I took it that way too as the events of Lockerbie were fresh on my mind but Wikipedia has quoted John as saying it was a song about a terrorist bomb on Air Force One. Any speculation?
@sbentjies I did read through several sources at the time that it was about the Lockerbie incident. If I ever get the chance I'll ask John himself about it. I will. I can only say that the lyrics seem to fit the circumstances.
There are a few links I found, but for some reason, I'm not able to post the links here, Google Lydon and Lockerbie and you should find some of them. Fodderstomphdotcom has a discography that states the song is inspired by the Lockerbie events.
@GrippoMarx I absolutely took it that way at the time-Lockerbie was fresh in our memories and I did not know that John was supposed to be on that flight. It was an eerie song. Perhaps he was mixing his feelings about Bush in there too. That makes total sense. The name of the song is about Bush I but obviously inspired by him almost being a victim. Thanks for posting
@sbentjies John Lydon (1989): “It should be pronounced 'Useless One', it concerns your president. It's about a terrorist bomb on Air Force One. It poses the question, how would Mr. Bush feel if he knew? I don't write anything purely just for atmosphere, that would be boring. Things have to have a point to them."
@bargeofshame Not that I'm aware of, the only connection to The Fall that I can find is that Fall drummer Karl Burns had a brief tenure in PiL in 1979 but did not get along with Keith Levene and Wobble.
@meeces13 I'm not new. I'm middle-aged. I know who the band is. The "U S L S 1" lyric sounds (to me anyway) like Mark E. Smith. Glad I could help you though.
A classsic! Thank you!
CBIKAS 5 months ago
I took it that way too as the events of Lockerbie were fresh on my mind but Wikipedia has quoted John as saying it was a song about a terrorist bomb on Air Force One. Any speculation?
sbentjies 6 months ago
@sbentjies I did read through several sources at the time that it was about the Lockerbie incident. If I ever get the chance I'll ask John himself about it. I will. I can only say that the lyrics seem to fit the circumstances.
There are a few links I found, but for some reason, I'm not able to post the links here, Google Lydon and Lockerbie and you should find some of them. Fodderstomphdotcom has a discography that states the song is inspired by the Lockerbie events.
GrippoMarx 5 months ago
@GrippoMarx I absolutely took it that way at the time-Lockerbie was fresh in our memories and I did not know that John was supposed to be on that flight. It was an eerie song. Perhaps he was mixing his feelings about Bush in there too. That makes total sense. The name of the song is about Bush I but obviously inspired by him almost being a victim. Thanks for posting
sbentjies 5 months ago
@sbentjies John Lydon (1989): “It should be pronounced 'Useless One', it concerns your president. It's about a terrorist bomb on Air Force One. It poses the question, how would Mr. Bush feel if he knew? I don't write anything purely just for atmosphere, that would be boring. Things have to have a point to them."
jaydoebud 1 month ago
Is Mark E. Smith doing vocals on this?
bargeofshame 6 months ago
@bargeofshame Not that I'm aware of, the only connection to The Fall that I can find is that Fall drummer Karl Burns had a brief tenure in PiL in 1979 but did not get along with Keith Levene and Wobble.
GrippoMarx 5 months ago
@bargeofshame are you new? you know what band this is right?
meeces13 5 months ago
@meeces13 I'm not new. I'm middle-aged. I know who the band is. The "U S L S 1" lyric sounds (to me anyway) like Mark E. Smith. Glad I could help you though.
bargeofshame 4 months ago
One of my favourite tracks from the 9 album....did not know the backstory!!!
WaterboyPhx 7 months ago
Best track of the album. Definitely.
matju2 8 months ago
Nice. Haven't heard this in years.
fancymonster 10 months ago
today is as good a day as any other.
rongravy 1 year ago
I like your interpretation - thanks for posting this.
and31uk 1 year ago
this has always been one of my favorite pil tracks,
theWOUSTER 2 years ago 2
Beautyful song.
Thank you for posting this.
Bakatrelos 2 years ago
Thanks so much! I appreciate that!
GrippoMarx 2 years ago