Johnny Thunders
The Best Of Johnny Thunders

Link to image of cover

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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. Tracks 15-19: This is acoustic material taken from the 'Hurt Me' CD.
  5. 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:

  1. Personality Crisis
  2. Looking For A Kiss
  3. Bad Girl
  4. Subway Train
  5. Hurt Me
  6. Can't Keep My Eyes On You
  7. Pirate Love
  8. Blank Generation
  9. Too Much Junkie Business
  10. In Cold Blood
  11. Just Another Girl
  12. Diary Of A Lover
  13. Do You Love Me
  14. Born To Lose
  15. You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory
  16. Sad Vacation
  17. Joey Joey
  18. Too Much Too Soon
  19. Eve Of Destruction
  20. Chinese Rocks

Musicians:

New York Dolls (tracks 1-4)

Heartbreakers (tracks 5-8)

In Cold Blood Sessions (tracks 9-14)

Hurt Me (tracks 15-19)

Johnny Thunders - The Best Of Johnny Thunders
Format Country Year Label Comments
CD Japan 1996 Teichiku Records TECW-23012  

Johnny Thunders Cyber Lounge: www.thunders.ca
Managed by Chris Ridpath: chris@thunders.ca
Modified: April 17, 2001