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| Johnny Thunders, the legendary late New York Dolls guitarist who found
further infamy with The Heartbreakers in London after joining the Sex
Pistols’ Anarchy tour, has for the first time all the highlights of his
often wayward solo career gathered together on one CD. And as a bonus,
it’s packaged with a second disc of unreleased recordings, including 3
recently discovered Heartbreakers studio sessions.
Disc 1 features favourite Heartbreakers tracks such as Born To Lose, Chinese Rocks and Pirate Love from ‘L.A.M.F.’, plus tracks recorded by Stones’ producer Jimmy Miller: In Cold Blood and Diary Of A Lover. The album contrasts Johnny’s wild rock’n’roll persona with his poetic, sensitive side with tracks from the acoustic album ‘Hurt Me’, plus 60’s covers Crawfish and Born To Cry from his album with Patti Palladin, ‘Copy Cats’. Plus Little Bit Of Whore, You Can’t Put Your Arms Around A Memory and more, the album fills a void as a great introduction to Johnny Thunders. Disc 2 is a real bonus for those who need no introduction, with some never-before-heard Heartbreakers studio recordings from 1977: London Boys, (about the Sex Pistols after they wrote New York about the Dolls), Too Much Junkie Business, and Great Big Kiss. Added to some helter- skelter live in ’77 Heartbreakers recordings, some acoustic live and studio sessions, and a live in Italy show with the Pistols’ Glen Matlock on bass, these unreleased tapes are a real feast for Johnny Thunders fans. The double-CD at single-CD price, includes a 16-page booklet with notes by biographer Nina Antonia and a 20-year diary resumé of Johnny’s life. The reissue of Nina Antonia’s updated biography ‘Johnny Thunders - In Cold Blood’, is hoped to follow on Cherry Red Books, and a re-issue of the Heartbreakers video, ‘Dead Or Alive’, will have additional footage of a Crawfish clip, and a trailer for a forthcoming film on Johnny Thunders, ‘King Outlaw’ directed by Lech Kowalski of DOA and Gringo fame. Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers - new studio sessions unearthed! Johnny Thunders fans will be pleased to hear of the discovery of previously unheard studio sessions by the Heartbreakers, featuring songs not on the Heartbreakers only album, ‘L.A.M.F.’. The sessions are from December 1977, just before the Heartbreakers split, when trying to get a new deal after their label Track Records had gone bust. The three songs are London Boys - which the Heartbreakers wrote mimicking the style of, and about the Sex Pistols in riposte to the Pistols’ New York put-down of the New York Dolls; Too Much Junkie Business with Thunders’ co-writer Walter Lure taking lead vocals - just the sort of song guaranteed not to get them a new major deal; and an unembellished version of Johnny singing The Shangri-La’s Great Big Kiss. Assumed to feature Clash drummer Terry Chimes - Jerry Nolan had by then already quit over ‘L.A.M.F.’s ‘muddy’ mix - the Riverside Studios sessions were archived by collector George Rab. They turned up at Jungle just in time to be added to ‘Born Too Loose - the best of Johnny Thunders’ as lead tracks in a bonus CD of unreleased material. The other unreleased recordings are five raucous live Heartbreakers’ tracks from the Speakeasy in ’77, an acoustic session in Greenhouse studio in ’84, radio broadcasts, etc. The ‘best of’ is the first time Johnny’s most well-known songs have been collected together, and with his output being famously erratic it enables a fresh evaluation of his talent. Covered by artists as diverse as Guns & Roses, Ronnie Spector, Soft Cell, Los Lobos and Sid Vicious, Johnny’s best songs like You Can’t Put Your Arms Around A Memory, Born To Lose, Chinese Rocks, Crawfish, Hurt Me, In Cold Blood, It’s Not Enough, Pirate Love, Diary Of A Lover and others are all featured. The package comes with a detailed 16-page booklet with notes by New York Dolls and Thunders biographer Nina Antonia and a year-by-year summary of Johnny’s career. |