Bone Idol

Gen X - Dancing With Myself
(From Dancing With Myself single; 1980)


10/10 song from 1980 which became an 9/10 song when it was re-recorded and re-released as Billy Idol's debut solo single in 1981. The 1980 Gen X version is one of the greatest U.K Punk singles ever recorded, but I guess Billy F**kface here was too stupid to realise that because he toned down the guitar & bass considerably for the 1981 solo version. I'm not tryna get Enid Coleslaw on datazz, I'm just sayin' the 1981 version doesn't crank nearly as hard as the original and that's all fact no opinion. I always presumed Dancing With Myself was about Billy being lonely on tour and wanking in a Tokyo hotel room on some Lost In Masturbation type shit. Turns out I got the song's inspiration lost in translation because Idol's artistic impetus was seeing the crowd in a Tokyo club dancing with their own reflections in mirrored walls.

As a concept, Punk Rock is kinda cool. But as a culture, Punk Rock is invariably corny. Out of all the terrible British music critics, Those Blokes Who Can Only View Rap Music Through The Prism Of Punk Rock™ are the absolute W.O.A.T. Ain't gonna lie tho, some of the music is undeniable, particularly as a singles genre. Ergo, here's the official Martorialist top ten U.K Punk singles of all time in no order of preference.

The Damned - Neat Neat Neat (1977)
Sex Pistols - Pretty Vacant (1977)
The Flys - Love & A Molotov Cocktail (1977)
The Stranglers - No More Heroes (1977)
The Undertones - Teenage Kicks (1978)
Buzzcocks - Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn't) (1978)
Subway Sect - Nobody's Scared (1978)
Gen X - Dancing With Myself (1980)
Siouxsie & The Banshees - Happy House (1980)
The Jam - Funeral Pyre (1981)

Don't give me no lip that The Jam weren't a Punk band. They may have been rigged out in 60s Mod clobber, but them lads were a Punk band in sound until 1982.