NO SKIN IN THIS GAAME

How many of you are suffering from Johnny Thunders fatigue? I know I am, but this shit just keeps popping up. This is really just a heads up. Probe is Turning-On the People just posted four different versions of "Chinese Rocks", three with different writing credits. As per usual, he doesn't offer much comment. That's great, I often wish I could keep my mouth shut. Anyway, here's the four versions and what I know of them.



The first version is the earliest, when Richard Hell was in the band. He does the singing. It's either a demo or a practice tape. Being the earliest version, from 1975, this gives it provenance. The writing credits Colvin and Hell. Colvin is Dee Dee Ramone.  Then the Heartbreakers (Mark II) recorded it with Hell gone and Thunders and Walter Lure singing, what most people recognize as the version. Recorded in 1977, this time credited to Dee Dee Ramone, Thunders, [Heartbreaker Jerry] Nolan and Meyers [Hell]. There's actually at least a couple versions of this one with different mixes. There is another version from 1979, a live version from the Live at Max's Kansas City LP, with the same credits. The third version that the Probe posted is the Ramones' version, this one credits the Ramones as writers, The last version that the Probe posted is a live one from CBGBs in 1975 with Thunders and Hell singing. No writing credits on this one, but it you just can't get enough of this "Chinese Rocks" intrigue, I ran into a post on a blog that goes into real detail about the song, lyric changes, claims of ownership, the whole shooting match. Dude has more time than I do.

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Listen:
The Heartbreakers - Chinese Rocks mp3 at Killed By Death 1977

The Heartbreakers - Chinese Rocks (Live) (streaming) at YouTube 1979
The Heartbreakers - Chinese Rocks - Four versions at Probe Is Turning-On the People Note: As of today it is the post at the top of the page, labeled Session 644, If time has passed since this was posted, you may have to scroll down.

Visit:
Who Wrote "Chinese Rocks"? at Christopher Othen

LOCK DOWN THEATER NIGHT 47

I know there was a Johnny Thunders doc posted not too long ago so I had second thoughts about posting this one. The thing is, I was sucked in. It's a mix of interviews and old footage.and is far more engrossing. So I'm cutting out to finish watching it.

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Tonight's feature:
Looking For Johnny Thunders at Internet Archive
Listen:
The Heartbreakers - Chinese Rocks mp3 at Killed By Death
The Heartbreakers - One Track Mind mp3 at ATumblr
The Heartbreakers - Baby Talk mp3 at The Adios Lounge
The Heartbreakers - Get Off the Phone mp3 at ATumblr
The Heartbreakers - Let Go mp3 at ATumblr

T-SHIRT, CHECK. TATS, CHECK. BEER GUT, CHECK.

I listened to the Heartbreakers "Pirate Love" a few days ago and the damn thing has been running through my head ever since, the opening line "You gotta walk that walk..." in particular. It's a song I've heard a thousand times, and I like it and all that, yet it's still been on repeat in my head. Fuck it, maybe by posting it it'll make room for something else.

The good news is that when I went to the site that posted it, among the songs it was posted with was one by Priors, who I'd never heard of. When I heard them I couldn't peg when the song may have been recorded, the post featuring other songs by Heartbreakers class mates (Ramones, Lou Reed and the Modern Lovers) and more recent grads (Ty Segall, Beck). So, with nothing to go on, I went looking. It turns out they're from Montreal, not exactly a hotbed of punk rock, and they're recent. Okay, a band to watch. Here we go...

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Listen:
The Heartbreakers - Pirate Love mp3 at Still In Rock
Priors - Big Love mp3 at Still In Rock 
Video:
Priors - Story Blind at YouTube

THE HALF ASSED CLASSIC

Forty years after the a band's peak, you should start to get a feel of what their legacy will shake out to be. Some of them anyway. Some are murky. The Hearbreakers are one of those murky bands. Hard to imagine what these would sound like for the first time if you knew nothing of the band. Me? Love 'em. Stupid rock 'n' roll, who cares sloppy, in an attitude cul-de-sac.

