Public Image (song)

"Public Image"
Single by Public Image Ltd
from the album Public Image: First Issue
A-side	"Public Image"
B-side	"The Cowboy Song"
Released	13 October 1978 (UK)
Recorded	July 1978
Studio	Advision Studios and Wessex Sound Studios in London
Genre	Post-punk new wave[1]
Length	2:58
Label	Virgin VS 228
Songwriter(s)	John Lydon, Keith Levene, Jah Wobble and Jim Walker
Producer(s)	Public Image Ltd
Public Image Ltd singles chronology
"Public Image" (1978) "Death Disco" (1979)

"Public Image" is the debut single by Public Image Ltd. It reached number nine on the UK Singles Chart. The lyrics were written when band co-founder John Lydon was a member of the Sex Pistols.^{[citation needed]} The song addresses Lydon's feelings of being exploited in the Sex Pistols by Malcolm McLaren and the press. Along with being released as a single, it appeared on PiL's 1978 debut album Public Image: First Issue.

On the song, PiL leader John Lydon has said:

'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. 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, 'cause 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.^[2]

It entered the UK Singles chart on 21 October 1978 at number 21.^[3] The single then peaked at number 9 on 4 November 1978.^[3]