Customer Reviews

L.a.M.F. Lost 77 Mixes

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Good punk album elevated to great due to the new remixes. Personally, I feel this is right up there with "Rocket to Russia", "Blank Generation", and "Talking Heads '77" as a classic American punk album. There is a certain joy to the rock 'n' roll sounds that are captured on this album, and it is certainly the best post-Dolls Thunders release. I had heard a few of the original mixes, and quite frankly they were below par. The guitars and lyrics sound blurry. Thankfully, someone decided to show us all how it was truly a great album despite it's sound imperfections by remixing it. As the story of the band goes, the album failed to make a good amount of money, and they broke up. I guess the song "Born to Lose" is a little prophetic.

I had this album on vinyl as a kid, and played the [...] out of it. I saw it was now on cd and just had to buy it. Its still great, and has influenced so many musicians over the years such as: The Jones, The Humpers, 8 Foot Tender, etc. If you own a New York Doll album, buy this one too. Also check out Johnny's So Alone album.

The Heartbreakers were among the true pioneers of the mid 70's New York punk scene. Their debut album "L.A.M.F. was released in 1977 on Track records. Impossible to find even at the time the album featured a terrible muddy mix that destroyed any hope for this brilliant album. Add to the poor sound the self destructive behavior of the band members and the quick bankrupcy of the record label and L.A.M.F. quickly sank into obscurity.

This new release on Jungle Records miraculously rescues the sound on this album. I have owned this album for 22 years in three different versions and the sound difference is day from night. This verson is also far superior to the LAMF Revisited release from 1984.

Now to the group and the album. For the uninitiated the Heartbreakers were formed by Johnny Thunders and Jerry Nolan(both sadly deceased)in 1975 after the breakup of their first band the New York Dolls. They travelled to England to play on the Anarchy tour with the Sex Pistols etc. I saw them live twice and if they were in the right frame of mind they were terriffic. Check out the Live at Max's '79 album.

L.A.M.F contained 12 songs originaly and this version adds the wonderful "Can't Keep My Eyes On You" plus a concert favorite a cover of "Do You Love Me". Great cuts include the too aptly named "Born To Lose", "All By Myself", the first version of "Chinese Rocks" written by the Ramones for the Heartbreakers, "Get Off The Phone". Long time Heartbeaker fans will not recognize these new mixes. Most improved might be "Baby Talk" that actully has a guitar riff chorus that is the key to the song and was burried for 23 years.

If you are a Heartbreakers fan and do not have this version you must buy it. I know we have all heard and bought "re-mixed" versions of this album in the past only to have our hearts broken again but his version delivers. I would also reccomend this album to fans of mid 70's punk and new wave. I would put this album in my top 15 of this genre right behind the debut albums by Television, The Clash, the Sex Pistols, Patty Smith, "Come Home" and "Rocket to Russia" by the Ramones and a couple ohters.

Not many things went right for the Heartbreakers during their brief career but they made a terrific album that can and deserves to be heard.

Quick history lesson. I hope you can keep up:

1977: L.A.M.F. comes out with a horrible, muddy mix. It was so bad that Jerry Nolan, the drummer, quit the band.

1984: L.A.M.F. is remixed by Johnny Thunders and sounds surprisingly fresh and clean. Retitled, L.A.M.F. Revisited, it sounds very good. Some say it's a little too "glossy" to represent how The Heartbreakers actually laid it down.

1997: Hundreds of different mixes were sorted through and the hardest, punchiest versions were remixed and put out under the title: "L.A.M.F: The Lost '77 Mixes."

This is the version you want! The druums hit HARD like a punch to the gut and each track manages to rock harder and with more power than on "Revisited." JT may have been pushing for a more "mainstream-friendly" mix when he worked on "Revisited," but I feel that some of The Heartbreakers' power was drained from that version. You WANT The Lost '77 Mixes. This is how the original release could have/should have sounded. Incredible.

theres no question that this is the best punk album. this eats the pistols for breakfast, and the clash look like a bunch of women. if you think you like the dolls, you'll actually like this better. this is actually getting a bit of publicity, since "pirate love," which happens to be the best song in the universe, is played during a skateboard video by FLIP skateboards for Ali Boulala's part. Walter Lure's songs are kickass too, its not just thunders. It all rocks. buy it you fool, it'll make you happy

After the break up of the New York Dolls in 1975 drummer Jerry Nolan and guitarist Johnny Thunders formed the Heartbreakers. Along with the brilliant Walter Lure on guitar, the band went to the UK in 1976 to open shows for The Sex Pistols' Anarchy Tour.
While most gigs were cancelled Johnny and Jerry were able to introduce the young British punks to heroin.
Every young punk rocker idolized Johnny Thunders and wanted to be like him so they all jumped in head-first into his lifestyle.
1977 The Heartbreakers cut thier only album, L.A.M.F. (Like A Motherfu....). The origional mix was murky but in 1994 Thunders' friends and fans found the origional tapes and remixed them into this top notch hard rocking disc (the final two cuts are bonus tracks not on the origional album).
While all his followers died from drug overdoses (Sid Vicious, a few guys from The Pretenders, etc.) Johnny carried on putting out a new album every few years while focusing all his attention on staying loaded until he finally ODed in 1991. Jerry Nolan followed him a few months later.
Sad story of the man Richard Hell called, "The Dean Martin of heroin" but he is a legend and this album is a classic.

After eagerly anticipating my boldness to bite the bullet and purchase the relatively expensive import C.D., I finally picked it up last night. And after listening to it over and over already, it is safe to say this is certainly one of the best punk albums of all-time. Anyone initiated with Johnny Thunders knows that he is the epitime of a wrecking-ball rock 'n' roller. The tunes on this album, sloppy, loud, fast, and yet still hopeless romatic, play like Rolling Stones demos if they had rocked a little harder and lived a little bit wilder. The fourteen tracks on this album are each fantastic, especially "Born To Lose", the Dee Dee Ramone-written drug song "Chinese Rock" (originally the Ramones thought it too blatant to put on one of their albums, so Dee Dee let Thunders do it, and it later appeared on their Spector-produced "End Of The Century"), "I Wanna Be Loved" (Not the Elvis Costello tune), "Get Off The Phone", and the all-out rocking cover of "Do You Love Me." The production is perfectly raw. They play their instruments and sing as though they've been doing it for five days straight, and they don't wanna slow down. To put it simply, this album is very necassary to anybody who likes punk-rock, or simply rock 'n' roll with an edge.

The only studio album of Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers. The production is somewhat rough, but finally that also is a charm of this music. All songs are great. Especially I would like to mention „Pirate Love", „Can't Keep My Eyes On You", „Chinese Rocks", „It's Not Enough" and of course „Born To Lose". Highly recommendable is also the corresponding live album „Live At Max's Kansas City".

This record, which had a muddy sound back then, has aged surprisingly well. The punch in songs such as Chinese Rocks or Get Off The Phone is surprising. Having seen Thunders live, this is a rather good su of what he sounded like, even quite late in his time with various backing groups. He has had enormous influence on what is to be considered New York rock with his sloppy approach: see for example the Strokes who unfortunately do not have the punch.

This is one of the rawest, most primal expressions of the punk rock style ever recorded. Sadly, Johnny Thunders' career inevitably descended into a junkie fog and he became a parody of himself, but for a brief shining moment here he shows his potential. The unsung hero of the record is guitarist Walter Lure, who lays down some legendary guitar lines. This is a must-own recording for anyone who likes hard and fast rock music. There is a lot of talk about the different mixes of LAMF, but all you really need to know is that this one is the best.