The Music of Johnny Thunders

(Photo by Kees Tabak)

Someone dropped me a line a few days ago asking the question why I only ever seem to post about old music and old musicians and dead musicians! Can you believe that? I thought I'd tackle that question here as I post another bunch of old music by a dead musician!

Firstly the old music, well, a lot of it was actually new music once upon a time, especially when I was a kid (there were some artists I listened to back then who had already passed out of the world) and a lot of it formed the soundtrack of my young life. I feel I shouldn't need to apologize for keeping the memory of good "old music" alive!

 

Also some of these older artists, who are still pretty much alive, are making great new music as well, with a lot of them sounding much better than they have done so for years and it's a good thing to turn the spotlight on it and them.

As to the dead musicians, what can I say? Death is one of the only certainties in life, like taxes! It seems the respectful thing to do in honouring the life work of a musician to keep all that he has done out in the public so it will not be forgotten. Again, there really is no need to apologize for such a thing I think!

This brings me to Johnny Thunders. A lot of people are just prepared to write him off as "just another mixed up junkie" (to borrow a line from a song by The Boys' Terminal Love) but in doing so miss out on a wealth of brilliant music stretching back to the early 1970s when he was in the New York Dolls, to the mid to late 70s when he was rocking it with The Heartbreakers and then into the 80s and early 90s when he was doing various band projects but also out performing on his own. I've included an album of each period below. Enjoy.

 

Today is the anniversary of his death in New Orleans back in 1991. He apparently died from drug related issues but some have contested that there was foul play at work because the levels of drugs in his system were not regarded as fatal according to the autopsy. The autopsy also revealed that he had advanced Leukemia. Depsite the efforts of his family to get the New Orleans Police Department to re-investigate Johnny's death, it still remains a bit of a mystery.

Thirty six hours before his death Johnny Thunders was recording for the last time. He was with Die Toten Hosen laying down Born to Lose for their up and coming Learning English Lesson 1 album that featured many old school punks singing their songs with the band (there doesn't appear to be any of the album on You Tube apart from the track they did with Ronnie Biggs, so apologies for not sharing anything from it).

(New York Dolls)

New York Dolls

Mercury Records

27th July 1973

Produced by Todd Rundgren

 

L.A.M.F.

Track Records

3rd October 1977

Produced by Speedy Keen and Daniel Segunda

Hurt Me

New Rose Records

1983

Produced by Johnny Thunders and Christopher Giercke

Tidy Tunes 2015: Joy Division/The Heartbreakers - Two for the Price of one!

Born on this day in 1956 
Ian Curtis of Joy Divsion

 Transmission - Joy Division

Born on this day in 1952
Johnny Thunders (New York Dolls and The Heartbreakers)

Born to Lose - The Heartbreakers

Billy Rath - Another Heartbreaker Has Left the Building

I am deeply saddened to report that bassist for The Heartbreakers Billy Rath has passed away. I just found out this news a short while ago. He apparently had been ill for sometime and had left hospice care in Boston to be with his family. He passed away on 16th August 2014.

March 2012 Interview with Billy Rath for Punk Globe.

He had been back in music after an absence of many years with his band Billy Rath's Street Pirates (Check out some videos here on You Tube).

Billy replaced Richard Hell as the bassist of the band  and appeared on the legendary album L.A.M.F.

"We didn't make trouble - we made and played NYC rock 'n' roll. The Heartbreakers were a rock 'n' roll band, not a punk band that pushed anarchy. We wrote love songs, not fight songs." - Billy Rath 2012

The Heartbreakers Live at Max's Kansas City NYC 1979 Black and White Film).

Audio of the Released Album.

The Reunion Show at The Lyceum Ballroom, London 23rd October 1984.

D.T.K. Live at The Speakeasy (Released in 1982).

The Heartbreakers Role Call.

Johnny Thunders (1991)

Jerry Nolan (1992)

Billy Rath (2014)

Only one remains

Walter Lure

Remembering Johnny T.

