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Johnny Thunders, born John Anthony Genzale, Jr (July 15, 1952 - April 23, 1991), was a rock and roll guitarist and singer, first with the New York Dolls, the proto-punk glam rockers of the early '70s. During the late '70s, he was a familiar figure on the New York punk scene, both with The Heartbreakers and as a solo artist. His screeching, penetrating guitar sound is distinctive and highly influential in punk rock music. Thunders tangled with the demons of fame along with alcohol and drug addiction.
Biography
Under the name "Johnny Volume", Genzale began performing in high school with "Johnny and the Jaywalkers"; after leaving that band, he joined "Actress", which featured future Dolls Arthur "Killer" Kane and Billy Murcia. "Actress" became the New York Dolls in 1971 and Genzale renamed himself Johnny Thunders.
After recording two critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful albums — The New York Dolls and Too Much Too Soon — the Dolls broke up. The early Dolls recordings are still in print today and continue to influence young bands with their trash/glam/punk attitude.
Post-New York Dolls
He formed The Heartbreakers with Dolls drummer Jerry Nolan, ex-Demons guitarist Walter Lure and Television bassist Richard Hell, who left soon after to form Richard Hell and the Voidoids. Hell was replaced by Billy Rath.
With Thunders leading the band, the Heartbreakers toured America and Britain, releasing one official album, L.A.M.F., in 1977. L.A.M.F. is a punk classic that documents the important bridge between the U.S. and U.K punk scenes. The group relocated to the UK, where their popularity was significantly greater than it was in the U.S., particularly among punk bands.
In late 1979 Thunders began performing in a band called Gang War. Other members included John Morgan, Ron Cooke, Philippe Marcade and former MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer. They recorded several demos and performed live several times before disbanding. Bootlegs of their demos and live performances are circulating; One semi-official live album, credited to Thunders and Kramer and titled Gang War, is easily available from specialist retailers.
Thunders recorded a number of solo albums beginning with So Alone in 1978. The album was laid down in drug laden sessions with all the swirling turbulence of an atomic explosion. The complex bittersweet sound is a standard that many bands aspire to emulate and it is universally hailed as Johnny Thunders' masterpiece. It featured guests such as Phil Lynott, Chryssie Hynde, Steve Marriott, Paul Cook, Steve Jones, Walter Lure, Billy Rath, and Peter Perrett of The Only Ones. The core of the band on the album included Thunders, Lynott, Cook, and Jones. After its release, Thunders and Sex Pistols ex-bassist Sid Vicious played in the Living Dead for a short time. The CD version of the album contains four bonus tracks, including the single "Dead or Alive," one of Thunders' finest post-Dolls moments.
During the early '80s, Thunders re-formed The Heartbreakers for various tours; the group recorded their final album in 1984.
In 1985, he released Que Sera Sera, a collection of new songs that showed he could still perform convincingly. Three years later he recorded an album of rock and R&B covers with vocalist Patti Palladin, Copy Cats.
Thunders kept performing and recording until his death in 1991, but problems with heroin addiction kept his output and songwriting sporadic during the 1980s.
Thunders always had a loyal following. No doubt there would be many more fans if not for the uneven performances and lack of good publicity. The flood of bootleg recordings has never slowed. Amongst his last recordings were the live concerts in Japan that show a mature, and surprisingly clean, Johnny Thunders.
His final recording was a cover of "Born to Lose" with German punk rock band Die Toten Hosen, recorded some 36 hours before Thunders' death.
Death: Accident or Foul Play
Many rumors surround Johnny's death at the St. Peter House in New Orleans, Louisiana in April, 1991. He apparently died of drug-related causes, but was it accidental or the result of foul play? According to the autobiography "Lobotomy: Surviving The Ramones" (pages 232-3), Dee Dee Ramone took a call in New York the next day from Stevie Klasson, Johnny's rhythm guitar player. "They told me that Johnny had gotten mixed up with some bastards... who ripped him off for his methadone supply. They had given him LSD and then murdered him. He had gotten a pretty large supply of methadone in England, so he could travel and stay away from those creeps - the drug dealers, Thunders imitators, and losers like that."
Not surprisingly, the police did not open a criminal investigation, writing it off as just one more dead junkie. What is known for certain is that Johnny's room (no. 37) was ransacked and most of his possessions were missing (passport, makeup, clothes). His body was positioned in an unnatural state, described by eyewitnesses as "like a pretzel," underneath a coffee table. Friends and acquaintances acknowledge he had not been using heroin for some time, relying on his methodone prescriptions. An autopsy was not conducted, so the true nature of his death will never be known.
Trivia
- "You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory" and a live cover version of "Pipeline" have been used in the closing credits of The Sopranos. The former also featured prominently in Martin Scorcese's 1999 film Bringing Out The Dead.
- The Clash mentioned Thunders in the lyric from their song "City Of The Dead," singing "'Don't you know where to cop?'/That's what New York Johnny said/'You should get to know your town/Just like I know mine.'"
- Guns N' Roses bassist Duff McKagan wrote the song "So Fine", which was dedicated to Thunders. The song appears on the album Use Your Illusion II. Also, in 1993, Guns N' Roses covered his song, "You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory" on their collection of punk covers, The Spaghetti Incident?.
- At their reunion shows, the New York Dolls have been performing "You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory", with member Sylvain Sylvain singing the lead vocal and sometimes changing the title lyric to "I can't put my arms around you, Johnny."
- Die Toten Hosen paid tribute to Johnny Thunders by including the line "Solange Johnny Thunders lebt, so lang bleib ich ein Punk" ("As long as Johnny Thunders lives I'll stay a punk") in their song "Wort zum Sonntag".
- The Replacements included a song about Johnny Thunders, "Johnny's Gonna Die", on their first album.
- He shares his stage name with a villainous biker character from Ray Davies' rock opera Preservation (which was the basis for three Kinks albums as well as a musical.)
- On the Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds Double Disk release Johnny Thunders is mentioned on the song "There She Goes my Beautiful World".
Discography
New York Dolls
- New York Dolls - (1973)
- Too Much Too Soon - (1974)
- Lipstick Killers - The Mercer Street Sessions 1972 - (1981)
- Red Patent Leather - (1984)
The Heartbreakers
Heartbreaker Live At Max's 1979
Johnny Thunders
- So Alone - (1978)
- D.T.K. - Live at the Speakeasy - (1982)
- In Cold Blood - French 45 R.P.M. 12" E.P. - (1983)
- Hurt Me - (1984)
- Que Sera, Sera - (1985)
- Copycats (with Patti Palladin) - (1988))
External links
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sv:John Genzale
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