What a piece of work is Billy Idol. In the late Seventies, there was no arguing that the punk band he fronted, Generation X, was at the bottom of the British punk pile that managed to make it across the ocean. Idol was the embodiment of what Iggy Pop called the “Dum Dum Boy”; he wasn’t the greatest or most charismatic singer, DX’s songs were perfectly average at best and the combination of those elements really only amounted to a pleasant distraction on punk play lists between Sex Pistols, Clash, X-Ray Spex and Siouxie songs, but nothing more. And yet, time and drug abuse was kindest to Idol; he might not have been the best, but his music was just milquetoast enough to act as the gateway drug that turned the mainstream onto punk, and the singer has continued to ride that ‘rebel without a clue’ aesthetic for the last twenty-five years.
Unlike so many of the other ‘greatest hits’ packages released to introduce vintage punk acts to new audiences, Idolize Yourself offers everything you could possibly need to hear from Billy Idol. The truth is that the albums weren’t very good, but each one did yield a couple of great standalone songs that everyone knows and those are the songs presented here; Idolize Yourself is all of the killer and none of the filler.
The set chronologically lists each of those great songs beginning with “Dancing With Myself” (conspicuously—and blessedly—the only Generation X song included) and presents Billy Idol at his most inspired. Back at the height of his powers, virtually everything the singer touched turned to gold and quick analysis of this disc’s liner notes proves it; in only five years (between 1981 and ‘86), Billy Idol released eleven singles that still get regular play in college pubs, still get requested on retro radio and still appear on movie soundtracks. People (usually heavily socially lubricated) will still scream along to “Mony Mony” and “Rebel Yell”—say what you want, there’s something to be respected in longevity like that.
Idolize Yourself includes all of those songs that everyone knows and plays them out in all their shiny vacant glory before diving off into the detritus of everything since. Happily, it’s brief; Charmed Life gets a glance with “Cradle Of Love” and Idol’s dreadful cover of The Doors’ “L.A. Woman” (that initially landed him the role of Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone’s biopic before a motorcycle accident and subsequent broken leg found the singer bowing out to Val Kilmer instead), the chart-flopping commercial failure Cyber Punk gets begrudging entry with “Shock To The System” and listeners get a taste of the singer’s return to form in “World Comin’ Down” (from 2005’s Devil’s Playground). Idolize Yourself doesn’t try to play try to plug the late catalogue or pretend they’re something they’re not—the album runs quickly through those albums and acknowledges they exist, but happily doesn’t glorify them.
Perhaps because it’s contractually obligating, Idolize Yourself also tacks two new, recently recorded and previously unreleased songs on at the end of the album. For Devil’s Playground, Idol finally updated his by-then-sorely-antiquated and neglected songwriting chops and both “John Wayne” and “New Future Weapon” continue that trend with respectable results. They don’t attempt to recapture old glories per se; in fact, the new songs illustrate that the singer has accepted middle age gracefully as he scales back the sneers and (really bad) kiss-offs for more reflective songwriting. Both tracks do bear marks of what got him off the ground years ago—chorus-effect-saturated guitars, pop structures, lone wolf images—but are more mature; these songs wear their singer’s age like a badge and imply that the story isn’t over yet for Billy Idol.
It’s difficult to say what might come next, but Idolize Yourself handily rounds out a career with more peaks than anyone could have reasonably expected. The set leaves the story open-ended with the unreleased tracks—there’s still room to continue here—and it’ll all just boil down to whether Idol feels like accepting the challenge; he’s got the choice of ending with this representative set or just let it rest. That option is what every musician this late in the game wants and, as Idolize Yourself illustrates, Billy Idol has once again lucked into what so many would kill for.
Artist:
www.billyidol.com
billyidol.net
Album:
Billy Idol – The Very Best of Billy Idol: Idolize Yourself is out now. Buy it on Amazon.
