1983Released
4:48

Did You Know?

Interesting facts and trivia about Rebel Yell. By Songfacts®.

Billy Idol got the title for this song from the Rebel Yell brand of bourbon whiskey, which has been around since 1936. On an episode of VH1 Storytellers, Idol explained that he was at an event at Ron Wood's place in New York City where Wood and his fellow Rolling Stones Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were taking swigs of Rebel Yell straight from the bottle. This gave him the idea for the title, and he wrote the song around it.

A "rebel yell" was a Confederate battle cry during the American Civil War, and Rebel Yell bourbon (made in Kentucky) shows a soldier on a horse charging into battle. Billy Idol, who is British, knew a bit about the war, but didn't want that to be the topic of the song, so he changed the meaning to be "a female cry of love." The song is about a passionate one-night stand with a woman who wants "more more more."

Idol wrote this song with his guitarist, Steve Stevens, who came up with some unique sounds on the track. The ray-gun effect on the solo he created using a Lexicon PCM 41 digital delay processor, but he later figured out a way to get a more distinctive sound using an actual ray-gun. By tweaking a toy ray-gun, he was able to hold it to his pickups and generate these strange sounds. His "ray gun guitar" became one of the most popular spots of a Billy Idol concert.

Song Analysis

Key, BPM (tempo) and time signature of Rebel Yell.
EKey
MinorMode
4/4Time Signature
166BPM

Album

The album Rebel Yell is released on.

Released By

The record label that has released Rebel Yell.
Universal Music Group
© 2017 Capitol Records, LLC
℗ 2017 Capitol Records, LLC

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