Stevens was Billy Idol's sound in his heyday, period. ... The guy is a real talent and a shit-hot guitarist.
And he can elevate with his work even - sorry, George! - mediocre singers ...
This does not disagree with what I said, that first line anyway, is what I was getting at.... I just didn't think it as a good thing. He is (was?) technically very amazing and good at songwriting if you like that sort of very typically 80s LA style, which he was the archetype, if not the architect, of (I do not.... except when PWEI does it ironically later in the 90s, and even then, I just barely tolerate it). BUT Billy didn't need to be elevated by Steve - he was already everything he was going to be by the end of Generation X - remember, his biggest hit, Dancing With Myself, was just the Gen X song re-released on one of his solo albums (I think there was a Steve Steven's overdub or 2, but otherwise it was the exact same recording, maybe he redid the vox too, I don"t remember, but all the other Gen X backing vox are still there etc). The only development post Gen X was that of his ego (cocaine does that) which had a few artistic side-effects such as convincing him that that doing that snarly lip thing every time a lens was pointed his way was a good idea (in a very proto Miley Cyrus way, not half as stupid/annoying though.... she really takes a lot from Billy though doesn't she; right down to the hair ;P).
An ex-guitarist of mine just loved the guy though, down to emulating his tone in the mid-2000s; so dated and doesn't work without big budget LA studio production values on the rest of the song behind it, vs our punk-reggae Clashy thing. I managed to keep that sound off our record by having him use my gear, but eventually he just really missed that Ibanez Strat variant with Floyd Rose and solid state amp. ... then he got a pod and I gave up the whole thing..
