In the 1950's Elvis Presley curled his lip and the world went wild. Everyone imitated him, including the squeaky clean Cliff Richard in his attempt to look like a bad boy singing 'Move It'. Who knew that by the early 80's that curl would turn into a full blown sneer on the face of William Michael Albert Broad .. A.K.A. Billy Idol.
The lip curl wasn't new and neither was Billy. He'd been around for a while, not as a solo artist but as co-founder and lead singer of Generation X. They were moderately popular, skirting the lower listings of the charts with their 3 studio albums and a few singles, but after releasing the 'Kiss Me Deadly' LP which failed to make a mark they broke up. With only a few exceptions all their songs were written by Billy and fellow co-founder Tony James. The only single from that album was the groups version of 'Dancing With Myself'.
Billy left the group and the country and moved to New York in 1981. To this day he holds dual British and American citizenship. His first US recording was a 1981 EP 'Don't Stop' - two of the tracks were the Tommy James cover 'Mony Mony' and a remix of Gen X's 'Dancing With Myself'. Billys mate Steve Jones of The Sex Pistols played guitar on the track.
Then came this album.
This copy came to me through marriage. It was in Tracy's collection and has it's own claim to fame. It's a bit of a hybrid. The original album was released in 1982 with a different cover and the track 'Congo Man' closing out side 2. In 1983 it was reissued with this cover and 'Congo Man' was replaced with 'Dancing With Myself'. This copy is the 1983 reissue however it is described as "Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, 2nd Cover, Original Track List". So, reissue, new cover, old tracklist. Hybrid.
Although this copy of the album didn't have 'Dancing ...' on it, there were two other stand-outs. Tracks 2 and 3 were 'White Wedding" and one of my favourites, 'Hot In The City'. All three of those songs were released as singles, none of them blew the lid off anything, although 'White Wedding' did get to US Rock #4. Nowadays of course, they are staple tracks on any radio station worth it's salt.
There's a few great anecdotes attached to Billy, firstly on how he got his name.
On a school report he was described as being 'idle'. He wanted to incorporate that into a stage name but he was concerned that it would be a conflict with Monty Python's Eric Idle, so he changed the spelling to Billy Idol.
When he was recording this debut eponymous album in Los Angeles he rented a bungalow at the Chatea Marmont Hotel. He woke up in the middle of the night and realised there was nothing left to drink, so he totally trashed the room. When the police arrived, Billy, who was reportedly still naked, gave himself up. Turns out the police weren't even there for him - John Belushi had died in the same hotel that night and the police had come to investigate.
'Rebel Yell' got it's name from a brand of bourbon he was swigging one night with Mick Jagger, Ron Woods and Keith Richards.
Billy is still out there doing his 'Rebel Yell' and singing about 'Sweet Sixteen', 'Eyes Without a Face' and 'Flesh For Fantasy' and I'm pretty sure the trademark curled lip sneer has become more of a smirk these days.
Just one thing about the videos I've linked to. Can something be punk, rock, glam, new wave and camp all at the same time? I think so.
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