Tag: Keith Forsey

Billy Idol – “White Wedding” (1982) – 12″ Single (The Billy Idol Series – Bonus Edition)

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When I was out to Noble Records 3rd Anniversary Record Drop, I found some great pieces for the collection. One that I had been wanting is the 12″ Single for Billy Idol’s classic, “White Wedding”. And sure enough, he had it and I bought it. One of the most recognizable Billy Idol songs ever is from his debut 1982 self titled album. “White Wedding” is on that album but it is listed as “Part 1”. Which means there must be a “Part 2”. What is cool about this 1982 release is that it includes both Part 1 and Part 2 of the song “White Wedding”. Side 1 actually has both Part 1 & Part 2 together as one song at over 8 minutes in length. Side 2 is exclusively Part 2.

  “White Wedding (part 1)” became a massive hit for Billy thanks to MTV.  With few videos to play in the early days, this one got on heavy rotation.  The song was written by Billy Idol and is a song that is not about a happy wedding.  I have read different stories about what the song means.  One, it is not actually about his sister.  It is either about a “shotgun” wedding or about a woman he is in love with then she marries someone else. 

It has that classic Steve Stevens opening riff and the bass line by Phil Feit is powerful and chugs along driving the song forward. Keith Forsey on drums is amazing as his fills are perfectly placed and the beats give the song a frantically charged feel to the song. Billy calmly sings at first with an almost eerie yet sinister tone. He gets more aggressive as the song goes and when it builds to a climax he starts screaming and his “woahs” are perfect. The song never made you look at weddings the same way again.

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Billy Idol – “Rebel Yell” – 7″ Single (The Billy Idol Series – Bonus Edition)

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In my quest for great picture sleeve singles, here is yet another great one I found at Mad Jack’s in Matthews, NC. This time around it is Billy Idol’s single for “Rebel Yell” and yes, I am surprised I didn’t already have this one, but I didn’t. It was released on October 24, 1983 and the song was a smash for Billy Idol and Steve Steven especially on MTV. On the radio, it didn’t even break the Top 40 reaching only #46. It did go to #9 on the Rock Charts, but MTV is where it was in constant rotation and helped make Billy a star. He was made for MTV.

“Rebel Yell” was written by Billy Idol and Steve Stevens and was actually inspired by the Rolling Stones according to Billy on VH1 Storytellers.  Billy was at a party thrown by the Stones and everyone was drinking Rebel Yell Bourbon Whiskey.  I guess he loved that whiskey (along with a lot of drugs at the time). He took the name and turned it in to a rocking track.

My copy is a standard U.S. Release and nothing special. You can pick it up cheap if you find it. The B-Side is “Crank Call” also from the album ‘Rebel Yell’.

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Billy Idol – “To Be A Lover” 12″ Single (The Billy Idol Series – Bonus Edition)

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Back in April 2019, the family took a trip to Paris and I found a lot of records while shopping in a few really cool French Record Shops.  This particular one, which I am not sure why I didn’t include in the Billy Idol series in the timeline it belongs, was nothing really special.  It didn’t have any thing I didn’t already have, but I didn’t have it.  That was the only reason I bought it.  I guess the really cool thing it has is this French price sticker in the upper right corner of the back cover.

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The single is a 12″ Max-Single of the single “To Be A Lover” off the album ‘Whiplash Smile’.  Now this also has two other songs.  A remix of the single as well as another song off the album called “All Summer Long”.  Let us get in to the music.

SIDE ONE:

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“To Be A Lover” (Mother of Mercy Mix) opens it up and this should really be called the Sex Mix with the woman practically orgasming with her sultry, seductive voice throughout.  Damn!!  A total blast.  This is the version you can find on the 1987 album ‘Vital Idol’ along with 7 other re-mixes of Idol’s hits up to that point.  This was not on the UK version released 2 years earlier as ‘Whiplash Smile’ album was not out yet.

SIDE TWO:

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This was the first single of the album ‘Whiplash Smile’ and it was a cover of William Bell’s “To Be A Lover” which was co-written by Booker T. Jones back in 1968.  Billy completely modernized the song and turned it in to a dance track.  It has some great soulful female backing vocals and fancy piano riffs and an all around fantastic track.  The song is actually quite poignant in that with his longtime girlfriend leaving him since he “forgot to be a lover” with his drug use and sexcapades with other women.  It felt like he was confessing that he screwed up.

Then comes “All Summer Single” which has too many effects and no substance.  It is plain and dull for me and I never connected to this one.  It feels lonely like Billy was without his girlfriend Perri…so sad.

And there you have it…a little bonus edition of the Billy Idol Series.  We have one more coming up soon on the Deluxe Edition of the Generation X the band’s debut album.

Now, if you want to check out the full reviews and the entire Billy Idol Series, click on any and all of the links below…

  1. Generation X – ‘Generation X’
  2. Generation X – ‘Valley of the Dolls’
  3. Gen X – ‘Kiss Me Deadly’
  4. Generation X – ‘The BBC Transcription Disc Series No. 126 1978’
  5. Billy Idol – Don’t Stop E.P.
  6. Billy Idol – Billy Idol
  7. Billy Idol – Rebel Yell
  8. Billy Idol – Whiplash Smile
  9. Billy Idol – To Be A Lover – Single Review
  10. Billy Idol – Vital Idol
  11. Billy Idol – Charmed Life
  12. Billy Idol – Cyberpunk
  13. Billy Idol – “Speed” (song from the Speed Soundtrack)
  14. Generation X – K.M.D. Sweet Revenge
  15. Billy Idol – VH1 Storytellers (Live)
  16. Billy Idol – Devil’s Playground
  17. Billy Idol – Happy Holidays
  18. Billy Idol – The Very Best of Billy Idol: Idolize Yourself
  19. Billy Idol – Kings & Queens of the Underground
  20. Billy Idol – BFI Live (#RSD 2019)
  21. Billy Idol – Revitalized
  22. Generation X – Your Generation (7″ Record Store Day Release)
  23. Billy Idol – The Albums Ranked From Worst to First

Billy Idol – ‘Devil’s Playground’ – Album Review (The Billy Idol Series)

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On March 22, 2005, Billy Idol returns to music with his first album of new material in over 12 years.  Way too long in my book.  While on tour prior to the album, Billy was approached by Sanctuary Records to record an album.  The trick was that they wanted it in the old Billy style and sound.

