Public Image Ltd.: Influences

While John Lydon's signature snarl remained beholden to glam outsiders like Alice Cooper and The Stooges, with PiL, he moved beyond the Sex Pistols' no-future rhetoric to tap the disturbed psyches of art-rock iconoclasts like Van Der Graaf Generator. Musically, the band channeled the ominous rhythmic pulse of Can into their patented death-disco, while applying the pin-pricked juju guitar lines of King Sunny Ade with more violent, bloodletting force.