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Listen:
The Heartbreakers - Chinese Rocks mp3 at Killed By Death
The Heartbreakers - One Track Mind mp3 at ATumblr
The Heartbreakers - Baby Talk mp3 at The Adios Lounge
The Heartbreakers - Get Off the Phone mp3 at ATumblr
The Heartbreakers - Let Go mp3 at ATumblr

HOWDY OLD FRIEND

Everybody has those records that they can't objectively evaluate because they have personal associations entwined with the music. That happens to me all the time. Is it good? What would it be like to hear it now, for the first time? Shit, I can't answer that. This wasn't old music when I heard it. And all that crap you listen to was years in the future. Where were we? The Heartbreakers' debut LP,  L.A.M.F., has been a friend for many years. There are many good associations with that one, long lasting friendships and reoccurring interactions. Chicken Soup Rock.

So, I can't be objective. I dig the originally released version. The one I ran across tonight was the "Lost '77 mixes". I can tell the difference a little, but I don't care. It's just good to hear them again. It's not just music on this one. It's like a club.

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Listen:
The Heartbreakers - Born To Lose mp3 at Internet Archive
The Heartbreakers - Do You Love Me mp3 at Internet Archive
The LP:
The Heartbreakers - L.A.M.F. The Lost '77 Mixes at Internet Archive Note: In the right column, under "Download options" click on "VBR MP3 Files".

THE GUY IN BACK HAS THE SCISSORS

Here's a nice one-two, if you're you're at all into Johnny Thunders, the Heartbreakers, or Richard Hell. It's the original Heartbreakers line up, when Richard Hell was still in the band. The clip linked below is the only one I remember seeing of them from that early on, around '75-'76. Johnny Thunders still had his Dolls rats nest thing going on  There's also a link to some early demos of the Heartbreakers with Hell, including songs that ended up on Hell's debut album. If you're familiar with all of these guys, you'll want to hassle with the download; if nothing more than to hear "Love Comes In Spurts" and "Blank Generation" with Thunders playing guitar. Juxtapose that with the versions by Hell and the Voidoids' versions, with Robert Quine on guitar. You be the judge. Or don't. It's kind of apples and oranges.

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Video:

The Heartbreakers - Going Steady, Chinese Rocks and Pirate Love at YouTube Hell on vocals on "Chinese Rocks"

The demos:

The Heartbreakers - Yonkers Demos (via ADrive) at Teenage Dogs In Trouble 14 mp3s in a rar file. Relatively

Listen-

The Heartbreakers - Chinese Rocks mp3 at Killed By Death Go there to get it. Post-Hell.

The Heartbreakers - Born to Lose mp3 at Killed By Death Dittos.

Richard Hell and the Voidoids - Love Comes In Spurts mp3 at Richard Hell

Richard Hell and the Voidoids - Blank Generation mp3 at Plain or Pan Original 45 version on Ork

THREE GUYS WALK OUT OF A BAR

It's the end of an era. The Heartbreakers are now officially dead. After Billy Rath's recent passing, three out of the four members are physically dead, and Walter Lure, if Wikipedia is to be believed, is a stockbroker on Wall Street. I suppose that could be bullshit, but suppose it's true. Yeah. Extrapolate: What if he later repented, and burned his tie? He would still be an ex-stockbroker. And even though he still plays music with his band the Waldos, any band with a stockbroker among its ranks might as well be a Dave Matthews cover band. I've got nothing against Lure, or stockbrokers per se, I'm just stating facts. Let's just get this Occam's razor shit out of the way. Stock brokers are not rock 'n' roll. Ex-stockbrokers are not rock 'n' roll. The Hearbreakers are rock 'n' roll.

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Listen:
The Heartbreakers - Born to Lose mp3 at Synthesis Radio (?)
The Heartbreakers - Chinese Rocks mp3 at Killed By Death
More Heartbreakers stuff among the older posts Scroll down

CHEER UP SAD SACK

I'm not one for birthday posts, but a friend of mine linked to a nice video of Johnny Thunders (born July 15, 1952), and it was hard not to be a little moved. It's a video of him with three kids and I'm not sure what the story is behind it. It looks like they were going to use clips for a future music video. It was nice to see him clowning around with young bullshit detectors. One of his last recorded songs, "Kids Are People" plays intermittently in the background and at one point the kids are singing along. The song was recorded for what was to be his next album (See Sticks and Stones, linked below).

