''Kiss Me Deadly'' is the third studio album by the English punk rock and new wave band

Gen X Generation X (or Gen X for short) is the Western demographic cohort following the baby boomers and preceding the millennials. Researchers and popular media use the mid-to-late 1960s as starting birth years and the late 1970s to early 1980s as ...

, produced by

Keith Forsey Keith Forsey (born 2 January 1948) is an English pop musician and record producer. Early life Forsey began his career as a percussionist in the mid-late 1960s as the drummer for The SpectrumCaptain Scarlet and the Mysterons - The Vault - Chris ...

it was issued in the United Kingdom on 23 January 1981. It was the final album to be released before their disbandment, though they would briefly reunite in 1993. ''Kiss Me Deadly'' failed on release to enter the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...

, and Gen X broke up after the record's commercial failure.

Theme

''Kiss Me Deadly'' displayed a developing complexity in the songwriting partnership of lead singer

Billy Idol William Michael Albert Broad (born 30 November 1955), known professionally as Billy Idol, is a British-American singer, songwriter, and musician. He first achieved fame in the 1970s emerging from the London punk rock scene as the lead singer o ...

and bassist Tony James, as they transitioned from their origins as musicians in the London punk rock scene of the late 1970s into a more sophisticatedly nuanced sound, and mature lyrical and thematic content, at the initiation of the British New Wave movement in 1980. The album's theme is the troubled complexities of life in the metropolitan

Western World The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to the various nations and state (polity), states in the regions of Europe, North America, and Oceania.

at the end of the 20th century, with reflections on city life, social isolation, narcotic abuse and drug dependency, and the ambition and exhilaration of youth. The lyrics for "Dancing with Myself" were inspired by a 1979 visit to a

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

nightclub while the predecessor band

Generation X Generation X (or Gen X for short) is the Western world, Western demographic Cohort (statistics), cohort following the baby boomers and preceding the millennials. Researchers and popular media use the mid-to-late 1960s as starting birth years a ...

were on tour in Japan, when Idol and James encountered the strange sight of young Japanese nightclubbers disco dancing with their own reflections in a mirror-walled venue rather than with one another. The song's lyrics reflect social isolation in a crowd and the youthful search for companionship with the opposite sex. "Happy People" was inspired by a newspaper article about escalating use of the anti-depressant prescription drug

Valium Diazepam, first marketed as Valium, is a medicine of the benzodiazepine family that acts as an anxiolytic. It is commonly used to treat a range of conditions, including anxiety, seizures, alcohol withdrawal syndrome, muscle spasms, insomnia, a ...

in contemporary British society. Idol's lyrics for "Untouchables" reflected on his daydreaming at school about pop music stardom, being fascinated by its distant glamour; of the driving impulse to avoid the 9-to-5 employment existence of adulthood that lay beyond school years, and reflecting his fears of the potential for failure of his attempt at a professional career in pop music with a return to that world. "Poison" was about Idol's increasing dalliance with

heroin Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a potent opioid mainly used as a recreational drug for its euphoric effects. Medical grade diamorphine is used as a pure hydrochloride salt. Various white and brow ...

, and the psychological dangers that he sensed were present in the lifestyle that he had embarked upon in pursuance of pop music stardom. "Heavens Inside" was written about

Steve New Stella Nova, born Stephen Charles New (16 May 1960 – 24 May 2010), was an English guitarist and singer who performed with a number of punk rock and new wave bands in the late 1970s and early 1980s, including the Rich Kids. In the 2000s, sh ...

, whom Idol and James had wanted to be Gen X's guitarist until they abandoned the idea due to New's

narcotic The term narcotic (, from ancient Greek ναρκῶ ''narkō'', "to make numb") originally referred medically to any psychoactive compound with numbing or paralyzing properties. In the United States, it has since become associated with opiates ...

addiction that rendered him a professional liability.

Production

''Kiss Me Deadly'' was recorded at

AIR Studios Associated Independent Recording (AIR) is an independent recording company founded in London in 1965 by record producer Sir George Martin and his business partner John Burgess, after their departure from Parlophone. The studio complex was founded ...

in London in 1980, produced by

and engineered by Nigel Walker. Several of its songs were salvaged from Generation X's 1979 recording sessions at

Olympic Studios Olympic Studios was a renowned British independent commercial recording studio based in Barnes, London. It is best known for its recordings of many artists throughout the late 1960s to the first decade of the 21st century, including Jimi Hendr ...

for that band's abortive third album, during which they had acrimoniously broken up (the original recording sessions were retrospectively released in 1998 under the title '' Sweet Revenge)''. Idol and James, Generation X's singer/frontman and bassist, had afterwards rebranded the act with a new drummer (

Terry Chimes Terence Chimes (born 5 July 1956, Stepney, London, England) is an English musician, best known as the original drummer of punk rock group The Clash. He played with them from July 1976 to November 1976, January 1977 to April 1977, and again fro ...

