rtbuck
Senior Member
I’ll never forget my first listen to Johnny Thunders…
I discovered the NY Dolls after seeing David Johansen put on a spectacular performance opening for Pat Benatar. I bought all 3 David Johansen solo albums shortly after the show & although I loved the records the 2 songs I was looking for (Stranded in the Jungle & Personality Crisis) were not on the albums. Some time after that I realized Johansen was in the NY Dolls who I read about but had no desire to buy anything by them. Sure enough both songs were on their 2 albums & those 2 records really blew me away. I always thought Johnny Thunders looked cool as hell on the ‘Too Much Too Soon’ album cover & I loved his song “Chatterbox”. One day I was at my favorite import record store ‘Home of the Hits’ & noticed they had a section of Johnny Thunders records (I never even knew he released any!). I had to get one because I knew it was going to be great. They had about 5 different albums & a bunch of EP’s. One album that stood out was a double record at a good price titled ‘In Cold Blood’. One record was an EP & the other was a live album & looking at the song titles (“Gloria”, “Louie Louie”, “Green Onions”, “Do You Love Me” & a bunch of originals such as “Too Much Junkie Business” (which the title immediately made me think of Chuck Berry’s “Too much Monkey Business”. There was no doubt in my mind…I picked the right album!! I raced home put on the live record and…”What the F@#K did I just buy??!?!!!?”. It sounded horrible & I thought it was so bad I was embarrassed listening to it. He sounded wasted out of his mind, his singing was really whiney, & the guitars sounded out of tune but…there was something about it that kind of peaked my interest a little…
Johnny Genzale grew up with aspirations of being a professional baseball player & from what I read he could have had a shot at it but one thing stood in his way he refused to cut his hair so he was thrown off the team. He took up bass guitar & changed his name to Johnny Volume & after playing with a few bands including the Reign (who released one single) he formed a band called Actress with Arthur Kane, Rick Rivets, & Billy Murcia. Johnny switched to guitar & they recorded some demos. Later, they recruited David Johansen as their lead singer & eventually, they released Rivets, added Sylvain Sylvain, & changed their name to the NY Dolls which was named after a doll repair shop. Johnny had changed his last name to Thunders & the band gained success & notoriety in New York. Soon they received a record contract with Mercury & things were looking up. They received a huge gig opening for the faces but from what I read things didn’t go well. Afterward, Billy Murcia OD’d & the Dolls picked up drummer Jerry Nolan. The Dolls released 2 albums on Mercury records before their downward spiral of egos & substance abuse destroyed the band
I decided to go back to Home of the Hits & try another Thunders album. This time I picked up ‘Johnny Thunders & the Heartbreakers Live at Max’s Kansas City’ & I thought it rocked. There was no turning back & within a month I had everything Johnny released.
After the NY Dolls split Johnny Thunders & Jerry Nolan went back to NY & formed the Heartbreakers with Richard Hell (who had just left the popular NYC band Television) & ex demons guitarist Walter Lure. The Heartbreakers were looked upon as an underground super group & were quite popular on the NYC club scene playing CBGB’s & Max’s KC. Their publicity photo showed the band with blood stained shirts with a caption that read “Catch ‘em while they’re still alive!” Richard Hell wanted complete control over the band & Thunders said that he would never take a backseat to anyone again. Hell tried talking the other members into dropping Johnny but they all decided to dump Hell instead. The Heartbreakers recruited bassist Billy Rath & inked a deal with Track Records. Things were going great for the Heartbreakers but their substance abuse habits began hurting their reputation. The Heartbreakers had a sound that was raw & full of energy much like the Ramones but the only difference was that the Heartbreakers songs also featured revved up lead guitar solos. They recorded their debut album ‘L.A.M.F.’ & it was released in 1977 but the sound was ruined because the members kept going back into the studio secretly & remixing it. This along with the substance abuse caused the band to split although they seemed to regroup throughout the years when they needed to get some quick cash.