Psycho's Path

Psycho's Path
Studio album by John Lydon
Released	June 17, 1997
Genre	Rock, dance
Length	72:22
Label	Virgin
Producer	John Lydon Leftfield Moby Danny Saber Mark Saunders
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John Lydon chronology
"Psycho's Path" (1997) "The Best of British £1 Notes" (2005)

Psycho's Path is the 1997 solo album of John Lydon, released by Virgin Records. Lydon sang on all the songs and played most of the instruments, with additional guitars and keyboards supplied by Martin Lydon and Mark Saunders.

Track listing

1. Grave Ride
2. Dog
3. Psychopath
4. Sun
5. Another Way
6. Dis-Ho
7. Take Me
8. A No and a Yes
9. Stump
10. Armies
11. Open Up (Chemical Brothers Mix Edit)
12. Grave Ride (Moby Mix)
13. Sun (Leftfield Mix)
14. Psychopath (Leftfield Mix)
15. Stump (Danny Saber Mix)

Album info

• "Dog" is named after God spelled backwards. Lydon sang a similar statement in the Public Image Limited song "Religion", "Where they hide and pray to the God, of a bitch spelled backwards is dog!"

• "Psychopath" is loosely based on murderer John Wayne Gacy. "Psychopath, dressed as a clown. In my psyche, pulling me down."

• Lydon created the rhythm track for "Sun" by sampling himself smacking and drumming on cardboard boxes.

• The artwork was created by Lydon. He took a picture of himself, painted a similar portrait over it, and loaded it into the Adobe Photoshop computer program. All of the lyrics for the album are included in the liner-notes, hand-written, from Lydon's original writings with added doodles and scribbles.

• The album includes remixes from The Chemical Brothers, Moby, Leftfield and Danny Saber. Lydon was forced by Virgin Records to add the remixes to lengthen the album and attract the listeners of the enormously popular dance-club hit "Open Up" by Leftfield which was remixed by The Chemical Brothers for the album.

Release

• Virgin Records released the album and gave little, if any, commercial support for its release. A tour supporting the album was started and ended after only a few dates because of Lydon's anger for the lack of support.

• The strangest event surrounding the album was when Lydon appeared on the television show Judge Judy after he was sued by drummer Robert Williams, who was the first choice to drum on the "Psycho's Path" tour and later replaced by Otis Hayes. Williams claimed John fired him without paying him for his services as well as physically assaulting him with a "headbutt". Lydon explained the incident by saying that when he was trying to squeeze back into his seat after a restroom visit, Williams got out of his chair and accidentally hit his head on Lydon's chin. The verdict fell in John Lydon's favor.

Music video

• A music video for "Sun" was created with Lydon dancing and lip-synching in front of a blue screen. The video centers around the premise of postcards that show various vacation activities. The postcards proceed to tell the story of a man who poisons his adulterous wife and ends up dancing on her grave. Oddly enough, the Leftfield mix of the song, not Lydon's, was used for the music video. The video can be viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAXfET_zalg.

External links

• Psycho's Path Micro-Site