“Dead Billy” first appeared on Steve Albini’s very first record, 1982’s Lungs. Although credited to Big Black, this EP was created almost entirely by Albini over spring break during his sophomore year of university, in his living room.

According to Albini, he sent John Peel a copy of his first recording, and was impressed that,

…not only did he play the record on air, he sent me back a postcard with a personal remembrance of Chicago, of visiting a matron aunt as a child in Evanston, the suburb where my post office box was kept. I treasured that note as the first indication that John Peel was a great man.