I was looking at social media yesterday and I saw Billy Idol reference that he was releasing Rebel Yell – Extended Edition. I love that iconic 1983 album which I believe I may have mentioned when I reviewed the Idol concert I saw in Vegas last October. I was about to continue scrolling through when I saw that he’d released an outtake – a track recorded during the sessions for Rebel Yell, but not released at the time – called “Love Don’t Live Here Anymore.” It’s apparently a cover song, written and done originally by Rose Royce the group that was best known for their hit “Car Wash.”

None of that should have been a big surprise, but I realized almost immediately, the song came out on March 8th. How’d I miss this? In my defense, I’ve spent my month of March immersed in great vault releases from The Who (Live At Shea Stadium 1982), The Rolling Stones (Live At The Wiltern) and Alice Cooper (Billion Dollar Babies – 50th Anniversary) not to mention great, brand new releases from Liam Gallagher & John Squire and the Black Crowes. With all that great music cascading around me, I guess I can be forgiven for not catching this Idol track… I do so try to stay on top of new music from the artists I like.

I didn’t know what to expect from an outtake from Rebel Yell. Outtakes can be a mixed bag. In this case, it would be hard for me to overstate how blown away I was when I heard “Love Don’t Live Here Anymore.” I can’t believe it’s taken 40 years for Idol to release this in some format. I keep asking myself, why would he leave this off Rebel Yell? Maybe because it was cover song and musicians are always more prone to put their own songs on the record vs a cover song… there’s the publishing money to consider. Not to mention, Rebel Yell is stacked with great songs. Also, this is, on it’s face, a ballad or at least “ballad-esque,” and Idol already had a semi-ballad on the album with the iconic “Eyes Without A Face.” Either way, this is a remarkable song. I was reminded of Petty who left “You Saw Me Coming” off of Wildflowers…such a phenomenal song left in the can for decades…

As I mentioned, this is a ballad but there’s nothing mellow about it. It starts with muted synth then that Idol sound kicks in, light percussion, slightly menacing. The song just moves… Then Idol comes in… “You abandoned me, love don’t live here any more, oh no, just a vacancy, love don’t live here anymore.” Idol sings the song with such anguish. It grips my heart when I listen to this. In ’83, this song would have simply devastated me. The drums beat like a metallic heart… There’s something about the vocal, the gravelly nature of it, that makes me think Idol might have recorded the vocal more recently, but I’m just speculating. At one point in the song, Idol begins to repeat the word “anymore” and it’s so pained it sounds like he’s saying “animal,” which for some reason makes the feeling more palpable to me. Steve Stevens, as usual, lays down not one but two great guitar solos. The first is just a tease. His guitar solo at the end ranks with some of the best he’s played. The guitar just brings out the emotion in the song that much more for me. Here’s the track:

This track, for me, ranks up with his recent song, “Bitter Taste” as one of the best Idol has done. It’s that f’ing good. The Rock Chick was leaving the house and I came staggering out of my office after hearing the song for the first time and said, “Uh, you’re going to need to listen to this Billy Idol immediately in your car…” I wasn’t sure what she’d think… she is the Rock Chick after all… but when she returned she said, “That’s an amazing song.” We ran an errand last night to buy lotto tickets – hey, I’m human – and I can tell she digs it because she pulled it up in the car to listen with me. It’s that amazing of a song.

Rebel Yell – Extended Edition comes out in April and you can bet, B&V will have it’s ear to the stereo on this one… It looks like the bonus material is mostly demos but there is another outtake, “Best Way Out Of Here,” written by Idol & Stevens… I can’t wait to hear that one. Until then, crank this one up LOUD.

I hadn’t intended to post anything more this week until the weekend. I’m seeing Adam Ant (with special guests the English Beat, no less) on Friday and I figured I’d wait and post about that, but this song was just too good to wait.

Cheers!