The Flowers of Romance (album)

The Flowers of Romance is the third studio album by English post-punk band Public Image Ltd, released on 10 April 1981 by Virgin Records. The album was recorded at The Manor Studio and Townhouse Studios over the course of two months in late 1980.

The group's first studio album recorded following the departure of bassist Jah Wobble, The Flowers of Romance found PiL delving further into an experimental sound. It was recorded mainly by frontman John Lydon and guitarist Keith Levene, both of whom made heavy use of percussion, tape editing, and various effects.

While the album has maintained a lower critical profile than their previous two albums, the album has still received acclaim and has been cited as an influence by various bands and musicians.

Recording

Recording began at The Manor Studio in Shipton-on-Cherwell, Oxfordshire, with two weeks booked in early October 1980. Only one album track was recorded towards the end of these sessions ("Hymie's Him"). The band also recorded joke versions of "Twist and Shout" and "Johnny Remember Me" which remain unreleased. Drummer Martin Atkins, who visited the band towards the end of these sessions, possibly recorded the drums to "Home Is Where the Heart Is" during his visit, which would become the B-side of the "Flowers of Romance" single the following year. "Home Is Where the Heart Is" was mixed at Townhouse Studios in Shepherd's Bush; during this mixing session, producer Steve Lillywhite was dropped and replaced by Nick Launay for the album sessions.

The rest of the album was recorded at Townhouse Studios, with two weeks booked in late October and early November. Drummer Martin Atkins was hired for the sessions and contributed to the songwriting, but left on 31 October 1980 to play a gig in New York City with his band Brian Brain the following day. The songs "Vampire" and "Woodnymphs" were recorded at Townhouse but not released.

Music and lyrics

The album is largely centred on percussion, and Levene has described it as "probably [...] the least commercial record ever delivered to a [record] company." Similarly, the Trouser Press Record Guide states that "the music is so severe as to lend credence to a record executive's statement that The Flowers of Romance is one of the most uncommercial records ever made – at least within a 'pop' context." Simon Reynolds has described the album as highly experimental and preoccupied with moving beyond the defining standards of rock music, making it an influence on the post-rock movement.

Occasional drummer Martin Atkins played on four songs, while Levene and Lydon handled percussion duties elsewhere. "Under the House", features both Levene and Atkins double drumming. The prominent, and heavily processed, drum sound was influenced by Peter Gabriel's third album, on which engineer Hugh Padgham had processed Phil Collins' drums. Collins, in turn, was so impressed with the sound on The Flowers of Romance that he hired the album's engineer, Nick Launay, to reproduce the sound for his own projects.

Throughout the album, musique concrète sounds, such as amplified wristwatches, reversed piano and televised opera, weave in and out of the mix. Producer Nick Launay recalls: "On 'Four Enclosed Walls', for instance, we placed Martin's Mickey Mouse pocket watch on a floor tom, so it would resonate and have more tone. Then I added two harmonizers with a fifteen-second delay fed back on themselves, one panned left, one right. I recorded about seven minutes of it ticking away." "We also had an AMS digital sampler, one of the first digital devices ever available. One day Martin played a drum groove and I pushed 'Loop Lock' and tried to make a perfect loop. The AMS was so primitive you couldn't actually edit it to get it in time, so I randomly kept locking in different beats as he played them, till I got one that sounded cool. That loop became the song 'Track 8'. It's actually out of time, but somehow it grooves."

Lydon contributed Stroh violin and saxophone and, according to a Rolling Stone article about the album, simply banged on anything handy for percussion, including the face of a banjo on "Phenagen".

PiL bassist Jah Wobble had left the group before The Flowers of Romance was recorded, and so Levene played bass on "Track 8" and "Banging the Door", the only two tracks on the album to feature the instrument.

Regarding the track "Phenagen", Lydon notes: "It's not Moroccan, it's Renaissance, early English and French, 15th century. That's what I've been listening to a lot, that's real traditional English music." Keith Levene recounts: "There's a bit of backwards guitar [...] [There also is] a banjo with three strings missing, and he [Lydon] was hitting it with something that was hanging off the banjo 'cos it made that noise [...] that was used on 'Phenagen' [...] He was annoying me all the time making that noise, then he laid down a track making that noise, then the next thing I know is this fucking great track called 'Phenagen'. It's horrible really, but it's really good the way it comes out."

Regarding "Flowers of Romance", Lydon comments: "The romance referred to is not being romantic, but alludes to people romanticising over past events with their memories [...] What I'm on about is that I wanted to move on and carry on with trying to create new things." Levene recounts that Lydon "bowed the bass" on the track.

On "Under the House", Lydon claims: "I wrote that after I saw a ghost, it was at The Manor". Keith Levene: "Martin played the drums and I played the bass. Then I added synth to that." "That's just the way things are going in this country. You can't afford to pretend it's not happening." went off on me saying Jim Walker was a genius, Martin Atkins was a cunt. And as his proof he said the drumming on Paris au Printemps was shit and when Jim Walker got back with them to record 'Home Is Where the Heart Is' it illustrated Atkins was crap, and that Jim Walker is the king! No, mate that's me!"

