DISQUS

DISQUS Hello! newcritics is using DISQUS, a powerful comment system, to manage its comments. Learn more.

Community Page

newcritics

the best in web criticism
Jump to original thread »
Author

Not the Great American Rock and Roll Band

Started by tomwatson · 11 months ago

Ladies and gentlemen, Johnny Thunders & the Heartbreakers. Just because it’s great, because it’s Wednesday, because Johnny’s still dead, because Max’s is a faint memory, and because there’s a lightning storm sweeping ac ... Continue reading »

4 comments

  • Tom K.

    1 year ago

    "And it’s not the Grateful Dead."

    Amen.

    Thanks for the jolt of energy on a muggy (though now sunny) day.
    reply
  • Roger Hannagan

    1 year ago

    This is the second time we have something in common. I agree w/you warts and all. I last saw 'john' in a no name nite club in hoboken with some gal he released something with. He whined the whole show yet I still felt lucky to see him in person before his fall. Sometimes I think this country grinds up originals like him.
    reply
  • Tony Alva

    1 year ago

    Again, you could not be more right. Thunders over the Dead any day.
    reply
  • OutOfContext

    1 year ago

    Hard to believe, but I first heard this version of Chinese Rocks last month on the "No Thanks" Rhino 70's punk collection my wife brought home. From the liner notes:
    The history of "Chinese Rocks" reads like the travels of a dirty syringe. When Dee Dee Ramone couldn't get the Ramones to record his starkly truthful song about addiction, he brought it to his drug buddy Hell who added a couple of lines and put it in The Heartbreakers' repertoire. Hell was no longer a Heartbreaker by the time the band released "Chinese Rocks" as the A-side of its English-only 1977 debut single...A couple of years later, Sid Vicious recorded "Chinese Rocks" on Sid Sings, a live album that employed Nolan's post-Heartbreakers band, the Idols...And, tying it all in a neat bow, former Voidoids drummer Marc Bell was in the Ramones when they belatedly recorded (the suddenly singular) "Chinese Rock" on 1980's End Of The Century.
    reply
Please login to comment.
Returning? Login