NECROPHELIA'S NOT DEAD

Posthumous releases can be kind of creepy, eh? It's one thing if the artist has a complete record already in the can, or maybe one that just needs some spit shining, but most of the time it seems like there's someone involved who's just cashing in. At any rate, they seldom contain material that the artist wanted released in the existing form, so what's the point of checking them out?

In the case of this one, a Johnny Thunders boot, Sticks and Stones, it gives a little insight as to what might have come had he not died before "The Lost Album", as it's subtitled, was released. The bootleg includes some post Dolls live stuff, recorded with David Johansen and Syl Sylvain, but it's the first eight cuts that caught my attention. They're studio demos for songs that he was working on when he died, and it's pretty clear that the rock 'n' roll party, if not ending, was at least being reaccessed.  A song called "Help the Homeless" that's actually about helping the homeless?  Another song called "Children Are People" starts with the line "There's no such thing as a bad kid.". And "Disappointed", recorded just a year before his death, begins with "I'm so lucky to be alive, I have so many friends who lost their lives." Yikes. The recording is pretty good, and the songs, though not fleshed out, sound like standard fare acoustic Thunders with a touch of Sticky Fingers/Exile era acoustic Stones, mixed with the first Mink DeVille LP (Willy DeVille was his next door neighbor when he died), with just a touch of early Tom Waits gravel. You know exactly what that sounds like.

It's a bit of a pain in the ass to download. The songs are in FLAC format, which have to be converted to mp3s to be played on some players, but if I can figure it out, you should be able to do it. (Converters are available online Here's one.) If you don't have the patience, there's a few Heartbreakers songs and a link to a site with all sorts of Thunders, Heartbreakers and New York Dolls live shows. 

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~ 

Listen:

The Heartbreakers - Born To Lose mp3 at Town Full of Losers
The Hearbreakers - Chinese Rocks mp3 at Event Magic
The Heartbreakers - All By Myself mp3 at The Vague 
LP Download:
Johnny Thunders - Sticks and Stones (via ADrive) at Teenage Dogs In Trouble NOTE: It's a rar file that contains FLAC files that will have to be converted to mp3s. Here's a converter that can be downloaded.
Live shows:
Proud to Be a Pirate Several Thunders, Heartbreakers, and NY Dolls live shows. NOTE: Download links in the comments of each post.