Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers - Down To Kill (2005) [2CD+DVD Set]

The set features one disc of studio recordings including newly found 1976 sessions and a track with The Ramones; another disc of a classic 1977 gig now remixed and complete; and a DVD of 50 minutes of unseen footage from various venues. All in first-rate quality – a veritable feast for Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers fans!

Disc 1 leads with a newly discovered demo session recorded in Staten Island NY in 1976 – before they came to London for the Sex Pistols' ‘Anarchy Tour’ – and freshly mixed in 2005. You can hear the early workouts of tracks mostly later heard on the ‘L.A.M.F.’ album and the only studio version of ‘Take A Chance On Me’.
Then there's another unheard song ‘Flight’ from the 1975 demo session with Richard Hell on bass. Walter Lure played many sessions with The Ramones; here he takes lead vocals with the Ramones on ‘Street Fighting Man’, on a day when Joey didn't turn up. The CD is completed with four tracks from two other studio sessions in 1977 & 1978.

Disc 2 has the legendary London Speakeasy tapes from 1977 with Johnny abusing the audience, remixed in 2005. They're now in unexpurgated glory and clarity with all 15 tracks together for the first time.

Disc 3 This DVD has 50 minutes of unseen film footage. Five tracks are live at the Lyceum which didn't fit on the ‘Dead Or Alive’ video, four acoustic tracks are live in Greenhouse Studio, and six tracks live at The Marquee in August 1984, all with back-stage scenes from the venues.
The DVD also has four separate ‘extras’ sections: - the Lyceum soundcheck; a glimpse of Johnny's TV and tabloid troubles in Sweden; a clip from a French film; and a video-clip for ‘Get Off The Phone’.

There are few rock artists of any genuine significance whose catalogs are more of a mess than Johnny Thunders, and we pretty much have the artist himself to blame for that. While Thunders helped create two stone classic albums with the New York Dolls, once he struck out on his own, his seemed more interested in going for the fast buck than building a career (doubtless a product of his decades-long junk habit), and when you get past the Heartbreakers' L.A.M.F. and Thunders' So Alone, most of the recordings with his name attached to them are ragged throwaways or semi-bootleg live discs without much to recommend them. While Down to Kill is hardly the great missing testament to Thunders' gifts, at least it collects some worthwhile material with a genuine degree of care, and that makes it worthy of attention. Disc one pulls together some rare demo material, starting out with eight cuts recorded in 1976 that would later make up the bulk of L.A.M.F. (and the bulk of the Heartbreakers' standard repertoire), and if these aren't the definitive versions of "Born to Lose", "Can't Keep My Eyes on You", or "I Wanna Be Loved" (the latter without vocals), these rough but efficient recordings get to the heart of these songs better than the sloppily produced takes on L.A.M.F., and without the affected slop marring most of the many substandard live takes that circulate of this material. The rest of the studio stuff (including three Walter Lure-fronted numbers that don't feature Thunders at all) is OK but not great, though it's worth noting that "Too Much Junkie Business" fares better without lead addict Thunders than with his contribution. Disc two features 15 songs from the two sets the Heartbreakers recorded in London on March 1977 for the album D.T.K. Live at the Speakeasy, newly remixed for this release and sounding cleaner and more detailed than before. The band is fine when it settles into a good and dirty groove, but while Thunders frequently berates the audience for not being enthusiastic enough in the first set, given how sloppy the band sounds much of the time, it's hard to blame the kids for not being knocked out. Still, this is one of the best sounding Heartbreakers live recordings extant, and by the standards of this band, they're documented in tough, rough 'n' ready form. The set also includes a bonus DVD including video footage from two 1984 London gigs, four studio-shot solo acoustic performances, a clip of Thunders cursing his audience on Swedish television, and excerpts from Johnny's performance in the French film Mona et Moi. If you're not already a Johnny Thunders fan, this set isn't likely to convert you, but considering how many shoddy and depressing Thunders packages there are on the market, it's high praise to say that this is not one of them.

~ Mark Deming, all media guide

Tracklist:

Disc 1 - Raw & Rare (Unreleased Studio Recordings):
01. Born To Lose [Early Demo '1976]
02. Can't Keep My Eyes On You [Early Demo '1976]
03. Do You Love Me [Early Demo '1976]
04. It's Not Enough [Early Demo '1976]
05. Take A Chance [Early Demo '1976]
06. I Love You [Early Demo '1976]
07. Get Off The Phone (Instrumental) [Early Demo '1976]
08. I Wanna Be Loved (Instrumental) [Early Demo '1976]
09. Flight [Early Demo '1975 with Richard Hell on bass]
10. Street Fighting Man [Walter Lure & The Ramones '1985]
11. Too Much Junkie Business [Heroes '1978]
12. Seven Day Weekend [Heroes '1978]
13. London Boys [Riverside Demo '1977]
14. Too Much Junkie Business [Riverside Demo '1977]



Disc 2 - Complete Speakeasy (Two amazing live sets from March 15, 1977 - Speakeasy Club in London):
01. Chinese Rocks (Set 1)
02. Get Off The Phone (Set 1)
03. All By Myself (Set 1)
04. Let Go (Set 1)
05. Can't Keep My Eyes On You (Set 1)
06. I Love You (Set 1)
07. Born To Lose (Set 1)
08. I Wanna Be Loved (Set 1)
09. Do You Love Me (Set 2)
10. Chinese Rocks (Set 2)
11. Get Off The Phone (Set 2)
12. All By Myself (Set 2)
13. Going Steady (Set 2)
14. I Love You (Set 2)
15. I Wanna Be Loved (Set 2)



Disc 3 - DVD: Arrested Alive:
01. All By Myself [Lyceum 25th March 1984]
02. Let Go [Lyceum 25th March 1984]
03. I Wanna Be Loved [Lyceum 25th March 1984]
04. Copy Cat [Lyceum 25th March 1984]
05. Can't Keep My Eyes On You [Lyceum 25th March 1984]
06. Hurt Me [Greenhouse Studio Studio 1st April 1984]
07. Sad Vacation [Greenhouse Studio Studio 1st April 1984]
08. Diary Of A Lover [Greenhouse Studio Studio 1st April 1984]
09. Like A Rolling Stone [Greenhouse Studio Studio 1st April 1984]
10. Can't Keep My Eyes On You [Marquee 22nd August 1984]
11. Sad Vacation [Marquee 22nd August 1984]
12. Who Do Voodoo [Marquee 22nd August 1984]
13. I Love You [Marquee 22nd August 1984]
14. Little Bit Of Whore [Marquee 22nd August 1984]
15. Pipeline [Marquee 22nd August 1984]
16. Alone In The Crowd [Lyceum Soundcheck]
17. One Track Mind [Lyceum Soundcheck]
18. Don't Mess With A Cupid [Lyceum Soundcheck]
19. In Cold Blood [In Trouble In Sweden 1982]
20. Who Needs Girls? [In Trouble In Sweden 1982]
21. French Clip Film
22. Get Off The Phone [Music Video]



Release Date: November 14, 2005
Number of Discs: 3
Label: Jungle Records, U.K.
Catalog No.: FREUD CD 084