Johnny Thunders
The Best Of Johnny Thunders
This is definitely not the best of Johnny Thunders. It's a compilation
of B grade material that comes from demos and outtakes, all previously
released. It covers the time period from early Dolls demos through early
Heartbreakers demos and on to Johnny's acoustic period. It's 60 minutes long
and comes with a nice booklet that is mostly in Japanese. If you have most of
the regular stuff and you want to hear alternate versions them pick this up.
Otherwise, avoid it and buy the normal commercial CDs or one of the many other
compilations.
(K.C. - Thanks for sending this to me.)
The material on this CD comes from 5 sources:
- Tracks 1-4: These are the first New York
Dolls demos that were ever recorded. You can hear the original Dolls
drummer Billy Murcia doing as good a job as Jerry Nolan. But these tracks don't
really shine. They show the band just learning to play and you're better off
hearing the legit recordings or later demos. These tunes have been released
many times in various formats previous to this.
- Tracks 5-8: This is interesting material because it's early
Heartbreakers with Richard Hell on vocals and bass. It was taken from the 'Live
At Mothers' CD that was recorded in 1976 in New York City. There were a number
of Hell tunes done by the Heartbreakers at the time but only 'Blank Generation'
made it onto this compilation. Get 'Live At Mothers' or 'What Goes Around' if
you really want to hear this stuff.
- Tracks 9-14: These tracks were taken from the 'In Cold Blood'
sessions. Recorded as demos in mid 1982 at various studios they have been
previously released many times. The 6 tracks here are the best of the
sessions.
- Tracks 15-19: This is acoustic material taken from the 'Hurt Me'
CD.
- Track 20: I haven't figured out where this is from. It's a live
version of Chinese Rocks that sounds pretty good (although it doesn't sound
like Johnny on lead vocals).
Track Listing:
- Personality Crisis
- Looking For A Kiss
- Bad Girl
- Subway Train
- Hurt Me
- Can't Keep My Eyes On You
- Pirate Love
- Blank Generation
- Too Much Junkie Business
- In Cold Blood
- Just Another Girl
- Diary Of A Lover
- Do You Love Me
- Born To Lose
- You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory
- Sad Vacation
- Joey Joey
- Too Much Too Soon
- Eve Of Destruction
- Chinese Rocks
Musicians:
New York Dolls (tracks 1-4)
- David JoHansen - vocals
- Johnny Thunders - guitar
- Sylvain Sylvain - guitar
- Arthur Kane - bass
- Billy Murcia - drums
Heartbreakers (tracks 5-8)
- Johnny Thunders - guitar & vocals
- Richard Hell - bass & vocals
- Walter Lure - guitar & vocals
- Jerry Nolan - drums
In Cold Blood Sessions (tracks 9-14)
- Johnny Thunders - guitar, bass & vocals
- Walter Lure - guitar & vocals
- Billy Rogers - drums
- Simon Ritt - bass
Hurt Me (tracks 15-19)
- Johnny Thunders - guitar & vocals
