PIL - THEY WANT YOUR BODY ---- !!!!

"we want... WE WANT YOUR BODY -- !!! (WE WANT YOUR BODY, WE WANT YOUR BODAAAAYYYYY"

Who can argue with logic like this? Its PIL, (John Lydon - aka Johnny Rotten) in its then.. latest reincarnation... a dance band? When you mentioned DANCE MUSIC in the late 80's in our campus this is what most people meant. Seriously. The songs didn't have the words... Babys Got Back or.. Bootylicious in it.. but... in this case.... We want your body.. pretty much sums it up in this case. The other type of dance music came in the form of Souixsie and the Banshees.

This isn't that great of a song but its what we had to work with. The earlier effort RISE off of ALBUM was a little bit better as a dance song. Of course the song WORLD DESTRUCTION with AFRIKA BAMBATTA... (I spell that right?) was a little easier on the feet as well as the ears. But when the album HAPPY came out it was in the theme of the times. All these different bands wer doing like... 50 different things. There was no MOVEMENT. There was only bands and songs and styles of hair and clothes... at times it could be very confusing.

We were NEW but... NEW WHAT? We certainly weren't the New Kids.. we were classified as kids who followed NEW MUSIC. This stuff didn't even have a classification. It wasn't New Wave, it wasn't Post Punk it wasn't Alternative...or Grunge so that would come later. THis stuff was considered New Music and that was very confusing all around. I was .... some sort of punk or sorts.... This album failed to really classify itself and it was also going to be one of the last great efforts from Public Image Limited. The band would produce a few near hits and then get lost in the shuffle of an emerging sound of Rap and Grunge.

Ah but back to the video. They are in a morgue or a demented hospital for lunatics etc. The singing body chart is my personal favorite in this video. It saves the whole damn thing. Without it this video would be a total bore. This was a much needed device. The scene where John Lydons face is in a toilet wasn't lodged into my memory bank. I had totally forgotten that scene and for good reason - it kind of sucks.

Even though this thing is somewhat enjoyable it makes me nostalgic for a time when being original was OKAY !!! This thing does defy convention.

But then again, so do I!!

Enjoy.

Cantu 2007