hypnotic and really long, as are “Theme” (which is morbid as Lydon wails over and over “I wish I could die!”) and “Annalisa” (also morbid, it’s about a girl whose parents thought she was possessed so they started her to death, so that reviewer did have a point) tossing out the quick, sharp punk formula completely. According to Lydon the track “Low Life” is “about Sid [Vicious] and how he turned into the worst kind of rock ‘n’ roll star” under McLaren’s influence.