I can’t stop thinking about Public Image Ltd. playing some Atlantic City casino. It’s not some stereotypical “sell-out” angle that sticks in my craw; it’s that I’m almost tempted to go see “them” in such a venue. It would be funny. Who knows, musically it could even be good. But it won’t be PiL. After that classic line up broke up, after The Flowers of Romance album, at which point bassist Jah Wobble had already split, I had no illusions that anything called PiL was remotely the real thing. I had no interest in any generic, over-the-counter version.

That’s an easy one, but let’s look at some bands where it’s a closer call. At what point is a band no longer the band they’re advertised as being? Is it a matter of percentage of original band members, the retention of particular key members, or something else?

The day Kenny Jones replaced Keith Moon in The Who, did you still think of the band as The Who? I didn’t, but perhaps if John Entwistle had died first and been replaced I could have held onto the band’s identity. Perhaps. Depending on what era in the band’s history he’d passed, that would have been a tough call, wouldn’t it?
Continue reading »

BPZw188tAc8]

Johnny Rotten/John Lydon is forever sandwiched between two archetypal career points. Not even years of mocking his legacy and “selling out” both the Sex Pistols and Public Image Ltd. with shows at casinos has freed him from his past. He seems fine with it, but not all artists are so comfortable trading in on their past glories.

Name an artist you feel has transcended his, her, or their initial, archetypal image, and name one you feel has tried at least once but failed miserably.