Home Read Classic Album Review: Billy Idol | VH1 Storytellers

Classic Album Review: Billy Idol | VH1 Storytellers

The post-punk rocker’s live album is OK — though it utterly fails to live up to its title.

This came out in 2002 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):

 


There’s only one thing that makes less sense than having monosyllabic marble-mouth Billy Idol on the music ’n’ monologue series Storytellers. And that is releasing a live album of his appearance AND NOT PUTTING ANY STORIES ON IT.

Nope, not one. Not about his motorcycle crash. Not about the real meaning of Dancing With Myself. Not even about what the hell he’s been doing in the decade since his last album. Guess you’ll have to watch the show to (not) hear that stuff. What you’ll hear here is Idol and longtime guitarist Steve Stevens delivering a playful, relaxed 14-song set that begins with acoustic versions of stuff like Flesh for Fantasy, White Wedding, Rebel Yell and even the Gen X chestnut Kiss Me Deadly, then goes electric for Eyes Without A Face, Blue Highway, Mony Mony, L.A. Woman and others. Hell, I’d rather hear that than Billy’s harebrained gibbering anyway. End of story.

https://youtu.be/9krgJ-O19qU