Johnny Thunders & The Heartbrea L.A.M.F. - The Lost '77 Tapes CD - Import

2009 enhanced reissue of this album from Johnny Thunders and Co., packaged in the original artwork, with a 12-page booklet and enhanced video footage. L.A.M.F. is acknowledged as a much-imitated vintage New York Punk masterpiece, still growing in stature. L.A.M.F. was originally released on Track Records in 1977 to much acclaim, but was marred by a muddy sound. In 1994, Jungle found long-lost original 1977 sessions and selected the best for a definitive re-issue. On this edition, classic songs like 'Born To Lose' and 'Chinese Rocks' are heard the way they were supposed to be heard. Jungle.

Full performer name: Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers.
Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers: Johnny Thunders (vocals, guitar); Walter Lure (guitar); Billy Rath (bass); Jerry Nolan (drums).
This is an Enhanced CD, which contains both regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files.
Personnel: Johnny Thunders (vocals, guitar); Walter Lure (vocals, guitar); Jerry Nolan (drums).
Despite now being hailed as one of punk rock's most important and enduring statements, Johnny Thunders & the Heartbreakers' banshee wail of a debut, L.A.M.F., screamed in silence upon its 1977 release, doing a commercial nosedive worthy of an FAA investigation. Admittedly, the record didn't stand much of a chance in the soft rock quagmire of the late '70s, but its odds certainly weren't helped by abysmal distribution (the group's label, Track Records, went belly up soon after the record's release), the band's increasing drug-induced lethargy, and a mix that buried the group's roar deeper than Jimmy Hoffa. It's this mix that's often blamed for the record's quick demise -- rightly or wrongly -- with the result that L.A.M.F. has been re-released three different times with three different mixes. The most prominent of these re-releases -- 1984's L.A.M.F. Revisited and 1994's L.A.M.F.: The Lost '77 Mixes -- took very different approaches to unearthing the musical firestorm smoldering under the sonic sludge. In the case of Revisited, Thunders himself remixed the original tapes; he also rearranged the track order, dropping one song ("All by Myself") and adding two others ("Do You Love Me" and "Can't Keep My Eyes on You"). Sonically, the result was a welcome improvement over the original L.A.M.F., bringing the Heartbreakers' melodic sense into much clearer focus. Yet, strangely, Thunders' remix also added a layer of gloss to the recording that seemed totally at odds with the Lower East Side dirt-and-blood aesthetic of the band, sacrificing power and dynamics for clarity. The approach taken by The Lost '77 Mixes, however, is a much more comfortable fit. Taking the best of the 250 original mixes that the band and producer Speedy Keene made of all the tracks, The Lost '77 Mixes proves that the spit and punch were there all along. The versions here rock with a greasy, maniacal raunch missing on the curiously antiseptic Revisited. The production sheen is gone, giving the music a chance to hit harder and deeper. And hit it does. The guitars of Thunders and Walter Lure buzz and screech louder than ever before; Billy Rath's bass twists and pounds; and Jerry Nolan's drums swing and crash with a newfound violence. Two songs recorded at the original sessions but not used on the original album are also added here: "Can't Keep My Eyes on You," with Nolan on lead vocals, and "Do You Love Me." Thoughtful liner notes by Thunders biographer Nina Antonia round out a pretty cool package. L.A.M.F.: The Lost '77 Mixes may well be the definitive version of this long-neglected classic. It captures Johnny and the boys as they were meant to be recorded: rude, crude, and loud. ~ Andy Claps
The Heartbreakers revolved around two former members of the New York Dolls, Johnny Thunders and Jerry Nolan. Having decamped to London in 1976, they became an integral part of the early punk circuit before recording their solitary studio album. Although hampered by an insubstantial mix, the set c