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While this original of Billy Idol does not have “Dancing With Myself” it does have a couple of memorable Idol singles including “Hot In the City” which was released as a the first single in ‘82 when it hit #23 in the US and #58 in the UK; it was re-released in ‘87 when it charted again at #13 UK and #48 US. The other single was “White Wedding (part 1)” which went to #36 in the US and #6 in the UK (in ‘85 with yet another single re-release). I didn’t know there was a “White Wedding (part 2)” but there is – it’s a synth-heavy continuation of part 1 that appears on the “White Wedding (part 1)” 12″ single. I totally remember hearing “White Wedding” in ‘82, mainly because for some reason my parents hated it and thought it was one of the worst things they’d ever heard on the radio. I was 11 years old and just really getting into music in a big way, especially rock and all things British so of course I LOVED it. Though Idol has a solid punk background in Chelsea and Generation X, Billy Idol is rock, and skews pop/new wave in the rock genre, especially on tracks like “Hot in the City,” “Nobody’s Business” and “Love Calling” (which reminds me of Adam Ant’s style) and even some soft-focused new wave like on “It’s So Cruel,” though guitarist Steve Stevens’ shredding helps offset the pop to make it more hard-rocking on tracks like “Come On, Come On” (which Stevens co-wrote) and “Hole In the Wall.”

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My early exposure to Neil Young was via my parents in the 70′s and mostly in conjunction with CS&N (my folks really dug the harmonies). I didn’t really listen to much of Young’s solo work until college in the late 80′s/early 90′s where my roommate’s CD copy of Decade was on heavy rotation, mostly for the track “Cinnamon Girl,” the lyrics of which she’d switch to Cinnamon Boy as she was dating a redhead dude at the time. I got to see Neil Young perform in ‘91 at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee when he was on tour to promote Ragged Glory (’90) supported by Social Distortion and Sonic Youth. We had shit seats and the sound was even shittier (lots of concrete + noise rock/punk/heavy guitar = muddied and deafening….Young apparently got a case of tinnitus as a result of this tour) but the concert was VERY cool and Young did perform “Cinnamon Girl.”

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I’ve blogged about Led Zeppelin II before so I’m going to quote myself here:

Allmusic says “Led Zeppelin II provided the blueprint for all the heavy metal bands that followed it… the overall sound of the album is heavy and hard, brutal and direct. While Led Zeppelin II doesn’t have the eclecticism of the group’s debut, it’s arguably more influential. After all, nearly every one of the hundreds of Zeppelin imitators used this record, with its lack of dynamics and its pummeling riffs, as a blueprint.”

As I’ve noted in earlier posts, I was, relatively speaking, late to Zeppelin (weird subculture “rules” being what they were, 80′s punks – at least in my town- did not listen to Zeppelin, that was for the grits/heshers/dirts/headbangers) so I didn’t listen to any Zeppelin, including Zeppelin II, until I got to college. Now I love it. “Whole Lotta Love” has one of the most excellent and recognizable lead chords on any album ever, the groove of “What Is and What Should Never Be” is utterly addictive and Zeppelin’s spin on traditional blues in “The Lemon Song” is epic, sexy as hell if not very subtle (“Squeeze me baby, ‘till the juice runs down my leg/The way you squeeze my lemon I’m gonna fall right out of bed”). That’s just Side 1! Side 2′s bass riff on “Heartbreaker” is so slinky, Bonham’s drum solo on “Moby Dick” is insane and II has one of my all-time favorite tracks: “Ramble On.” I was on a serious Tolkien kick during my freshman year at college (I had read The Lord of the Rings as a kid but got it into my head to re-read the entire trilogy over Christmas break that year) so I found the lyrics amazing. Now they kinda make me giggle but I still love “Ramble On” intensely.

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