Tracks 7 and 8 from The Flowers of Romance (1981)

Tracks 9 and 10 from This Is What You Want... This Is What You Get (1984)

Track 16 from This Is PiL (2012)

Keith Levene was only in The Clash for a few months, leaving before they recorded anything. But at The Clash's first gig, opening for the Sex Pistols in the summer of 1976, Levene already felt his days were numbered in The Clash, and fortuitously suggested to John Lydon that if the Pistols ever break up they should start a group together. The Sex Pistols' final show was in January '78, and Public Image Ltd began rehearsing in May (in the months in between, apparently Richard Branson tried to make Lydon the frontman of Devo, which is a fascinating parallel universe scenario to think about).

To many, particularly in America, Public Image Ltd are a somewhat obscure footnote to the infamous Sex Pistols saga. But to some post-punk connoisseurs, PiL are John Lydon's true musical accomplishment and the Pistols were a lousy half-assed band that don't deserve their legendary status (I wouldn't go that far personally, Never Mind The Bollocks is a hell of a record). PiL shed founding members pretty quickly -- original drummer Jim Walker only lasted one album, bassist Jah Wobble lasted for two, and Levene lasted for three. 

Lydon and Levene's initial attempt at making a fourth album was abandoned, and Levene took the tapes and released an unauthorized album in America, Commercial Zone, that's out of print today (you can hear it on YouTube). Lydon, meanwhile, started over with a new set of musicians and some of the same material, and made This Is What You Want (several of the songs have Levene co-writing credits, including both tracks on here). And Lydon continued to lead PiL on and off for the next few decades, and the later albums are kind of a mixed bag with some great moments. And of course Lydon became kind of an embarrassment as a person in recent years. .

"Track 8" is actually the second song on The Flowers Of Romance, so it's actually track 8 for the first time here! "The Order of Death" took its name from the working title of a film John Lydon starred in alongside Harvey Keitel that was ultimately released as Copkiller. "The Order of Death" appeared in an episode of "Miami Vice" when it was new, and over a decade later, it was also featured on the official Blair Witch Project soundtrack album (though it wasn't in the movie, which had no music in it, obviously). More recently, it's been in "Mr. Robot" and "The Umbrella Academy," and has become one of the band's top streaming songs.