"Theme"
- from First Issue (1978)
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(scream) Theme Now I understand (ha, ha, ha) Now I understand (ha, ha, ha) Now walk alone Random Now understand Now I understand |
It's only excuses Never mistaking Rhyme or reason No, never no never And I wish I could die And I wish I And I wish I could die (ha, ha, ha) I wish I could die Understand No, never no more On and on and on and on Understanding doesn't matter no more I just died Terminal boredom |
"Religion I"
- from First Issue (1978)
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Stained glass windows keep the cold outside While the hypocrites hide inside With the lies of statues in their minds Where the Christian religion made them blind Where they hide And pray to the God of a bitch spelled backwards is dog Not for one race, one creed, one world But for money Effective Absurd Do you pray to the Holy Ghost when you suck your host |
Fat pig priest Sanctimonious smiles He takes the money You take the lies This is religion and Jesus Christ This is religion cheaply priced This is bibles full of libel This is sin in eternal hymn This is what they've done This is your religion The apostles were eleven Now there's a sod in Heaven This is religion |
"Annalisa"
- from First Issue (1978)
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Note on the song: "[It's] about these silly fucking parents of this girl who believed she was possessed by the devil, so they starved her to death." --John Lydon, Melody Maker, 28 October 1978 |
Think I'm proud to be your enemy Take your hands off of me You're worse than the thing that possessed me They way they were The way they should have been Annalisa Annalisa was 15 years Somehow you used ignorance for sense Annalisa had no escape |
Annalisa
Annalisa was 15 years Think I'm proud to be your enemy Somehow you used ignorance for sense Annalisa Crawl like rabid dog Annalisa (repeat) |
"Public Image"
- from First Issue (1978)
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Note on the song: "'Public Image,' despite what most of the press seemed to misinterpret it to be, is not about the fans at all, it's a slagging of the group I used to be in [i.e., Sex Pistols]. It's what I went through from my own group. They never bothered to listen to what I was fucking singing, they don't even know the words to my songs. They never bothered to listen, it was like 'Here's a tune, write some words to it.' So I did. They never questioned it. I found that offensive, it meant I was literally wasting my time, cos if you ain't working with people that are on the same level then you ain't doing anything. The rest of the band and Malcolm never bothered to find out if I could sing, they just took me as an image. It was as basic as that, they really were as dull as that. After a year of it they were going 'Why don't you have your hair this colour this year?' And I was going 'Oh God, a brick wall, I'm fighting a brick wall! They don't understand even now.'" --John Lydon, Melody Maker, 28 October 1978 |
Hello, hello, hello (ha, ha, ha)
You never listen to a word that I said The Public Image
What you wanted was never made clear Public Image
Two sides to every story |
Public Image
Two sides to every story Public image Public image Public image |
"Poptones" - Live, Old Grey Whistle Test (1980) Note on the song: "This was another newspaper story which fascinated me. A girl bundled blindfolded into the back of a car by a couple of bad men and driven off into a forest, where they eventually dumped her. The men had a cassette machine with an unusual tune on the cassette, which they kept playing over and over. The girl remembered the song, and that, along with her recollection of the car and the men's voices, is how the police identified them. The police eventually stopped the car and found the cassette was still in the machine, with the same distinctive song on the tape." --John Lydon, "Plastic Box" compilation, Virgin Records, 1999 |
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Drive to the forest in a Japanese car I can't forget the impression you made |
It's wet and I'm losing my body heat This bleeding heart |
"Careering" - Live, Old Grey Whistle Test (1980) Note on the song: "'Careering' is basically about Northern Ireland, a gunman who is careering as a professional businessman in London." --Jah Wobble, bassist, Impulse (May 1980) |
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A face is raining Across the border The pride of history The same as murder Is this living He's been careering The steady hand as planned Behind the reasoning No claim for property Both sides of the river There is bacteria Is this living He's been careering Trigger machinery Mangle the military No one should be there Is this living Blown into breeze Scatter concrete The jagged metal bad life Manufactured He's been careering Is this living |
A face is raining Across the border The pride of history The same as murder Is this living careering There must be meaning Behind the moaning Spreading tales Like coffin nails Is this living He's been careering It's raining I need to hide Trigger machinery I've been careering Across the border Is this living Both sides of the river There is bacteria Armoured machinery mangled |
"Death Disco" - Live, Top of the Pops (1979) Note on the song: This song is about the death of John Lydon's mother, who was refused the Last Rites by the Catholic chuch as she died from cancer [she died in 1978]. "I watched her die. She was tough, my mum. She asked me to write a disco song for her funeral. This was hardly happy stuff." --John Lydon, Select (May 1990) |
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Seeing in your eyes Words can never say the way Told me in your eyes Final in a fade Never no more hope away Final in a fade Seeing in your eyes Seeing in your eyes Never really know Never realise Silence in your eyes Silence in your eyes Never really know Til its gone away Never realise The silence in your eyes |
Seen it in your eyes Seen it in your eyes Never no more hope away Final in a fade Watch her slowly die Saw it in her eyes Choking on a bed Flowers rotting dead seen it in her eyes Ending in a day Silence was a way Seeing in your eyes Seeing in your eyes Seeing in your eyes I'm seeing through my eyes Words cannot express Words cannot express |
"Religion II" - from First Issue (1978) |
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Stained glass windows keep the cold outside While the hypocrites hide inside With the lies of statues in their minds Where the Christian religion made them blind Where they hide And pray to the God of a bitch spelled backwards is dog Not for one race, one creed, one world But for money Effective Absurd This is religion Do you pray to the Holy Ghost when you suck your host This is religion |
This is religion and Jesus Christ This is religion cheaply priced This is bibles full of libel This is sin in eternal hymn This is what they've done This is your religion The apostles were eleven Now there's a sod in Heaven This is religion This is religion This is religion This is religion |