Public Image Limited – Blank Label – 1983

Love Song / Mad Max / Bad Light / Solitaire

The Slab / Lou Reed 1 / Lou Reed 2 / Blue Water / Miller Hi-Life

Stuck this on because I could not find my Public Image Limited live at the Rainbow, London, 26/12/78 tape. Oh balls! While writing this I have just remembered I have the New York ‘Riot’ gig from May 1981 on a 33 rpm 7″ bootleg. Will put that on at some time no doubt…

Anyway this is a Keith Levine mixed version of the tracks that would eventually be released as the ‘This Is What You Want, This Is What You Get’ LP, which was released in 1984 by Virgin.

Keith Levine had left the band by the time he tampered with the original tapes and got them pressed up in 1983. At the time it caused quite a bit of fuss, see some snippets below courtesy of Fodderstompf site:

I have not owned or heard ‘This is What You Want, This Is What You Get’ so can not comment on whether some of the tracks that made it to the official release are better or worse, maybe you can enlighten me via comments.

Issued by Keith Levene on his departure from the band these are the original versions of some of the tracks that were later re-recorded for ‘This is What You Want…’ (alternative titles are in brackets). ‘Blue Water’ & ‘Love Song’ are the only two tracks to receive an official release; on the 12″ of ‘This is Not a Love Song’. ‘Bad Night’ and ‘Miller Hi-Life’ never appeared elsewhere.

The infamous ‘Commercial Zone’ where to start…? After all these years ‘Commercial Zone’ still hasn’t received an official release; and probably never will due to licensing problems and all sorts of internal wrangles. Lydon & Atkins still dispute Levene’s ownership of the album. Levene, somewhat unfairly, claims that the album is all his own work. And never the twain shall meet? Lydon is also rumoured to be unhappy with his vocal work; which would scupper any release.Whether or not CZ is the last true PiL record, as is often touted, is highly debatable. However, it’s certainly more than the ‘bootleg of demos’ as is counter claimed. Although largely unfinished, there is no doubt that parts are magnificent. Warts and all…

Original pressing of ‘Commercial Zone’, issued in a blank white card sleeve with label hole. Labels feature b&w PiL logo on one side; and track listings on the other. The LP was initially only available in the US, but later re-issued with better distribution and a proper sleeve as ‘Commercial Zone – Limited Edition’  in 1984. In New York, Levene personally distributed some one-off custom sleeves to record shops. Including a sandpaper edition (designed to “fuck up all your other record sleeves”); another with grip tape & computer discs; and even a copy with a pair of boots stuck to the cover! These custom sleeves are extremely rare…

Quotes:
“I did an independent deal and they pressed up about 30,000 copies. Then, Richard Branson just sent these guys a writ, telling them to put a stop to it. Then I went back to Richard, got some more money to sign off of PiL. I thought I was also signing myself off of Virgin. But what happened was he said “Unofficially, you do have the rights to this record in America. But I’m going to tell everybody that you don’t. The only way they can find out different is by taking me to court.”
– Keith Levene, Perfect Sound Forever 2001

“Licensing from who? Keith stole the tapes! It’s not supposed to be sold or released anywhere. We own those recordings. I mean Keith didn’t know about half of those songs until he stole the fucking tapes. Tracks like ‘Miller Hi-Life’ he wasn’t even there it was me, Pete Jones, and Bob Miller our sound guy. Who was almost part of the band at that time. That’s where ‘Miller Hi-Life’ came from, well, it’s a beer too… We were experimenting by putting drum kits through synthesisers in 1982. That’s what we did, we experimented”.
– Martin Atkins, Fodderstompf 2001