‘Rise’: The song John Lydon crowned as his ultimate “anthem”
A punk rock poster boy, or a washed-up butter salesman pandering to the right-wing in his old age, regardless of which side of the debate you fall under, it is difficult to downplay the lasting impact of John Lydon.
The Sex Pistols, after all, changed the game forevermore. Sure, their origin story might be rather manufactured, with the band being put together from the clientele of Malcolm McLaren’s clothing boutique in London, but their impact on the wider punk scene was inescapable, impacting everybody from The Slits to Joy Division during their relatively short tenure. It was being a Sex Pistol that first gave John Lydon, or Johnny Rotten as he was then, his trademark sneer and air of superiority.
When he left the band in early 1978, at the height of the Pistols’ cultural relevance, you could forgive the plethora of cynics suggesting that his career as a rock revolutionary was over. In reality, though, Lydon was simply moving with the times. Punk had become a parody of itself, and the frontman was looking for more experimental, socially-conscious climbs, which he carved out in the form of Public Image Ltd.
Despite lasting for a great deal longer than the Pistols, PiL have never reached the same degree of notoriety or, indeed, mainstream success as Lydon’s punk past. They did, however, spur on some of the performer’s greatest songwriting efforts, with 1986’s ‘Rise’ being a crowning jewel within the post-punk progenitor’s extensive discography.
Built around the refrain of “Anger is an energy,” the song’s spirit typified Lydon’s rebellious nature, and that line became something of a personal mantra for the frontman, following him throughout his career and providing a title for his 2014 memoir. “Anger is an energy. It really bloody is,” he wrote. “It’s possibly the most powerful one-liner I’ve ever come up with.”
Its power lay not only in the impact of those lyrics within the song, but also what they meant for Lydon’s career. “When I was writing the Public Image Ltd song ‘Rise’, I didn’t quite realize the emotional impact that it would have on me, or anyone who’s ever heard it since,” he continued, adding that the line came about almost by accident, shortly before he was due to perform the track for the very first time.
Thematically, the song itself took inspiration from the apartheid regime in South Africa, and the horrors that were inflicted upon the nation’s Black population during that time. Lydon preached racial unity, and resistance against the authority that aims to divide people – a far cry from the 21st-century Lydon, who once claimed that Donald Trump spoke for working-class people.
Back in the 1980s, though, ‘Rise’ reignited the magic of Lydon’s output. “‘Rise’ then became a total anthem,” he explained, recalling its release in 1986, whereupon it climbed to number 11 in the UK charts. “In a period when the press were saying that I was finished, and there was nowhere left for me to go. Well, there was, and I went there.”
Such was the success of that track, in fact, that it kept Public Image Ltd alive for a lot longer than anybody had anticipated. What began as a doomed post-Pistols project by Lydon had become an institution of the British independent and post-punk landscape, responsible for sounds and spirits that were void in the pop landscape of the day. Even today, with Lydon becoming an increasingly disappointing figure, it is hard to deny the enduring appeal of ‘Rise’.
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