About The Song
“Eyes Without a Face” is a song by the English rock musician Billy Idol, from his second studio album Rebel Yell (1983). It was released in April 1984 as the second single from the album. The song is softer and more ballad-like than most of the album’s other singles. It reached No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Idol’s first top-10 hit in the US. The song’s title was borrowed from the 1960 horror film known in English as Eyes Without a Face.
In a retrospective review of the single, AllMusic journalist Donald A. Guarisco praised the song and wrote: “The music plays against the dark tone of the lyrics with a ballad-styled melody comprised of yearning verses that slowly build emotion and a quietly wrenching chorus that relieves the emotional tension in a cathartic manner.
In his memoir, Dancing with Myself, Idol explained he had always been fascinated with old black and white horror films, including the 1960 French film Les Yeux sans visage (Eyes Without a Face), directed by Georges Franju. The movie concerns a plastic surgeon who vowed to restore the face of his daughter who had been disfigured in a car accident, and this quest led him to murder victims and graft their facial features onto his daughter in an attempt to restore her beauty. By the end, all that remained of her original face was her eyes, thus making her “eyes without a face”. Idol saw some parallel between the movie and the moral decay he experienced living in New York in the 1980s. He said,
I started to use “Eyes Without a Face” as a possible title/lyric/chorus for the song. I began to write words that, in some disguised form, spoke about my life in New York and a relationship gone wrong, on the edge of disintegrating into madness. Perhaps I was reflecting on my own touring infidelities. In a way, those [types of relationships] can leave you feeling soulless, especially if you’re already in a relationship that you value but are degrading by looking elsewhere for additional sexual kicks.
In the studio, Idol told guitarist Steve Stevens about the melody, lyrics and basic structure. Stevens fleshed it out with a revolving four-chord pattern (Emaj7–C#m–G#m–B). Stevens then came up with a hard rock guitar riff in the middle of the song. Idol said he improvised some rap verses over the riff because “rap was everywhere in New York at the time, in all the discos and clubs, so it made sense after my croon to start talking streetwise over Steve’s supersonic barrage of sound.”
Idol’s then-girlfriend Perri Lister sings backing vocals during the chorus, repeating the French phrase “Les yeux sans visage” (“Eyes without a face”), the original title of the horror film.
Idol wanted a prominent bass guitar part reminiscent of reggae. He and Stevens had trouble with this part of the song until they met bassist Sal Cuevas, a New York musician best known for working in salsa music and Broadway bands, who performed the part to their satisfaction.
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Lyrics
I’m all out of hope
One more bad dream
Could bring a fall
When I’m far from home
Don’t call me on the phone
To tell me you’re alone
It’s easy to deceive
It’s easy to tease
But hard to get release
Eyes without a face
(Les yeux sans visage)
Eyes without a face
(Les yeux sans visage)
Eyes without a face
Got no human grace
You’re eyes without a face
I spent so much time
Believing all the lies
To keep the dream alive
Now it makes me sad
It makes me mad at truth
For loving what was you
Eyes without a face
(Les yeux sans visage)
Eyes without a face
(Les yeux sans visage)
Eyes without a face
Got no human grace
You’re eyes without a face
When you hear the music, you make a dip
Into someone else’s pocket then make a slip
Steal a car, go to Las Vegas
Ooh, gigolo pool
Hanging out by the state line
Turning holy water into wine
Drinkin’ it down, oh
I’m on a bus, on a psychedelic trip
Reading murder books, tryin’ to stay hip
I’m thinkin’ of you, you’re out there so
Say your prayers
Say your prayers
Say your prayers
Now I close my eyes
And I wonder why
I don’t despise
Now all I can do
Love what was once
So alive and new
But it’s gone from your eyes
I’d better realize
Eyes without a face
(Les yeux sans visage)
Eyes without a face
(Les yeux sans visage)
Eyes without a face
Got no human grace
You’re eyes without a face
Such a human waste
You’re eyes without a face
And now it’s getting worse