Public Image Ltd. - Careering

[@achtungmark]

RIP Keith, this really is one of the most powerful performances I too have ever seen.

[@ordinaryk]

Keith Levene made that synth scream for mercy. Brilliant!

[@vladamilosavljevic5437]

of coorce kenton

[@Nazzz65]

I will regret for the rest of my ever-loving LIFE turning down a chance to see this, the first Public Image lineup (with J. Wobble) at The Orpheum Theater (Boston) c.1980. I WAS glad to see a (mostly) original Public Image lineup when they finally showed up (hours) late for an unfairly-short ''all-ages'/ afternoon appearance at 'The Channel' (Boston). We, mostly-underage high school kids, Boston's teenage punk rocks, happily stood in The Channel parking lot in the chilly, wet afternoon weather for what seemed like three hours(?) anxious to see John Lydon, an original ''punk rock''. As for Keith Levine, I don't remember a synthesizer. I do seem to remember him playing a Gibson Explorer model guitar and he was very, very LOUD!! Also, he was noticeably glassy-eyed and clearly he was in a daze. Of COURSE it MUST have been a bad, bad case of ''jet lag'' affecting him! Keith and ''Topper'' Headon were both in early, early versions of The Clash but of the two of them it was Topper not Keith Levene who was thrown out of the band for heroin use. Ask Mick Jagger or Robert Plant or David Johansen or yes, John Lydon about their legendary junkie band mates!

[@patthewoodboy]

@@Nazzz65 saw them at the Rainbow , christmas day 1979 ... for about 10 mins as I was going down with flu and had to leave I was so ill ... I remember hearing lots of bass lines while in the car while my girlfriend made sure I wasnt dying .. it wasnt my car and she wasnt really my girlfriend :-)

[@MariaRamirez-nq4is]

@@Nazzz65 "jet lag" ... yeah! That's what *it* was...

[@MariaRamirez-nq4is]

@@patthewoodboy while you were "going down with the flu" hopefully your "girlfriend" was also *"going down"* ...

[@mtbush]

Fucking transcendental. Wobble's bass lines will live forever.

[@joybarr]

God I love this song so much

[@net-prophet]

Drake’s favourite song

[@Blooobirds27]

I remember watching this on the night and thinking I'd had a spiritual experience -still sends shivers down the old spine. Awesome

[@patthewoodboy]

same

[@jrr832]

Me too,

[@johnfenner8838]

Same.

[@ashleyupshall7641]

Same here it changed my whole musical view.

[@Jordan-182]

Love it when Keith uses his guitar to change the synth So cool

[@MariaRamirez-nq4is]

@4:07 ...

[@carlix8035]

So sad I only found this gem decades later. I know JL is a bit of a nightmare but he was never boring and neither was his music. This tune was way ahead of it’s time. It’s tracks like this that make the underground scenes so cool. JL & Co played a part in it.

[@nilssveinsson8811]

Rest In Power Keith Levene

[@tjmacjee1339]

RIP Keith Levine - a true original

[@beefheart1410]

"I need to hide, and trigger machinery..... Spreading tales like coffin nails. There must be meaning behind the moaning. No one should be there. Is this living? Both sides of the river, there is bacteria. The jagged metal bad life. Across the border the pride of history's the same as murder. It's raining. I've been careering". Looking forward to getting my deluxe vinyl edition of Metal Box in a fortnight then I can finally own a copy of this amazing Whistle Test performance.

[@andrewleyden2752]

Utterly chaotic. Utterly brilliant.

[@annamac7551]

Great comment!! Sums its up perfectly

[@FerenswayRecords]

Massively fucking intense. PiL were years ahead of their time.

[@kevincaprani8313]

i saw this when it was first broadcast , i was 16 and it was the greatest thing id ever seen and heard, i never forgot this performance, Annie Nightingale looked visibly stunned right after this.

[@jawoody9745]

Rest In Peace, Keith. Lie down with a Prophet 5. I don't know how Lydon can channel so much angst into energy like this. His fucking soul is slashed to shreds.

[@Genericdolphy]

If you watch it enough times you’ll be moved to tears.

[@without9103]

40 years later, still awesome.