As a result, Billy, Steve Stevens and producer Keith Forsey re-teamed to record the album. Yep, the gang was back together and I couldn’t be more happy.  Along for the ride was Stephen McGrath on bass, Derek Sherinian on keyboards and Brian Tichy on drums.  Not a bad line-up.

Of course, Steve and Billy had some songs together.  However, it was only 3 songs for Steve.  Billy did most of his writing with drummer Brian Tichy who had 8 writing credits on the album.  Of course, Billy had to have a cover song and the album checks that bucket as well.  All was now in place.

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Billy Idol – ‘Charmed Life’ – Album Review (The Billy Idol Series)

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Billy Idol’s world was different now after ‘Whiplash Smile’ and ‘Vital Idol’.  Steve Stevens was gone, his manager Bill Aucoin was gone and he needed a fresh start.  After reconciling with his girlfriend, Perri Lister, they moved from New York City to Los Angeles to give things a go.

Billy and Perri had a baby boy, Billy bought himself a motorcycle, Billy got the acting bug and Billy couldn’t stay faithful to Perri.  A lot was going on.  Oh yeah, and he continued to use drugs.  So, where to begin.  I will give a Cliff Notes version as it would be a rather long synopsis if I didn’t.

I guess we will go with the fact that he had a baby and was now a dad, but it didn’t seem to stop his infidelity. He continually cheated on Perri and even fell for a girl 13 years younger than him.  Well, he knocked her up and she gave Billy a beautiful baby girl.  This of course was the end of Billy & Perri when she found out.

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Billy also met a lot of people in the movie business and actually got a big role in the Oliver Stone movie ‘The Doors’ about Jim Morrison and the band.   But before he could do that role, Billy went and had himself a little motorcycle accident which nearly cost him one of his legs.  As a result, he couldn’t do the role and had to settle for a much lesser role in the movie.  In fact, it was so bad he wasn’t able to promote his new album he had been working on called ‘Charmed Life’.  He did appear in the video for the first single (more on that later), but not much else.

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Billy Idol – ‘Whiplash Smile’ – Album Review (The Billy Idol Series)

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After the tour for Rebel Yell, Billy Idol continued to live like he was on tour.  The drug use was getting worse, his relationship with Perri Lister was over and even his manager, Bill Aucoin was absent due to his own drug issues.  Billy’s world was slowly spiraling out of control.  And so was his ego.

When work was started on his next album ‘Whiplash Smile’, Billy’s ego started to get in the way.  He wanted control.  He wanted to write all the songs.  He wanted to add more synthesizers, more sounds, more stuff that wasn’t Steve Stevens.  And it is noticeable in the music.

What is also noticeable, is that with everyone leaving his life, the loneliness found its way into the music.  And an album that found about as much success as its predecessor, it wasn’t not quite the Billy Idol album people wanted or critics even liked.  It was an album that would lead to the end of a relationship between musicians that really needed each other.

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Billy Idol – ‘Rebel Yell’ – Album Review (The Billy Idol Series)

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After the success of his self-titled debut album, Billy Idol, teamed back up with producer Keith Forsey and guitarist Steve Stevens.  And in late 1983, we were treated to his second album, ‘Rebel Yell’.  The collaboration with Steve Stevens grew immensely with this album.  On the first, Steve only had his hand in writing two songs.  On ‘Rebel Yell’, he contributed to all but one song that was only written by Idol.  The bond had grown so much, that Steve even made the back cover of the album.

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The duo of Billy and Steve was complete and you couldn’t have one without the other, at least for a long while anyway.  If you notice on the back cover, the songs are broken out into Sides 3 and Sides 4.  This was because the debut was 1 and 2, so these naturally would be 3 and 4, he would do this at least one more time for the next studio album.  I liked the concept.

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Gen X – ‘Kiss Me Deadly’ – Album Review (The Billy Idol Series)

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After touring the band’s second album, ‘Valley of the Dolls’, the band was in shambles.  During the recording of their third album, Derwood Andrews decided to leave the band.  And shortly thereafter, Billy asked drummer, Mark Laff, to leave…well, he fired him as he didn’t feel his style was appropriate for the new sound.  Generation X was done.  That third album would not be released for another 20 years.

Remaining players, Billy Idol and Tony James, decided to keep going, but now they were called Gen X.  First the band needed a new manager,  Tony found a guy by the name of Bill Aucoin.  If you are a Kiss fan, that name should ring some bells pretty loudly.  The band then got drummer Terry Chimes and they auditioned several guitarists while recording the new album.

The band’s style was no longer punk.  They were going to ride the New Wave sound that was starting to sweep across England.  That sound would be what carried Billy into his solo career.  Speaking of solo career, Bill Aucoin wasn’t overly impressed with Gen X.  His real interest was Billy Idol and what he could with him in America, but that would come just a little later down the line.

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