Here's just a few other songs, the last of which, a rerecorded version of "Born To Lose", was recorded with the German band Die Toten Hosen just 36 hours before he passed away. A whole lot of other Thunders related stuff has been posted here before, scroll down these posts. A lot of the links are still good.

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Listen:

The Heartbreakers - Born To Lose mp3 at Town Full of Losers
The Hearbreakers - Chinese Rocks mp3 at Event Magic
The Heartbreakers - Can't Keep My Eyes On You mp3 at Raven Sings the Blues
Johnny Thunders with Die Toten Hosen - Born To Lose (streaming) at YouTube His last recording
LP Download: Johnny Thunders - Sticks and Stones (via ADrive) at Teenage Dogs In Trouble (1990) 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.
Video:
Johnny Thunders - Pirate Love, German TV 1985 at YouTube
Visit:
Earlier Johnny Thunders posts
Johnny Thunders at Wikipedia

CAN YOU SHIMMY?

You can tell a lot about a band by the covers they choose. Not only is it a clue to what they're trying to convey with their own music, and who they want to tip their hat to, it's also a keen look into how serious they are about what they listen to, and how deep their tastes run. And you can tell a whole lot more about a band by how well they integrate their own identity into someone else's song, something the New York Dolls were particularly good at. (By New York Dolls, or "Dolls," I mean the original Dolls, because without Johnny Thunders they are not the Dolls, not in these parts.)

The Dolls do Bo Diddley (plus "Trash")

I thought I'd try to track down the songs they covered, as there were only five on their two original releases, and I was able to find them, albeit one is on MediaFire, and one is streaming only at YouTube. While looking for mp3s of those two, I ran into a mix that had 14, which includes songs they played live. It's a nice varied mix, from doo wop, to blues, to Philly-type soul and girl group stuff. They're all over the board, some semi-obscure, and if you know the Dolls' versions, you know that they make them all sound like Dolls songs.

While I was typing the above stuff, a live band started playing, right around the corner, in the yard that is directly behind my apartment. I went over there to check it out because they were good, kind of a Black Keys pace, without the distorted guitar, and they had at least one horn. Kind of a big ensemble for this neck of the woods. The band was Supertasty, literally that's their name. The party people were nice, and invited me over to their side of the fence, but I didn't feel like being the "who's that guy?" guy. God damn, I miss beer. Now I'm fully distracted.

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Listen:
The Cadets - Stranded In the Jungle mp3 at Ace Terrier
Bo Diddley - Pills mp3 at Carnival Saloon
Sonny Boy Williamson - Don't Start Me Talkin' mp3 at MMSD Amps
Archie Bell & the Drells - (There's Gonna Be a) Showdown mp3 at 4Shared Note: Click on blue "Download Now" button, then wait about 15 seconds.
The Coasters - Bad Detective (streaming) at YouTube
The mix:
Songs the New York Dolls Taught Us - 14 songs in one file at Dr Faustroll Scroll down to comments for MediaFire download link
Related posts:
New York Dolls - Tons of stuff. It's an older post, but out of nineteen, there's bound to be a few links that are still good.
Johnny Thunders in the Heartbreakers Ditto.

THE FRATERNAL ORDER OF MESSY HAIR

Of the whole mid-70's New York music scene there's probably no more intriguing pairing than that of Richard Hell and Johnny Thunders in the original Heartbreakers. Though no official recordings of the band with both of them exist (that I'm aware of anyway) there is a bootleg of a demo that they did in 1975. While the Thunders penned songs (with him singing) sound like a low-fi version of the later Hell-less Heartbreakers, there's a few cuts that Hell sings that are worth hearing, particularly if you are a Richard Hell fiend. As with most rock n' roll, it's all about the geetar. On Hell's major label debut, Blank Generation, the guitar duties are handled by Robert Quine, an excellent guitarist, but in a completely different universe than Thunders. Quine was a serious musician and attended the Berklee College of Music. Thunders was schooled on smack and rock n' roll. A textbook case of apples & oranges. To hear Hell singing "Blank Generation" and "Love Comes in Spurts". with Thunders playing is as close to a "what could have been" revelation as there is, at least in the realm of the embryonic NY punk scene.

