Billy Idol - Rebel Yell cover (for Andrea)

[nzmetal]

So, a while back, after the online mini-gig, Andrea (@Helen0609) requested I try a Billy Idol cover, specifically Rebel Yell, so I thought why not give it a go! I will mention that Nicole (@JokuMuu) suggested White Wedding, so sorry Nicole I just thought Rebel Yell was a bit more interesting for learning on guitar

Billy Idol - Rebel Yell Cover

I has been a bit of a rough ride getting this done as our gorgeous puppy (I say puppy but she was 14 & a half years old and been blind for half her life) had to be put down the other day which was horrendously sad and then both Shelley & I got covid again after only just recently having it. But doing this project really brightened up my day and I thoroughly enjoyed the process, so thank you @Helen0609 for suggesting it as I doubt I would have ever tackled this otherwise

In terms of the arrangement, it was as follows:

• 4 guitar tracks: 3 using my Solar SB1.6FOB & 1 using my Solar GC1.6FAB (which I forgot to record video of damn it! ) straight into my Katana Artist with a preset I sourced called “Panama Lick” (to replicate a EVH type tone I guess?).
• 5 (yes 5! ) vocal tracks recorded with my Shure SM58 into a TC Helicon Mic Mechanic (thanks again to @Richard_close2u & @DavidP that put me on to this pedal ). Settings were: Echo ~50% on Slap; Reverb ~50% on Club; Correction ~75% (I need plenty of that! ). 5 tracks might have been a bit over the top, but I like how it sounded as it gave a sort of additional slap back echo that worked for me.
• Drums and bass guitar were programmed (not by me, I sourced them) and pulled from Guitar Pro as a .wav file.
• Audio editing/rendering done in Reaper (no FX on guitar or vocals were added in there though).
• Video recording done with OBS and edited in DaVinci Resolve.

I didn’t know anything (and still don’t know much! ) about Billy Idol’s guitarist, Steve Stevens (awesome name btw! ) who helped write this song. But found it really interesting to see he used a ray gun to produce an effect on the guitar whilst doing the solo! That’s pretty rad! Wish I’d known that in the 80s as a kid, he would’ve been my hero!

I didn’t attempt the solo at all (unsurprisingly! ) and I didn’t have a whammy bar on either guitar to replicate the effect after the first chorus, but I improvised by doing a harmonic then bending the string behind the nut and found that work okay (and is super fun! ). Also, I tried, but failed to do the hybrid picking for the intro riff, I could only get it to about half/three quarter speed, so dropped it for sake of time. (It’s also used on the outro riff but I skipped that).

A note about the lyrics. I google them and got this (hopefully that link works the same for you as it does for me). These lyrics are slightly different than the version I was familiar with, but I dug the darker nature of them so ran with it. BUT they are slightly more explicit in a couple of places so, although I blanked it, I should put an explicit lyrics warning Not sure why they are different? Maybe that was the original version then they got changed for radio? Don’t know but it’s what I went with anyway

I think that’s about it for now. Thanks for watching!! Feedback/comments/advice always welcomed and much appreciated

[DavidP]

That is just wonderful, Jeff, where to start ???

Guitar tones and play. You nailed it.

Multi-tracked vocal. Pure rock n roll attitude

Wigs … what can one say.

T-shirt … the rocker conversion on a JG T.

What to add ???

Apparently Billy Idol arrived at a birthday bash thrown for either Mick or Keef. Keef drinking Rebel Yell from the bottle. Good name for a song, says Billy. Yeah, says, Keef. Can I have it? It’s yours.

[Rossco01]

Sounded great Jeff! Really good recording and overall performance! These multi trackers just take so much time to do lol. Used to love a bit of Billy Idol I actually really like White Wedding as well.

@DavidP That’s a great story

[roger_holland]

Hi Jeff,
It’s really unbelievable but true, some people whatever they put on or put on their head they still are beautiful…

The video the playing
Amazing the work you put in

But more importantly, I wish you strength with the loss and processing this lost…my heart cries a little with you
Once again music helps
Greetings…

[JokuMuu]

I am perfectly fine with this dark, dark song All the effort you invested into recording the different guitar tracks and your vocals - wow It somehow still has a bit more bite than the original and I really, really like the reverb and/or echo effect

I am so, so sorry to hear about your puppy But in the end it was surely a very kind thing to do. I know that doesn’t help much…

[Helen0609]

