Customer Reviews

Too Much Junkie Business (Reis)

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I was a late bloomer, what can I say. All of my hero's loved Johnny and for years I put off buying one of his albums (and I don't know why). I Knew about the NY Dolls and the history and loved the Dolls and just never went into Johnny as a solo artist cause I heard he was pretty sloppy (not that that's a bad thing). One day, I was at Border's book store and they had this CD in stock (cause it was brand new at the time) and I picked it up figuring "how bad could it be?" and I was very pleasantly surprised to hear how awesome not only Johnny was but that these recordings are choice.

Disc 1 The Roxy LA 1987
This show reunites Johnny & Jerry Nolan with Arthur Kane. It plays more like a Johnny solo show, you get "personality crisis" & "pills" but that's about it as far as the grand "Doll's reunion" that it could have been. The rest is all Johnny with some Heartbreakers and a lot of covers. I don't understand why they didn't do stuff like "chatterbox" & "subway train" but oh well. This shows Johnny in fine form, and the band is on fire, and the sound quality is way better than anything else I picked up later. You get a great start with "pipeline", "blame it on mom", "cant keep my eyes on you", "dead or alive", "pills", and "i can tell"... then Johnny goes solo for some acoustic songs, which are great... much better than the "hurt me" album... this version of "you cant put your arms round a memory" is awesome, then the band comes back and they close the show with more great songs like "born to lose", "sad vacation", and "little queenie". This is by far my favorite Johnny Thunders show. It's also available on DVD.

Disc 2
Detroit 1980
This show is with Walter Lure and also has great sound quality, and it contains some of the songs that he didn't perform at the Roxy show from disc 1 because you get great performances of some of Walter's Heartbreakers songs like "all by myself" and "get off the phone". You also get "london boys", "chatterbox" & "chinese rocks", among others. Johnny sounds a bit less "on track" for this performance but never mind that.

Japan 91
This shows Johnny close to his end, playing some great "new" songs like "some hearts", "disappointed in you", & "it's not what you say". he also does a great job doing "as tears go by" by the Stones, and "joey" by Dylan. Johnny sounds tired (physically) but it shows you what he became as a performer and how he was able to still do a great job when he was stripped back of the big rock show.

Why do I think you should buy this CD? Well, it's an excellent compilation of 3 great-quality shows that showcase Johnny Thunders as a solo artist, and it contains all of his well-known and most of his best songs. I am really glad that this CD is how I discovered Thunders, because it left me wanting more and realizing why everyone thinks he's so great, and not regretting at all that I spent almost $20 on it.

this is a great companion to hurt me, his all acoustic job. this is pure slop, with johnny playing mc in between cuts. as with all thunders releases, theres a whole lot here you've heard before, even if you've never heard him. still you'd be hard pressed to find better versions of who do voodoo, too much junkie business, diary of a lover, and "just another bitch". it also boasts a version of "give her a great big kiss" thats so smacked out shadow morton would roll over if he was dead. great.

If you didn't lose your innocence in New York's Alphabet City, or don't know what Union Square was famous for before the yuppies arrived, you may not understand Johnny Thunders. But if you think that heart adds more to music than technique, then you may appreciate the genius of a man who, both with the New York Dolls and the Heartbreakers, helped invent punk rock. An excellent album best played very loud.

The original 1983 ROIR release - entitled, Too Much Junkie Business - was on cassette. The company initially only issued material on tape.

Produced by Jimmy Miller and Johnny Thunders, it is a collection of studio demos and live material which is mostly sloppy and very uneven, as was most of his gigs. The cover art is an infamous photo of Thunders that was made into posters. Being an authorized release is a major plus, since Thunders is heavily chronicled through bootlegs or unauthorized releases.

But this is an artist who is living up to a crash-and-burn legend which would ultimately kill him less than a decade later. The studio material is a work in progress and have some interesting moments. But it ultimately tells a real story that indeed is too much, too soon.

Johnny Thunders Live. The sound and audience reaction is so good at the Roxy that you feel like you are there. The crowd in Detroit is basically a bunch of jerks but it doesn't get Johnny down. He has some good come backs.

andrew martin of e-map consumers guide(staff of one) doesn't quite get it. but thats o.k. of course the album is slop...of course the sound quality is horrible...people made alot of money off johnny so he played this joke. ha ha.it's on you.