Intro (song)

"**Opening Manifesto**" (registered as "**Intro**") is a song performed by Billy Idol. It serves as the opening track on Billy's fifth album, Cyberpunk.

## Background

The opening intro is based on Gareth Branwyn’s “Is There a Cyberpunk Movement (1992)” and is a manifesto of what is to come.  Gareth was also used as a consulted to learn more of the cyber movement.

A visual created alongside Brett Leonard and Billy Idol was produced for the No Religion Tour.

## Music and composition

Gareth Branwyn explaining how he met Billy:

> "It was beyond surreal to be talking on the phone with Billy Idol. He told me that he had this idea of using my piece as the introduction to the record. (My piece, called “Is There A Cyberpunk Movement?,” had actually started out life as a post on The Well BBS, later getting reprinted in the *Mondo* book.) He wanted to read it over music, like “Late Lament,” the poem recited at the beginning of the Moody Blues’ *Nights in White Satin* album.
> The next thing I know, I have Billy Idol —Billy Fucking Idol— on the other end of the phone dramatically reciting my words back to me, in glorious “Breathe deep the gathering gloom” fashion. His reading was surprisingly sincere and powerful, so potent and sincere that it choked me up a bit. And, OK, I may have snickered a bit, too. Not dismissively, just because it was all so bizarre that my brain had suddenly turned into cornmeal pudding."
>
>

## Critical reception

2 Loud 2 Old Music opined:

> "And there you have it.  I didn’t focus on the interludes as the whole concept album thing doesn’t work for me.  I just focused on the songs and that was when I found how much I liked the album as whole."
>
>

## Lyrics

The future has imploded into the present

With no nuclear war, the new battlefields are people's minds and souls

Mega-corporations are the new governments

Computer generated info domains are the new frontiers

Though, there is better living between science and chemistry

We are all becoming slavebots

The computer is the new cool tool

Though we say, "All information shall be free," it is not

Information is power and currency of the virtual world we inhabit

So we mustn't trust authority

Cyberpunks are the true rebels

Cyber-culture is coming in under the radar

An unordinary society, an unholy alliance with the tech world, and a world of organized descent

Welcome to the Cyber Corporation, Cyberpunks

## Credits

**Personnel**

* Billy Idol — songwriting, vocals
* Gareth Branwyn — songwriting
* Robin Hancock — producing
* Stephen Marcussen — mastering engineering

**Technical**

* Billy's Home Studio, Los Angeles, CA, United States

## References

1. ↑ https://blog.adafruit.com/2020/04/13/the-internet-is-punk-rock-the-story-behind-billy-idols-1993-cyberpunk-album-cyberpunk/
2. ↑ https://2loud2oldmusic.com/2019/05/08/billy-idol-cyberpunk-album-review-the-billy-idol-series/

## Navigation

"**Wasteland**"
"Pre-Shock"
"**Shock To The System**"
"Tomorrow People"
"**Adam In Chains**"
"**Neuromancer**"

"That Which Beareth Thorns"
"Love Labours On"
"**Heroin**"
"Injection"
"Shangrila"
"Concrete Kingdom"

"**Venus**"
"Then The Night Comes"
"Before Dawn"
"Mother Dawn"
"Recap"