Hi Jeff! I’m dancing with tears in my eyes ! I’ve never expected this and was so surprised - you really did it! I can’t believe it’s true! I’m completely overwhelmed, you made my day! Never expected you would do that out of a little chit chat after the Mini Gig!
What a tremendous effort to put all this toghether . I can only imagine how much work that was only for the production and mixing. Not talking about recording the various guitar and singing tracks. Such a cool tune you made out of this! Singing/playing more than . Be assured, when there wasn’t thousands of miles between us, I would come over and bring you a crate of champagne or beer or whatever . We really should consider a world wide JG students meeting to meet all those incredible members of this community.
Concerning the lyrics - as a German, hearing english textes in songs, you often don’t realise what exactely they are singing - lame apologies maybe - I seem to have a tendency to non appropriate lyrics . But Billy Idol is cult, or maybe there was a slightly polished version for radio…

I’m very sorry to read about your dog. I went through this a few years ago, I needed a lot of time to overcome this. I wish you a lot of strength

So again: 10000 thanks! I’ll keep it in my heart and ears!
P.S. I breath a sigh of relieve that your costume only consisted of wigs

[elevatortrim]

Amazing, simply amazing. Not only your talent, but also that you know how to entertain the listener.

@nzmetal

I will mention that Nicole (@JokuMuu) suggested White Wedding, so sorry Nicole I just thought Rebel Yell was a bit more interesting forlearning on guitar

How dare you! White Wedding is in my ‘Dreamer’ bucket. Have you seen the unplugged version yet?

Billy Idol - White Wedding (Unplugged)

@nzmetal

Drums and bass guitar were programmed (not by me, I sourced them)

Sourced how? This is something I need to be able to do as well.

[Notter]

@nzmetal - double legend mate, first for picking up the request and running with it, and secondly for a truly mega performance!!

[Jeff]

That was entertaining as always Jeff, loved it!

It’s great that you’re sharing some insight on how you went about the mixing and production - and the dress-up show, which deserves a topic on its own. One just can’t have enough tracks. (Maybe Justin can put out a tracks version of this beautiful shirt for you? :-))

But most of all, that was some tight playing. It’s good to see you broadening your horizons and play stuff that’s not in your immediate comfort zone. It’s something I’m looking to do more of myself. I actually prefer this version to the original, really.

Sorry to hear about your puppy though.

[Kasper]

Nice one!! Love that song. We play this one in my band, and we absolutely love playing it! So much fun to do, and it always brings people on the floor. So much energy and so many cool parts. Very well done!

Cheers,
Kasper

[adi_mrok]

Jeff that was awesome, well done mate and kudos for going with the request sounded superb and I love the style you are embracing with vox and wig, makes me always happy seeing you doing your thing!

[Lisa_S]

Wow, Jeff!!

What a great version of the song and sooo much respect for the effort you put in! Great production with all the tracks and videos being taken and put together - you did an amazing job!

You nailed it, it was such a pleasure to watch an listen - love those wigs! Bravo.
That was some tight playing, really great! The composition of the guitar tracks really fits neatly to my ears. Also, the way you put in the vocals was very well done with the echo going on. It gave it some richness and deepness (does this word even exist? ), and the overall dark, mellow mood. I like it a lot!

I’m sorry to hear about your puppy, though. Know the pain of that journey all to well myself.

[nzmetal]

Wow! Posted this late last night after getting it all put together and then had to crash into bed ready for work today, so waking up to all these amazingly kind replies this morning is just the best way to start the day, thank yo all so much!

@DavidP Thank you, David! So glad you liked it and I tried hard to bring the rock n roll/80s hair metal vibe to this one, and yes, might have altered the JG T a touch , thought it fit better that way with this production How cool is that story too! Love that sort of history behind songs. Thanks for sharing!

@Rossco01 Thank you, Jason! Really appreciate your kind words! Yeah, putting these multi-trackers together is a bit of work to coordinate, especially when videoing as well. I didn’t want to “lip sync” either the guitar or vocals for the video, so what’s captured in the recording visually is also what was captured for audio too (noting I did other tracks too which I didn’t video of course). Managing the files and getting everything aligned in the final render is pretty tricky at times!

@roger_holland You deserve hugs and kisses my friend! Thank you for your kind words, means a huge amount to me! And thank you for your thoughts about our Yes, music definitely helps!

@JokuMuu Thank you, Nicole! Glad you didn’t mind I went with RY over WW. That actually looked pretty cool to learn too and I might come back to it down the track Glad it sounded good, I was a bit worried I’d gone over the top, so thank you for your kind words! And also thank you for thinking of our Yes, sometimes the toughest decisions are the right ones in the end. Your thoughts and kind words do help, thank you

@Helen0609 Andrea! What can I say! My muse! So very glad you liked it! And that it brought a smile! If only we could toast this amazing community together over a gorgeous glass of champagne, that would be fabulous! Thank you also for your thoughts towards our (actually this emoji looks very similar to her and she always had her red harness and lead on when we went walking, so I like that one ).

