| Billy Idol – White Wedding Lyrics | 6 years ago |
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From Billy Idol's autobiography, Dancing With Myself: "I stared at the blank piece of scrap paper in front of me. Taking the pen sitting alongside it in hand, I wrote 'white wedding' at the top. What made me think of that? Well, my sister had recently gone to the altar pregnant. And while that fact was perfectly all right with everyone, seeing as how she loved the guy, I started thinking how, in the more recent past, this would have been called a 'shotgun wedding'. I started to imagine an alternative reality, one in which I was pissed off at this violation of my sister and I arrive at the wedding hell-bent on revenge. Is this guy in love with his sister in an incestuous way, hating the thought of anyone else having her? The lyrics imply it, but without spelling it out—they create an uneasy feel." |
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| Billy Idol – Rebel Yell Lyrics | 6 years ago |
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From Billy Idol's autobiography, Dancing With Myself: "One day, [Rolling Stones guitarist] Ronnie Wood invited us to a birthday party at the brownstone. I forget whether it was for him or one of the other Stones, but I soon found myself standing with and talking to Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Wood, noting each had a bottle of booze in his hands. As the bottle moved towards their lips, I followed its path and saw it had a Confederate cavalry officer dressed in gray riding a horse on the label. Above this figure was the name REBEL YELL. I had been interested in the American Civil War ever since I'd visited Gettysburg when I was five. Gazing at the three guzzling Stones, I asked them if they had the bottle custom-made. 'It's a Southern mash bourbon,' they answered. 'And it's called "Rebel Yell"?' I asked. 'Do you think you'd ever use that as a song title?' I tried to convince tem it wasn't quite as iconic for them as 'Jumping Jack Flash' or 'Gimme Shelter', and they shook their heads and said they wouldn't use it. 'Great,' I said. 'Because I might just use that title for a song, and maybe even call my next album that.' [...] I decided to make 'Rebel Yell' a cry of love instead of the battlefield, as I had no intention of singing about the Civil War. After all, ladies are the most powerful creatures in this world, and this would be an anthem to love between a man and a woman. I thought about Perri and started to sing." |
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| Billy Idol – Eyes Without A Face Lyrics | 6 years ago |
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From Billy Idol's autobiography, Dancing With Myself: "I've always had a fascination with the titles of horror films. [...] I was particularly intrigued by the 60's French nouvelle vague forerunner Les Yeux sans visage (Eyes Without a Face), about a brilliant plastic surgeon who vows to restore the face of his daughter, who has been horribly disfigured in a car accident. This vow leads him to murder, as he sets out collecting facial features of his victims, which he then grafts onto his daughter's hideous countenance, attempting to restore her beauty. Her staring eyes remain the only thing visible. [...] I began to write words that, in some disguised form, spoke about my life in New York and a relationship gone wrong, on the edge of disintegrating into madness. Perhaps I was reflecting on my own touring infidelities. In a way, those can leave you feeling soulless, especially if you're already in a relationship that you value but are degrading by looking elsewhere for additional sexual kicks. I used to tell people "Eyes Without a Face" was a murder song. I wonder if I was aware that it was my hijinks and gradual infidelity that were killing Perri's and my love story. Certainly I was beginning to drift into a strange world where you usually don't touch the ground and the only way to find human comfort is with a fresh someone for the night in a strange town on a strange continent. It' possible I was predicting our eventual dissolution, even though our love hadn't begun to fade." |
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| Billy Idol – Dancing With Myself Lyrics | 6 years ago |
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From Billy Idol's autobiography, Dancing With Myself: "[...] I remembered how a few weeks earlier, wile playing in Tokyo on a promotional tour, we had gone to a couple of discos, where the kids were still in 'Saturday Night Fever' mode, dancing with their own reflections in the mirror, and I remarked to Tony, 'Hey, they're dancing with themselves.' He said, 'That could be a song title!' [...] we started to work on some lyrics, detailed a night on any cub floor in the world, where a lonely dancer fills the mirror with his or her own sensual movements. We made the song all about the longing to find a partner in this life." |
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| Billy Idol – Flesh For Fantasy Lyrics | 6 years ago |
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From Billy Idol's autobiography, Dancing With Myself: "'Do you like good music / Do you like to dance.' I wrote the lyric as if it were a sexual advert someone had placed in a newspaper or magazine. [...] It is strange what mental and chemical processes our minds and bodies go through that send us searching deep into the night for sexual satisfaction. Some people took my advert literally. Mainly, it's a song that spoke to the audiences of the time, who were in the process of discovering their own sexualities." |
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