John Lydon’s favourite track from 1978 by a “very evil person”
Aside from his work with the Sex Pistols, Public Image Ltd and Country Life Butter, John Lydon is perhaps best known for his proficiency in slagging people off. Everybody from Paul McCartney to his own Sex Pistols bandmates has faced the wrath of Lydon’s sharp tongue. During his brief period as a music journalist in the 1970s, numerous artists found themselves victims of Lydon’s strong opinions, but one odd band found favour with the punk frontman.
1978 was an interesting period for Lydon. After leaving the Sex Pistols, thus signalling the end of the early punk rock scene, the frontman spent much of the year rediscovering himself. After a spiritual awakening on a trip to Jamaica with Don Letts, Dennis Morris and Virgin Records founder Richard Branson, Lydon formed Public Image Ltd.
A pioneering act of the post-punk scene, Public Image Ltd became noted for fusing the energy of punk with a more mature sound influenced by the experimental and avant-garde. Undoubtedly a busy year for Lydon, the frontman still found time to provide record reviews for the music papers. Johnny Rotten has never shied away from giving his views on current music trends, and many will remember his 1979 appearance on Jukebox Jury, during which he lamented Donna Summer and generally derailed the Noel Edmunds presented show.
And he’s still going at it. When he chatted with us last year his latest gripe was with how current bands are cloistered by “corporate thinking”. In fact, majority of musical opinions over the years have been fairly negative. Few groups have managed to achieve the Rotten seal of approval, but in 1978, he chose his single of the year, and it was an unexpected choice.
In the latter part of the decade, electronic music was becoming more and more widespread throughout underground music scenes. Pioneered by European groups like Kraftwerk and Telex, synth-led music became more common in the post-punk period. Fringe artists like Martin O’Cuthbert were proving experimenting with these new instruments and sounds, and John Lydon turned out to be a fan.
Selecting Cuthbert’s debut single ‘B.E.Ms’ as his ‘single of the year’ for 1978 for NME, Lydon wrote: “Seriously, when I played this record, an object on the wall started to vibrate very quickly, and I have witnesses to prove it”.
The title of the record refers to ‘Bug-Eyed Monsters,’ and the sound itself tolls like a marching song for an alien army. Continuing in his characteristically confrontational form of praise, Lydon asserts, “Martin O’Cuthbert is either a very evil person (just listen to the record) or a total fool (just listen to the record).”
Lydon’s review of the single concludes with: “Probably be big in Japan, and at a guess, I’d say the whole thing comes off a Yamaha organ cos no synthesiser could sound that bad, could it?”. And that’s about as close to praise as you’ll get from Lydon – the pinnacle being that even Rotten himself seemed fairly perturbed.
Although O’Cuthbert never found mainstream success, even after Lydon’s testimony, his records have since become cult collector classics, with fans still drawn to his weird, alien synthesiser sounds that Lydon loved so much.