), a modified name and a conversion into the nascent

New Romantic The New Romantic movement was an underground subculture movement that originated in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s. The movement emerged from the nightclub scene in London and Birmingham at venues such as Billy's and The Blitz. The New ...

movement's look and sound. The album title was taken from an earlier Generation X song, one of the signature tunes of the band's early repertoire, and was intended to signal a return to the lyrical content of that period (i.e. "singing about things we knew about personally"), after what was perceived to be the artistic false step of the band's second album, '' Valley of the Dolls'' (1979). Gen X were without a lead guitarist during the recording of ''Kiss Me Deadly'', and utilized prominent guest guitarists

John McGeoch John Alexander McGeoch (25 August 1955 – 4 March 2004) was a Scottish musician and songwriter. He is best known as the guitarist of the rock bands Magazine (1977-1980) and Siouxsie and the Banshees (1980-1982). He has been described as one ...

, Steve Jones,

and

Danny Kustow Alexander Daniel Kustow (10 May 1955 – 11 March 2019) was an English rock guitarist, known for his dynamic performance style and work with the Tom Robinson Band in the 1970s and 1980s. Early life Kustow was born at Queen Charlotte's and Chel ...

, the latter two not being formally credited on the sleeve. Guitarist James Stevenson was credited on the sleeve as being in the band, but joined after the album had been recorded and did not play on the record. On several of the songs, different guitarists worked in combination, alternating between

lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...

and

rhythm Rhythm (from Greek , ''rhythmos'', "any regular recurring motion, symmetry") generally means a " movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions". This general meaning of regular recu ...

, creating a dynamic fusion of differing playing styles.

"McGeoch said, 'Oh I'll come down and help out'. He rehearsed for three weeks and did the majority of the record with us. Jonesy came back from Thailand and supplied "Bollocks" on some tracks - patented Jonesy "Bollocks" - and he was really good on the raunchy stuff. Danny Kustow did a bit on the ("Dancing With Myself") single". "It's Steve New playing lead guitar on the single ''
Dancing with Myself "Dancing with Myself" is a song by the punk rock band Gen X, first commercially released in the United Kingdom in October 1980, where it reached number 62 on the singles chart. It was remixed and re-released by the band's singer/frontman Bi ...
'', playing the lick and the solo, and he plays it brilliantly". – Tony James

"John McGeoch was an incredible guitarist, he really helped to bring the album to life". – Billy Idol

Singles releases

The album's sole single "

Dancing with Myself "Dancing with Myself" is a song by the punk rock band Gen X, first commercially released in the United Kingdom in October 1980, where it reached number 62 on the singles chart. It was remixed and re-released by the band's singer/frontman Bi ...

" reached number 62 on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

on pre-release ahead of the album in October 1980.''Alternative Rock'' by Dave Thompson, page 389

Cover art

The record's cover was photographed by

Brian Aris Brian Aris is a British photographer who began his career as a photojournalist. Initially, he was a front line photographer of The Troubles in Northern Ireland, the plight of Palestinian children in Jordan, the civil war in Lebanon, famine in Afr ...

Track listing

Original LP (1981)

Personnel

Gen X * Billy Idol − vocals, guitar * Tony James − bass guitar * Terry Chimes − drums * James Stevenson − guitar (credited on sleeve but didn't participate in the recording) with: * Steve Jones − additional guitars (tracks 1, 2) *

− additional guitars (track 1) *

− additional guitars (tracks 3-10) *

− additional guitars (tracks 1, 2) ;Technical *Nigel Walker − engineer "at the controls" *Rick Isbell − engineer "button man and key grip" *

− photography

References

{{Authority control

Kiss Me Deadly ''Kiss Me Deadly'' is a 1955 American film noir produced and directed by Robert Aldrich, starring Ralph Meeker, Albert Dekker, Paul Stewart, Juano Hernandez, and Wesley Addy. It also features Maxine Cooper and Cloris Leachman appearing in th ...

Generation X (band) albums Albums produced by Keith Forsey Chrysalis Records albums