Last edited Wed Jun 15, 2022, 11:21 AM - Edit history (1)
Johnny Thunders still had a lot of influence, especially via the New York Dolls and the Heartbreakers (do not confuse his Heartbreakers with Tom Petty's), but God only knows how much more he could have done if he hadn't been an addict.
Same for Walter Lure, the lead singer, though Lure managed to go from working for the FDA (he had a degree in chemistry from Fordham), to punk rock and addiction, to Wall Street (he worked for Lehman Brothers and then Neuberger Berman). He wrote an autobiography -- To Hell and Back: My Life in Johnny Thunders' Heartbreakers -- which I haven't read but which is probably very readable.
Rock journalist Lisa Robinson, an early fan of the New York Dolls and punk, has a bit about Thunders in her autobiography, There Goes Gravity, but her main interest there was David Johansen. And she has a quote from Chrissie Hynde saying the London punk scene in the mid-'70s was ruined by Thunders and the Heartbreakers coming over from NY with their drug addictions (and bringing Nancy Spungen with them, which is how she met Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols). But given the prevalence of drugs in rock'n'roll then, I don't think it's fair just to blame one band.
Thunders was an early influence on the German band Die Toten Hosen (though his drug addiction wasn't, as far as I know; DTH were apparently addicted to beer instead, which is safer than smack). They had a line about him in one of their early hits:
Solange Johnny Thunders lebt, solange bleib ich ein Punk
As long as Johnny Thunders lives, I'll stay punk
Lyrics they later changed:
Hey Johnny, kannst du uns grad sehen? Wir vergessen dich nicht.
Wir werden überall von dir erzählen, damit dein Name ewig weiterlebt
Hey Johnny, can you see us right now? We won't forget you.
We will talk about you everywhere, so your name will live forever
They recently did a new music video for the song, a video including a photo of Johnny Thunders with DTH lead singer Campino, along with lots of clips of DTH as a young punk band (and Campino falling down drunk).
Message that I posted a few weeks ago about that DTH song:
https://democraticunderground.com/10181664814#post13
That song has been a concert favorite of theirs for decades, and they sang it again at the stadium in Cologne for their most recent concert, on the 10th:
There's no way to know how long Johnny Thunders will be remembered. But I think he'd've been pleased to know a band he influenced is still singing about him 31 years after his death...though he might not have expected it to be a German band whose members are pushing 60, and who just had their 12th #1 album, a record for bands with #1 albums in Germany.
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