This Is What You Want... This Is What You Get

This is What You Want… This is What You Get is the fourth album by British post-punk band Public Image Ltd.

The album originated with the 1983 Italian crime film Copkiller (also known as The Order of Death) starring Harvey Keitel as a corrupt cop and John Lydon as a disturbed young killer. Lydon’s band, Public Image Ltd., was hired to do the soundtrack. The band worked on their material while Lydon was on set – his contributions to the album were made over the phone. Unfortunately, with the soundtrack nearing completion, the band was dropped in favor of legendary Italian composer Ennio Morricone.

The band soon announced that they’d release the unused soundtrack material as a 6-song EP titled You Are Now Entering a Commercial Zone. However, at the last second, the band decided to re-record the material before releasing it.

By mid-1983, tensions within the band rose to the point that guitarist Keith Levene was fired, owing to his heroin addiction and his habit of repeatedly firing drummer Martin Atkins over small disagreements. Disgruntled, Levene stole the unfinished tapes, mixed them himself, and brought them to Virgin Records head Richard Branson as the new Public Image album, titled Commercial Zone.

Lydon, however, decided to completely scrap the already-recorded material and went into the studio once more to re-record the album that would become This is What You Want… with a group of session musicians.

Undefeated, Levene decided to release Commercial Zone himself in America. Following a limited, self-distributed release of 40,000 copies, Virgin took legal action against Levene and prevented him from manufacturing any further copies.

This is What You Want… was released in July 1984. The album has since been much maligned by critics and fans alike, with Allmusic calling it “one of Lydon’s worst outings”. It did, however, briefly chart for two weeks in the UK, reaching its peak at #54 shortly after release.

Martin Atkins left Public Image Ltd. shortly after this album was released.