Thunders is often associated with the saying "snatching defeat from the jaws of victory" and this album is a very good example of that. Perhaps, the only really well produced Thunders' album is the Steve Lillywhite produced 1978 solo follow up album "So Alone". By then though the Heartbreakers were back in the USA and Thunders used a cavalcade of musicians from the UK rock scene and underground to back him on that album.
After "So Alone" Thunders returned to the States to form the ill-fated Gang War with Wayne Kramer. Then it was all downhill from there.
...I do wonder if those production credits give away the truth here... Speedy Keen producer with Danny Secunda... but later "Special Thanks to Danny Secunda" ...did Speedy make amess of it, and Secunda get called into bail him out?
(The deadwax message by Porky might allude to it too.... "Speedy's Hic de fic"? - Speedy's F£*k up ?)
ReviewNotoriously bad pressing... but not quite the whole story.
I found a copy of this the other day (along with a US copy of Violent Femmes first album - sweet! :) in a charity shop...
...While not really a great punk fan, as a lot of it seems fairly same-y, tuneless, artless fluff.
...Anyway, my personal gripes aside, I recognised the band's name, as being something of a big wheel in this area, along with the immediately recognisable "Johnny Thunders" name on the back, which together caused a little bell to go off inside my head - or maybe my crate digger's "spidey sense" got to a-tingling... so I grabbed it then and there, for two whole English pounds - sleeve a little worn around the edges, ring wear, and some small wear on the print on the cover, but the record inside, well that was stone cold mint!
And so, the story of the audio on the disc begins...
...Having got it home, I began to look into the background of this album online (as you do), and saw time and again that the most notable aspect of this first issue, and the reputation that comes with it, is how bad a pressing it is... that the music / audio is said to be very "muddy" sounding, and pretty lousy in general.
So I made a priority of getting it on the turntable, to see if it was so.
My disc, being mint, would reveal immediately if this was simply people just having a bad copy, or if the actual pressing of all copies was as bad as they say...
...And it is.... kind of...
Because the first thing I noticed is how quiet the audio is on the disc... from the outset, I had to turn up the volume to hear it at normal levels... The opposite of what you'd be aiming for in this kind of music, I'd have thought!
...This, in turn brought something else to the fore - the bass and drums at this volume begin to "womp - womp" along in an unsettling, and unpleasant way that starts to overwhelm the other instruments and vocals- both lead, and backing, which are very thin, even weak, and which, along with the guitars, get squashed almost to nothing the louder you try to go.
Of course, the easy thing to do is simply turn up the volume, and turn down the bass, on you kit, but this does nothing for the experience really, as now it sounds quite pasty and washed out.
So is this an unfathomably rare mis-step form the legendary Mr. Porky, pressing impresario extraordinaire... who just fouled up putting this music on the disc?
I'd say not, as these simple shortcomings are not entirely consistent across the album.
This, as they say, is where the plot thickens...
...As if it was down to Porky, logically, it should be consistently bad all the way through, but it isn't:
The whole of side 1 is the same in this sense, but it immediately strikes you, from the off, how much better side 2 is, well, at least the first four songs, sounding broader, louder, and crisper, and with the lead vocal being bolder... "Goin' Steady" drops back to the standard of the first side, before picking up again for the last track.
Now the other feature of this sound, is how "Demo-ish" this whole thing sounds, like the group all got together in a single small room and just jammed while someone recorded from one single fixed point: Drum and bass closest the mic(s), then further away, the guitar, then somehow, all the singing done at the far end of the room... but on the side 2 tracks, that improve the sound, it sounds like they are more professionally arranged and recorded, and with a different mic for the vocal (Has that almost through-a-megaphone quality to it).
So in a nutshell, it sounds generally a bit fusty, thin, and weak, under too strong bass and drums, but crucially it sounds like two separate recording sessions, both set up differently and with great differences in competence, that have later had their track orders rearranged for side 2 - so a track from a side1 session finds it's way on to side 2, jammed between the other side 2 sessions, and suffering by contrast, as a result. So you cannot really blame your man Porky here, he could only work with what he'd been given - a crap recording!
The saving grace of this, is in fact the type of music it is... it being Punk, the Done-It-Ourselves (Badly) quality can be thought of as quite in keeping with the idea and attitude they wanted to convey, and this would be simply horrendous if this was any other kind of music....That, and that this is fairly short album (32 mins or so) means the headache you would otherwise have had doesn't quite take hold.
Perhaps this pressing / issue is better thought of as an important punk era artefact, and bought - when bought - as that... But if it's the music you are after, best look to the later issues that sought to remedy these problems.
Albert, you're right this should NOT be listed as Heartbreakers [UK] but Heartbreakers (on the cover) or The Heartbreakers (on the LP) as both are used on the packaging. They did of course as nearly everyone knows come from New York City (USA). I'm not sure though whether we should link this to LAMF Revisited (1980's remix or the album you mention in you're comment) as the track order is slightly different and technically one of them has a different name. What do other people think about linking LAMF to LAMF Revisited? I'll send a correction on the name of the band though.
Band listed as Heartbreakers [UK], surely a mistake.
I have the remixed version of the LP from about 10 years ago, the notes state that the original LP has an appalling mix, but I don't own an original copy to verify that.
Deadwax A: (stamped facing inwards) 2409218 A // 2 M 1 1 2 (etched facing outwards) A PORKY PRIME CUT SPEEDY'S HIC DE FIC
B: (stamped facing inwards) 2409218 B // 2 M 1 1 2 (etched facing outwards) A PORKY PRIME CUT S K GENIUS