[@honkinhappy]

R.I.P. Keith superb performance

[@steobriancorcoran]

Simple, powerful and just incredible, what a bass line and savage drumming too 🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁

[@rhyshughes7663]

Levene and Wobble are just so good together...

[@longhornhodad]

Jah Wobble, THE Jah Wobble.

[@splisha666]

twat - dont u mean

[@darrenedwards8433]

Fan-bloody-tas-bloody-tic! I never get tired of this.

[@jonjuliecat]

RIP Keith Levine.

[@michaeldominick735]

Really revolutionary music and remains unsurpassed.

[@massmouth]

Pure moment in time and pure genius

[@Warp75]

The only live performance on tv I never tiring of seeing. Caned it

[@Warp75]

RIP Keith Maverick guitar player

[@WorldSystemsMedia]

Incredible. Legendary.

[@manskullman6509]

Keith Levene was really Great on guitar ! ❤ jon f.

[@ALS-xr9cs]

Beautiful inspiring noise... PIL is just such a hidden gem and Johnny... thanks dude you are a true genius 🙌 you could have milked Sex Pistols but your true soul followed Captain Beefheart

[@yoshimitsu8922]

Definitely better than the album version. The creativity of this song is a marvel to me, reminds me of Big Black's Kerosene and Gang of Four's To Hell With Poverty

[@massmouth]

oh so spot there. A classic which has will stand the test of time.

[@oliveeisner8964]

yet another reason to get that time machine perfected. early PiL~ Brilliant!!

[@dillongstaff5625]

anne nightingale loved this...so do I.

[@22tdi]

john lydon one of the best def

[@lowtit]

sheer brilliance -

[@DragonFlagBand]

This is one the best performances ever!

[@alanmalczewski8631]

Put me in a time machine, would have loved to see this live

[@frozenice61]

they were great ,this live performance shows it,so different from the sex pistols and not long after

[@raymyslewski1531]

A simple song made very special.

[@alisonhorton2180]

Just brilliannnnnntttt❤

[@casperwhitworth]

Masterpiece!

[@vanojoh3733]

Fucking, fucking hell. This is still incredible.

[@rusrus29]

Jah Basslines and the Prophet 5 synth 1979/80

[@biancabluzuzu]

KEITH LEVENE ❤️

[@Weruen]

John Lyndon will always be known as my first weird celeb crush!!

[@lauranewberry6520]

Pure brilliance

[@H71BCD]

Really creative use of a Prophet 5 synthesizer. Dave Smith who operated Sequential Circuits now produces synths under his own name. It was I believe the first synthesizer of that period to have patch memory buttons and it sounds like patches of heavily processed triangular wave forms and white noise triggered from the keyboard.

[@oliveeisner8964]

literally every band had one. watch old MTV era videos. it was the shit back in the day.

[@RobinParmar]

RIP Dave Smith

[@fulamuso]

RIP Keith 🖤

[@RockerMike69]

RIP Keith Levene!

[@davidmartineau5991]

Franchement génial ce son !! ...très avant gardiste pour l époque...Public image limited est un groupe novateur ....sans aucun doute..PIL..

[@zzzzzz5353]

Imaculate Love it lydon is bad azz 2021 listen while am drinking my beer lol am glad am from the 90 god bless P.i.L

[@Joannaeg01]

This song gets your brain in toon!

[@mocirz]

Amazing!! omg!

[@IntravenousWolf]

complete genius.

[@breakit46]

2022 amazon prime video, Pil documentary on now, well worth a watch.

[@levoldunom]

Badass

[@thescreamsmusic]

Ha ha ha The look on Anne "too cool for school" Nightingales face after that song is a classic - brilliant song,but Cool Annie........old dear old dear old dear ;)

[@danielpayne500]

Classic timeless

[@lolharrison1]

Stunning performance, and so much better than the LP version (which ain't half bad)

[@michaeldominick735]

The only thing I can compare to this was watching Sonic Youth perform “Silver Rocket” on NBC’s Nitemoves. Totally blew me away.

[@bassanio65]

RiP Keith Levene.

[@HuskyProductions585]

Holy shit.