If old Johnny Thunders were still alive today he would have been 61 years old!

Johnny Thunders and The Heartbreakers - Dead or Alive (Live at The Lyceum, London) Full Film. Click Here to Watch.*

* Explict Language so beware!

The Heartbreakers Definitive Box Set

Wow, this is very exciting! One of my favourite albums from 1977 getting the box set treatment!

 A 4-CD clam-shell box set with a 44-page booklet and 4 badges.
Includes the original 1977 Track LP restored, with the infamous ‘mud’ removed, plus 13 early demo tracks, including previously unreleased tracks with Richard Hell, and 21 alternative mixes from the epic 1977 mixing sessions at five London studios.

The Heartbreakers (Johnny Thunders, Walter Lure, Billy Rath and Jerry Nolan) were at the centre of the London punk scene in 1977, having been invited by the Sex Pistols onto the infamous ‘Anarchy Tour’.  UK punks treated the US band as rock royalty because of their New York Dolls pedigree.  Malcolm McLaren had briefly managed the Dolls in NY.

Signing to The Who’s label, Track Records, they were treated to the best recording studios in London to record their only album, ‘L.A.M.F.’.  But when the LP came out, there was universal criticism of the sound quality.  Journalists who’d been championing the band such as Jon Savage, Julie Burchill, Nick Kent, Tony Parsons et al criticised the ‘muddy mix’, and drummer Jerry Nolan left the band because of it.

Both Track and the Heartbreakers ran out of money and collapsed when the album didn’t sell to expectations.  Manager Leee Black Childers broke into the bankrupt Track offices to retrieve the multitracks and mixes (though not the master), leading to efforts to remix and recompile the album in ’84 and ‘94.   

This ‘definitive edition’ 4xCD box set at last restores the original LP, uncovers three early demo sessions from 1976 and 77, and presents a wide selection of the 200 mixes made at five different studios.  A 44-page booklet with recollections from guitarist Walter Lure, a detailed Heartbreakers timeline 1975-78, and an introduction by biographer Nina Antonia accompanies it, along with four punk pin-badges.

Disc 1:  ‘L.A.M.F. – the lost ’77 mixes’  
Recompiled in ‘94, as Johnny Thunders and the
Heartbreakers
Born To Lose, Baby Talk, All By Myself, I Wanna Be Loved, It's Not Enough, Chinese Rocks, Get Off The Phone, Pirate Love, One Track Mind, I Love You, Goin' Steady, Let Go, Can't Keep My Eyes On You, Do You Love Me.
 
Disc 2:  ‘L.A.M.F. – the Track LP restored’ 
As it was intended with the ‘mud’ removed.  
Born To Lose, Baby Talk, All By Myself, I Wanna Be Loved, It's Not Enough, Chinese Rocks, Get Off The Phone, Pirate Love, One Track Mind, I Love You, Goin' Steady, Let Go.
 
Disc 3:  ‘L.A.M.F. – the demo sessions’ 
Three sessions in ‘76 and ‘77, incl. with Richard Hell.
I Wanna Be Loved (mix 2), Pirate Love, Goin' Steady, Flight, Born To Lose, Can't Keep My Eyes On You, It's Not Enough, I Love You, Take A Chance, Do You Love Me, Let Go, Chinese Rocks, Born To Lose.
 
Disc 4:  ‘L.A.M.F. – the alternative mixes’ 
21 mixes from the sessions at 5 London studios
Born To Lose, Born To Lose, Baby Talk, Baby Talk, All By Myself, All By Myself, It's Not Enough, It's Not Enough, Chinese Rocks, Get Off The Phone, Pirate Love, Pirate Love, One Track Mind, One Track Mind, I Love You, Goin' Steady, Goin' Steady, Let Go, Let Go, Can't Keep My Eyes On You, Do You Love Me.

Get it at Amazon for a great price!