American Idle (Billy Idol is a whore)

Billy Idol is such a two-bit whore he makes pimpin' look easy.

You may remember him from his radio friendly badd ass pop-punk pablum Mony Mony.

But you may not know that before Billy sold out to MTV, created his menacing sneer, and took it all to the bank for every cent he could, he was in a punk band called Generation X. They had moderate success, but Billy was pretty sure that he was the man. Check out this from Stephen Davis' Led Zeppelin biography Hammer of the Gods:

In November [1978] the whole band moved to London to rehearse an album that would be recorded the following month in a Stockholm Studio owned by the group Abba....The rehearsals were sensational, and the musicians realized they still could do it. Led Zeppelin had been scornfully ridiculed as musical Goliaths and anal-retentive tax exiles by the punks and new wavers. Now they could fight back with what they realized was their best, most sophisticated music. In the next rehearsal hall, the punk band Generation X was preparing for a tour. As Led Zeppelin were leaving one night, Generation X's spike-haired young singer hurled taunts of obsolescence at them. Bonzo asked who the kid was, and was told his name was Billy Idol.

Now, here's what really has me pissed, as if Mony Mony wasn't bad enough (Billy probably read Money Money when he agreed to record it), he has now teamed up with Derek Sherinian to record a version of Mungo Jerry's In the Summer Time. Way to keep it real Billy. Nothing says punk like:

We're no threat, people
We're not dirty, we're not mean
We love everybody but we do as we please
When the weather's fine
We go fishin' or go swimmin' in the sea
We're always happy
Life's for livin' yeah, that's our philosophy

You're the man Billy, Led Zeppelin has nothing on you. I'm really looking forward to your Christmas duo with Clay Atkins.