Johnny Thunders

Live In Osaka ’91 And Detroit ’80 SECRET

Schizophrenic package captures two very different JT shows.

Concurrent to touring with The Oddballs, Thunders would bolster his coffers with low-key strippeddown shows that showcased acoustic material from across his career (the Dolls’ Lonely

Planet Boy) and unlikely covers (Jagger and Richards’s As Tears Go By) alongside newer, less familiar songs. He’d unveiled his last substantial batch of compositions in the late 80s: songs so irredeemably sentimental (Society Makes Me Sad, Disappointed In You) that record company cheque books remained firmly closed to the former proto-punk swashbuckler until his death in ‘91.

This double vinyl set’s first disc captures one such show, recorded in Japan just 15 days prior to Thunders’ demise, with The Oddballs’ Jamie Heath on sax and Stevie Klasson on guitar. Obviously it’s an essential historical document for fans, but these chump-change gigs never found Thunders at his best, and with his health failing (he was suffering with leukemia) it’s not the greatest epitaph in and of itself. That’s where disc two comes in.

Here is Thunders in familiar mode: with Heartbreakers sparring partner Walter Lure at his side, LAMF sneer on his lips and over-cranked guitar set to ‘stun’. It’s Detroit, it’s 1980 and he’s still at the top of his game. Familiar to fans as the Thunderstorm In Detroit bootleg and featuring an all-gunsblazing assault on So Alone, it’s a performance that captures the Johnny Thunders of legend; untamed, unsentimental, wilfully obnoxious and on fire. Remember him this way. ■■■■■■■■■■