Friday 1 April 2011

Johnny Thunders - So Alone (1978)


I like the early New York Dolls, but I wasn't a massive fan, they were just a decent band imo. On the other hand i was a huge fan of The Heartbreakers and Johnny Thunders; this is his first solo release and something he never managed to better, again imo. The line up who played on this record is just a who's who of artists I love: -
  • Steve Jones and Paul Cook of the Pistols.
  • Paul Gray and Steve Nicol - Eddie and the Hot Rods
  • Chrissie Hynde - The Pretenders
  • Phil Lynott - Thin Lizzy (yep....I love them)
  • Steve Marriott -Small Faces 
  • Patti Palladin - Snatch
  • Walter Lure and Billy Rath - The Heartbreakers
  • Peter Perrett and Mike Kellie - The Only Ones
  • Steve Lillywhite - producer extraordinaire
This was recorded after the Heartbreakers split due to pressures from recording LAMF. I'd be hard pushed to pick between the two albums; LAMF is straight ahead punk/rock album, while this is Thunders in a more relaxed mode. It's a great, great album.

I got to see Thunders quite a few times, and the Heartbreakers, and he was mostly good to great, but the last time I saw him playing has left a bad memory as he was completely wasted, missing chords, forgetting lyrics and playing for far too short a time. Sad really.

It's 20 years this month since he died/was murdered...who knows, I guess we never will.

RIP Mr Genzale and many thanks for the great music.

Mediafire

7 comments:

  1. To say I love this album is an understatement.....Love this!!
    Ken

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  2. Cheers Neil! Love this Heartbreakers linked series.To me Thunders walked a tightrope between sloppy drivel,and gut wrenching genius. As an English punk i found his work unusualy loose and laid-back, in comparison to the U.K. punk rock bands. Pretty sure i got this already on both vinyl,and cd, (not sure that i still got them)-There's some good retrospective cd's/dvd's out there.
    Heck! i even like the Kinks song his name came from...I suppose a heartbreakers linked series cant go past without mentioning the name Richard Hell?
    Johnny Thunders always reminds me of another Punk genius from over-the-water, Stiv Bators! Being of the same era,and with similar musical style, do you know if they ever got together?(musically)(lol)(to release a vinyl/cd)

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  3. Thanks a fuckin' million! I haven't heard this in a long while and now my mouth's watering!! Cheers ;)

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  4. Hey thanks! These are high quality tunes.

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  5. No worries pink :)

    I found a copy of the "supposed" Dee Dee/Johnny and Stiv album lurking on an external hard drive.

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  6. One of my faves from the old days,surely his top,every track is a winner...cheers

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  7. Definitely prefer 'So Alone' to 'LAMF'. Not that LAMF sucks, but I never thought it was as great as some made it out to be, whereas I love So Alone. Just blogged something to that effect myself.

    Heard that Dee/Johnny/Stiv recording once too. Saw pretty convincing evidence of who was ACTUALLY playing on it, but damned if I can remember who it was now...

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