Tuesday March 19th 2024

Too Much Junkie Business – Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers

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Too Much Junkie Business – Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers

 

This song starts out with some pretty, snazzy guitar licks, provided by Walter “Waldo” Lure, that glide downwards after each phrase like the lips of Elvis Presley when he did his sneer, which perhaps Sid Vicious copied when he also did this.

(Editor’s note: “Snazzy” is not an adjective in current use anymore. Please substitute another word more suitable in current street vernacular).

This is a great song by a great band from a great era, written by a great songwriter, from that era- Johnny Thunders.

But why this particular song is chosen today is because Walter Lure, or “Waldo”, passed away a couple of weeks ago from natural causes- cancer, at the age of seventy-one.

And him being the last Heartbreaker to leave this mortal coil- kudos to him for being able to do so, and kudos to him for being such an integral part of such a great punk’n’roll band.

Johnny and the drummer, Jerry Nolan, both originally from the New York Dolls, died in the early nineties.

Billy Rath, the bass player, lasted until 2014. I remember Andy and I, sitting next to him at the Rosebud in Somerville, Mass- maybe eight years ago. While Billy’s band, Billy & The Street Pirates played a great show.

I feel Dee Dee Ramone and Johnny Thunders were the best songwriters of the early punk era. And I consider Chuck Berry the best songwriter of the great, fifties rock’n’roll era, too.

One of Chuck’s many great tunes is “Too Much Monkey Business.” Thunders took inspiration from that title and, I guess, what was flowing through his veins at the time, and wrote this great song. Maybe, not as great as the original but pretty damn close.

From the Chuck Berry tune: “Blonde haired, good looking, trying to get me hooked. Wants me to marry, get a home, settle down, write a book… Same thing every day, getting up going to school. No need for complaining, my objection’s overruled.”

From the Heartbreakers tune: “Well, you run down to the corner to see what you can cop. You buy some for your sister, you take yours off the top. Running to the bathroom, fixing up a shot. Tie it up, shoot it up, bang it up, throw it up!”

Quite a difference from Berry’s great, but high school, innocently portrayed lyrics and Thunders inner city horror show.

Walter or Waldo, besides playing the sick opening guitar licks, also sang this song. And he escaped early death, by somehow, landing a job as a stockbroker on Wall Street through connections. And no, not the drug kind! Though
he still had his addictions while first working there, after getting busted during a lunch break, he was finally able to get straight and overcome them.

I like Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, but for me this band in my mind, in my heart, will always be the real, true Heartbreakers.

“You’re the coolest thing in town with your face flat on the ground. Friends emptied your pockets as the coffin went down.”

There’s been too much junkie business in the punk world and life, as well. I’ve always felt that doing heroin was like committing suicide without the commitment. And I’ve always said that drugs are like magic- they make your friends disappear.

The Heartbreakers are all gone now, but Goddamn! We still have members of The Beatles, The Stones, Led Zeppelin and The Who- but The Ramones and now, The Heartbreakers are all gone.

Drugs mask the problems the users have, they are not folks who really want to party, just “have a good time.” They are folks who have holes in their soul, tares in their hearts and try to use substances as a sort of band-aid to make it better.

They turn towards art to express it and create great work, but it doesn’t solve the pain they feel inside, that they can’t resolve.

And the punk generation- lyrically and lifestyle wise, was a reaction against the hypocrisy and falseness of life. It’s unfortunate, I feel, that we also turned towards drugs and nihilism with an equally, false promise. I admit I did.

But the realness of city life, East Coast city life is never truer, more real and ultimately, more poetic and realistically expressed than what the early New York and Boston bands produced at that time.

And this is supposed to be a tribute to Waldo and not just this song. Let me say that Waldo seemed to be a stabilizing factor in a band that needed every bit of stability. And though not the “star” of the band, he was- Oh, yeah, I used a fancy word earlier, it was integral.

Let me just say, instead, that you were important. That you are appreciated. That you and your band ruled!

And also, that- you were fucking great!

 

Too Much Junkie Business – Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers
Too Much Junkie Business

 

(Slimedog)

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