Johnny Thunders - Stations of the Cross

 

While there seems to be some misprints in the scant liner notes included with this CD, this actually seems to be a version of the Heartbreakers - Thunders, Lure, Nolan and someone named "Talarico" - live at the Mudd Club. The date says 1992 but says it was mixed in 1986, so I assume that it really was '82, which would make sense considering the line-up and song selection.

The sound is actually reasonably good for this - probably about the same as the Max's Kansas City album - and while Johnny - as usual - babbles a bit, insults the audience, tunes his guitar a lot, makes a few false starts and staggers around a bit, the band is pretty rockin' throughout.

Opening with their usual high octane take on "Wipeout", they run through a hep selection including "In Cold Blood", "Just Another Girl" (a bit of misogyny along with the truly (funnily) offensive "Who Needs Girls"), "Too Much Junkie Business", "Chinese Rocks", the truly politically incorrect "Just Because I'm White", "Little London Boys" and plenty of others, including more covers like "Do You Love Me?", "Seven Day Weekend", and "Stepping Stone".

Don't pick this up if you're easily offended (although you wouldn't be a Thunders fan if you were) or if you're a stickler for a tight rock'n'roll combo. This is certainly rock'n'roll, but it's about as far from tight as you can go without being the Shaggs! Pretty darn good, tho!