Garbage Days Revisited #27: Generation X - “Valley Of The Dolls” (1979)
“But it’s always the same, like Citizen Kane, you end up with NOTHING! And you leave for home…” - Generation X - Paradise West It’s a well known fact that Billie Joe Armstrong regularly mentions in interviews that he considers Generation X’s first album to be one of the greatest ever. Well, I hate to tell ya but not for the first time, Green Day’s frontman is wide of the mark. While Billy Idol and co were very much in there with the first wave of punk - Idol and Tony James had both been part of the "Bromley contingent" of punks along with Siouxsie Sioux et al - their first album to me has always felt, in spite of a few crackers like Day By Day and Youth Youth Youth , the work of a band who were still finding their feet. As far as I'm concerned, that album's the journey and their second one, Valley Of The Dolls , was the sound of them arriving properly. The group had taken their fair share of flack in their early years for being punk bandwagon jumpers (ridiculous gi...