Billy Idol – Dancing With Myself (1981)
Billy Idol – Dancing With Myself (1981)
Dancing With Myself was originally released in October 1980 by Gen X (previously Generation X) a British punk rock band, where it reached number 62 on the UK Singles Chart. It was the lead track on their final 1981 album Kiss Me Deadly. Generation X were formed in 1976 by Billy Idol and Tony James in London and disbanded in 1981, when Billy left the band to go solo.
In 1981 Billy re-released a remixed version of Dancing With Myself as his third solo single, but on the label and cover it said Billy Idol and Gen X. In America the song reached number 27 on the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart. It was later re-released again by Billy in 1983.
On a 1979 Gen X tour of Japan, Billy Idol and Tony James were struck by the sight of the young crowd in a Tokyo discotheque dancing with their own reflections in mirrored walls rather than with one another, which they used as inspiration for the song.
The video for Dancing With Myself was directed by Tobe Hooper. Featuring Billy in a scenario drawn from the 1971 cinema film The Omega Man, playing a lone figure in a post-apocalyptic cityscape besieged upon a skyscraper rooftop by partying mutant street-waifs.
Billy Idol – Dancing With Myself – Lyrics
On the floors of Tokyo
Or down in London town to go, go
With the record selection and the mirror reflection
I’m dancing with myself
When there’s no one else in sight
In the crowded lonely night
Well I wait so long for my love vibration
And I’m dancing with myself
Oh dancing with myself
Oh dancing with myself
Well there’s nothing to lose and there’s nothing to prove
I’ll be dancing with myself, oh
If I looked all over the world
And there’s every type of girl
But your empty eyes seem to pass me by
Leave me dancing with myself
So let’s sink another drink
‘Cause it’ll give me time to think
If I had the chance I’d ask the world to dance
And I’ll be dancing with myself, oh
Oh dancing with myself
Oh dancing with myself
Well there’s nothing to lose and there’s nothing to prove
And I’ll be dancing with myself, oh oh oh oh
If I looked all over the world
And there’s every type of girl
But your empty eyes seem to pass me by
Leave me dancing with myself
So let’s sink another drink
‘Cause it’ll give me time to think
If I had the chance I’d ask the world to dance
And I’ll be dancing with myself
Chorus: Oh dancing with myself (x2)
If I had the chance I’d ask the world to dance (x3)
Dancing with myself (x4)
Well If I looked all over the world
And there’s every type of girl
But your empty eyes seem to pass me by
Leave me dancing with myself
So let’s sink another drink
‘Cause it’ll give me time to think
If I had the chance I’d ask the world to dance
And I’ll be dancing with myself
(Chorus)