Nick Launay (producer, 2003): "I had just started as a very new assistant engineer at the Townhouse Studios in London, which back then belonged to PIL's label, Virgin. They came in to work on a song, which I could have sworn had the working title 'Doom Sits in Gloom' [...] John wanted a triplet delay on a particular vocal line, and the engineer" (Steve Lillywhite) "didn't seem to understand what he meant. I was really into dub reggae at the time, so I set it up and it worked well [...] The engineer eventually gave up and disappeared, so me and John spent the rest of the day messing around with every effect imaginable [...] The following Saturday I went in early and started setting things up. No one turned up for hours, so I started mixing. After a while I got something that I thought sounded good. Still no one had turned up, so I thought what the hell, I'll just do my own personal mix and keep it as a souvenir! And two hours later I was done. Just as I'm packing things up, in walks Keith Levene [...] Nervously I told him I'd done a mix, but wasn't sure if he'd like it? The song had a reggae feel so I had used lots of delays and made it very dub. I played it, and Keith listened very intensely. I was sure he was going to say it was crap. The song finished and he said 'That's fucking great, let's hear it again!' He listened on other speakers and said 'I like it, can you do me a copy and send another to Virgin tomorrow?' And that was it. " and nowhere else, but it was an interesting bit of fun to record. "

"Twist and Shout"/"Johnny Remember Me" (unreleased Manor outtakes):

Pete Jones (PIL bass player, 1999/2000): "I had gone to The Manor Studios with Martin Atkins where PIL were in the middle of recording 'Flowers of Romance' [...] We listened to a tape of Lydon wailing along to a Beatles record. The original vocals had been removed and John's fingernails on chalkboard screeching sounded better by far. If only this could have been released!" "I know Atkins has some unreleased stuff that Johnny fans would like to get hold of. His version of 'Twist and Shout' which I first heard back in 1980 is fucking hilarious though I doubt if it will ever get released. "
Martin Atkins (2001/07): "Yeah, I've got some stuff, I've got John singing 'Twist and Shout' [...] I actually wanted to put it on 'Plastic Box'. [...] So I called John and I called his manager, I really thought the 'Plastic Box' could have really been a great thing for the fans [...] I wasn't asking for anything other than, what I said is 'Why don't you buy me an EQ unit for my studio?' That would feel karmacally right to me, because I've had this stuff for 20 years, and it would be nice that if for the next ten years every time I touched the EQ unit I could think 'Hey, that worked out nicely!' But of course they didn't want to do that. "

"Vampire" (unreleased Townhouse outtake)

Martin Atkins (2001): "I was drinking bottles of Perrier water. Recorded to quarter inch tape, slowed down it sounded almost like fucking dinosaurs. That was the backing for an unreleased track called 'Vampire' [...] There are vocals on it [...] 'Vampire' wasn't lyrically as together, but there are lyrics with John singing on it. "

"Flowers of Romance", was released as the album's sole single in March 1981, reaching number 24 in the UK Singles Chart. This featured a different mix from the album version. According to producer Launay, he went back to the studio "a month later with Keith and John to remix the song [...] for single release, which is a much better mix."

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Record Mirror critic Mike Nicholls praised The Flowers of Romance as a work of "worthwhile experimentalism from the forefront of the anti-rockist avant-garde".

Reviewing the album in 2003, Chris Smith of Stylus Magazine described The Flowers of Romance as "a dark, spartan affair, one that is decidedly not for all tastes [...] But, twenty-two years later, there's nothing quite like it. It may not offer the kinetic glamour of Remain in Light or the gleeful spazziness of the Contortions, but I believe this to be one of the most interesting records produced in the fallout of punk."

The album was one of Kurt Cobain's favourites, and was included at number 42 on a handwritten list of his 50 favorite albums of all time. In an interview with Spin in 1993, he commented that the music on it is "totally uncompromising... but it works somehow". Melvins drummer Dale Crover has cited Flowers of Romance as an influence on the band and on himself as a solo artist, noting in particular PiL's use of drum loops as influential.

Aaron Hemphill of Liars wrote an article on the album for The Guardian in 2008, calling it "a forgotten classic" and an influence on Liars' music.

Track listing

Personnel

Public Image Ltd

John Lydon – vocals, Stroh violin, saxophone, percussion
Keith Levene – electric guitar, bass guitar, piano, cello, synthesiser, percussion, drums (5, 8)
Martin Atkins – drums (1, 4, 5, 7), synthesiser (7)
Jah Wobble – bass on reissue bonus tracks "Home Is Where the Heart Is" and "Another"

Technical

Nick Launay – production, engineering

Charts

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! Chart (1981)

! Peak position

!scope=row|Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)

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