@Helen0609

P.S. I breath a sigh of relieve that your costume only consisted of wigs

@elevatortrim Thank you, Serhat! Really glad you like it and found it entertaining! I know you endeavour to entertain with your performances as well so your kind words mean a lot to me. Dude! Sorry about dissing White Wedding You are very right, it is a great song! And that unplugged version you linked is AWESOME! Inspires me to try learn it on my acoustic.
I sourced the drums and bass from Ultimate Guitar, someone had tabbed out the whole song and the GP file was downloadable. So I muted all the other instruments and created a .wav to play in Reaper. The playback sounds much better in GP8 than it does off the UG website too, so worth doing just for that if you want to play along.

@Notter Thanks, Mark!! Really glad you liked it, it was a fun challenge to accept! Maybe we should do more requests to others in the community? Take us out of our usual patterns and have a bit of fun

@Jeff Thanks, Jeff! Very happy to hear it was entertaining, I often look to your productions as inspiration, your performances are always so professional and how you integrate the different camera angles makes it very engaging. Yeah, more is more right! Love that idea for a T-shirt! I would definitely buy it Thank you again for saying such nice things and for your thoughts towards our puppy

@Kasper Thank you, Kasper! Always great to hear from you I would LOVE to see your band covering this tune!! Do you have any footage you could share???

@adi_mrok Thanks so much, Adi! Really glad you liked it, really appreciate your kind words! Yeah, covering a request was great fun and pulled me away from my usual “go to’s”, it was really a cool project that I enjoyed very much. Yep, the wigs came out again! I’m happy to hear it brought a smile

[nzmetal]

@Lisa_S Thank you, Lisa!! Really appreciate your kind words! Yes, there was a bit involved with getting this together, but I actually enjoyed every minute, it was great fun! Glad that all sounded good in the mix and that the vocals worked okay! If deepness isn’t a word it definitely should be! Thanks also for your thoughts about our and sorry to hear you’ve also been through that journey, although glad you had a dog you loved as well (…I literally just got a call to collect her ashes whilst typing this ) Thanks again and take care

[CD02]

Hey Jeff,

First off wow, what production. Amazing the way it all pulls together with multiple tracks, multiple camera angles etc well done

Secondly, condolences mate on the loss of the furry friend, we’ve been through this and know what it’s like after years of having them around.

Love the track, even though they are not really my thing , well done

[nzmetal]

Thanks Craig!! Really glad you enjoyed it! Yeah it’s a juggle getting all those tracks together and lined up, can certainly be a test of patience!
Thanks also for your thoughts mate, it is sad when that daily companion all of sudden isn’t there anymore, we do miss them a lot eh
Appreciate you checking this out and your kind words

[CD02]

Na, all good Bud. Your playing is great. Never really been a heavy style person but still admire the playing. and of course the time you must put into these productions

[brianlarsen]

Wow… What can I say?
First things first: Another showcase piece from our Kiwi Shredder
I listened before reading the blurb, so had to stop and rewind twice to comprehend that you were bending the string beyond(!) the nut @ 1.15
Awesome performance and production all around.
When this came out, all my punk-afficionado mates reacted with a Billy-Idol-sneer, declaring the ex-Gen-X frontman a pop-rock-peddling-sellout. But you simply can’t deny the catchiness of this and White Wedding.
Layered vocals lent it a slight doom-metal feel. Nice
Four guitars and five Jeffs… What else could one wish for?
MORE, MORE, MORE!

This makes me smile even more for a completely different reason. We don’t just share our stuff here in the Community. We influence each other and cause others to try out different things that they never would have thought of or tried out. Kudos to Andrea for suggesting it and to you for picking up the baton and legging it. Haha, part of me even likes to think that donning my demure hairpieces helps egg you on to crank up your visual performances to 11.
Class production.
Take a bow, young man

[Helen0609]

Hi Jeff, i lost the count how often I played this video since yesterday, still excited how a simple request could lead to such a production. I had a quick look at that little after Mini Gig conversation, it dated from Juli, 2. So that was less than a month to create this video! Oh man, I’m impressed what people are able to do in such a short period! Alone recording all of these tracks would give me work for a lifetime, let alone to sing and mix it in the end. I’m facinated about all the tecnical opportunities and would love to learn more about recording and mixing. But first of all I have to get a better player!
Again, I’m very impressed about your playing and singing (you definitly should do that more often!!!) and about creating a real performance. Everything fitted so well together, you are an entertainer! Your joy and dedication to what you are doing is clearly noticeable, I already noticed that during the Mini Gig. From second one from your performance at the Mini Gig, there was so much energy and you rocked it again with this production. Thanks again for picking up my request, still unbelievable for me!

[Richard_close2u]

@nzmetal

I didn’t know anything (and still don’t know much! ) about Billy Idol’s guitarist, Steve Stevens

He is known to always wear black nail varnish and on that front I must say how dreadfully disappointed I am to see your plain, unadorned fingers here Jeff!