[@IntravenousWolf]

@massmouth wish there was anything half as cool today

[@Blooobirds27]

EFFORTLESSLY cool...........

[@bobcarvell5612]

The best ever .Bob the punk long live punk ..

[@MariaRamirez-nq4is]

*!!Viva!!*

[@keithukdk]

Remember years ago, eager to see this, and the TV went blank during transmission. PIL shit over everyone. A real punk band.

[@jonjuliecat]

the name on the synth - says prophet 5 - means nothing to me .. almost certainly old school analogue .. but what a performance .. please bring back whistle test BBC - if you do that I might even buy a licence.

[@22tdi]

genial

[@rockholloway]

Possibly the greatest thing ever

[@drengskap]

Great track and great performance - but I can't get over how much this sounds like Throbbing Gristle with John Lydon on vocals. Keith Levene had clearly been listening to Discipline and the like before coming up with this.

[@corduroykumquat]

drengskap wow you are super right

[@hgrey1935]

Which song came out first? Some similarities in the beat but seems significantly different

[@UltanMashup]

RIP Keith.

[@massmouth]

@IntravenousWolf so true

[@milesey01]

R.I.P ,Levene....

[@RJPaul-px6vt]

Keith looks like a little fallen angel

[@danielpayne500]

RIP KEITH LEVENE

[@src456]

RIP Keith

[@beefheart1410]

Does anyone know how to achieve the synth noises Levene is making here by using the Native Instruments Komplete 10 package software synths and a midi controller keyboard?

[@bsidewinsagain]

Spill some tea on it

[@MariaRamirez-nq4is]

Bang the fkkkk out of it...

[@bozooe]

need a bass boosted option oh my god

[@dillongstaff5625]

Throbbing Gristle meets Ed Gein.

[@citizenerased000]

Same drummer in the NIN Head Like a Hole video.

[@mantaszmenskis5619]

rediscover it at half-speed!

[@MikeIXWilliams]

Wobble....

[@nicomedy2010]

FUK !! RIP Keith ;-( ;-(

[@lupodelupis3672]

Post-Punk !

[@beefheart1410]

Amazing! But who knew that within four years of this he'd travel from Rimbaud to Dumbo?!?

[@stendhal5829]

😂😂😂

[@davidnash609]

xsister double happiness

[@cmasseylynch]

God there were some crap bands in1980 ,but PIL were good.It was TG and PIL for me in 1980.

[@Spectrescup]

There were 30 great bands in 1980.

[@shonenmouse]

even though wobble and lydon apparently cant stand keith, he's clearly a genius.

[@Tomversal]

I thought Wobble liked Keith, they collab a few times still, and at this point Lydon admired Keith (also in the The Public Image Is Rotten documentary Lydon still shows admiration for Keith's talent)

[@silversnail1413]

@@Tomversal Keith and Wobble did have a falling out (apparently Wobble got into some heavy drugs and threatened to put an axe through Keith's head) but they later reconciled and continued to work together

[@duncandistortion]

That Travis Bean guitar is really weird.

[@colonialstraits1069]

One of the last, truly great rock bands. By 1983, it WAS over. Sorry but your band isn’t PiL.

[@domfjbrown75]

Poor old Prophet 5 lol!!!

[@peterigan1897]

you got a job for me right? Tim Roth-Made In Britian

[@SuperPartypiece]

Tacky jobs int they

[@EdwardHuntley-e4k]

Now you know ,! why modern day music is shit! This on the other hand, is a power house of sound.and it shows you why!

[@agu2857]

Vengo de TikTok xd

[@merlinshamazz4630]

this so beats chart churned vomit that stagnatizes muzik f k the spell check

[@MariaRamirez-nq4is]

You know what's up!!!!!

[@deadby15]

Todays music sounds just so overproduced and phoney.

[@carlosalcarazlopez6736]

Thrash theory brought me here

[@cartercartercartercar]

pil were far better than the sex pistols

[@flintmichigan1]

Wire. PIL. SXXV. welcomwe to the new world! X

[@stendhal5829]

post punk is the future forever

[@davidbullock9929]

RIP Keith

[@daveaustin6196]

RIP Keith