Program Notes:
For those not skilled with zips and full LP mp3's, I started the NY gluttony below with a few mp3s from the later Heartbreakers (without Richard Hell) and a few of Richard Hell and the Voidoids (including the later versions of "Blank Generation" and "Love Comes in Spurts" with Quine). Then comes the more challenging special interest stuff. The Heartbreakers demo is a full LP rip, and may take a little more know-how to download than a single mp3, but if I can figure it out, you can. (Dig around, it's pretty intuitive.) Same goes for the rest of them. Next up is an albums worth of the later live Heartbreakers (without Hell) from 76-77. Following that, a five song 1973 Neon Boys EP, that has Hell and a pre-Television Tom Verlaine. The Television "Poor Circulation" LP is live stuff, demos and rehearsal tapes from 73-75, again with Hell and Verlaine, this time with Richard Lloyd. If, by now, you're able to figure out how these things are to download, there's a shitload of Hell and Television downloads of rare live stuff at Know Your Conjurer's Richard Hell & Television Mega-Post.

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Mp3s:
The Heartbreakers - Born To Lose mp3 at Town Full of Losers
The Hearbreakers - Chinese Rocks mp3 at Event Magic
The Heartbreakers - I Wanna Be Loved mp3 at Tsiou
The Heartbreakers - It's Not Enough mp3 at Naturalismo
The Heartbreakers - Do You Love Me (demo) mp3 at Voiciferouslam
Richard Hell & the Voidoids - Liars Beware mp3 at Linmod
Richard Hell & the Voidoids - Blank Generation mp3 at BlahBlahBlahScience
Richard Hell & the Voidoids - Love Comes in Spurts mp3 at Quarlo
LP Rips:
The Heartbreakers (with Richard Hell) 1975 SBS Studio demos, 10 song rip at (Son of) Exile On Moan St. (Click on the blue "Download Now" button)
The Heartbreakers (without Hell) Lost Live Tapes (76-77) LP at Teenage Dogs In Trouble
Neon Boys (Richard Hell & Tom Verlaine) - 5 Song EP (1973) zip at Know Your Conjurer
Television (with Hell & Verlaine) - Poor Circulation bootleg rip at T.U.B.E.
Richard Hell & Television Mega-Post at Know Your Conjurer

REST IN PEACE EVIE

There is no easy way to say it. Evie Bibo, one of San Diego's original punk rockers, has passed away. She died of a brain aneurysm, by all accounts suddenly. She was a rare individual who dearly loved rock n' roll (and classic films), yet made it all seem like curtains around the real show, friendship. She was a sweetheart, all substance, no bullshit. Never saw her angry. Ever.

We go way back. She was, at different times, a fellow fan, a roommate, and the object of a crush. But most of all, she was a friend. With all the shared tastes and in-jokes that real friendship implies. I'd lost touch with her, and had just recently reconnected via Facebook. It was enough for me to know that she seemed healthy and happy. Though sad as that sounds, I know that she felt the same way. I knew our paths would cross again at some point.

She was ultra cool. And I mean that as a fan of a friend. It is a rare thing, to be cool without swagger, but she was. If she dug something, you checked it out, because she was always dead on. I think of her everytime I see a listing for "It's a Wonderful Life," and I think of her everytime I hear Johnny Thunders. During my crush phase, I made her a little stuffed doll of a "Too Much, Too Soon" era-Johnny Thunders. During the roommate phase, she turned me on to the Heartbreakers. So I had to post these songs, not of any lyrical relevance, but because they were something we shared. They're cool. But even Thunders couldn't do it without swagger. Evie could.

Goodby sweet Evie. "Stoned yet?"

Johnny Thunders - You Can't Put Your Arms Around a Memory mp3
The Heartbreakers - Born to Lose mp3
The Heartbreakers - All By Myself mp3
The Heartbreakers - Chinese Rocks mp3
Above photo: Evie, San Francisco, mid-80's by Jacqueline Ramirez