To Hell and Back
My Life in Johnny Thunders' Heartbreakers, in the Words of the Last Man Standing
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- 16,99 €
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- 16,99 €
Beschreibung des Verlags
There have been many books written about Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers, but only by people who weren’t there. Walter Lure was—from the band's chaotic beginnings on New York's Lower East Side, through a now-legendary UK tour with the Sex Pistols and the Clash, and on to a yearlong stay in London—eyewitness and midwife to the birth of UK punk.
Now, he tells his story in To Hell and Back, a thrilling ride through the clubs and dives of two continents, in the company of one of the most notorious junkies in rock 'n' roll history. Drawing from his own contemporary journals, Lure paints a vivid portrait of life in both cities, during perhaps the most crucial musical uprising of the past forty years…the music, the characters, the clothes, the fights, the drugs, the orgies, the lot.
Lure lays bare his own battle with drugs, and reflects upon his life after the band's split—rising to become a Wall Street fixture yet still finding time to make music.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Guitarist turned Wall Street businessman Lure offers a wildly entertaining firsthand account of the life and death of legendary rock band the Heartbreakers (not to be confused with Tom Petty's band), formed in 1975 by guitarist Johnny Thunders and drummer Jerry Nolan after they left the glam-rock pioneers the New York Dolls. Lure is an entertaining writer who focuses on how the band initially combined the image of "street-fighting tough guys from the Lower East Side" created by its bass player, ex-Television founder Richard Hell, with the sound of Thunders and his Keith Richards inspired "intuitive understanding of rhythm and sound and pace." Lure details how after he joined the band he learned to deal with Thunders's heroin addiction, a habit that "would make it very hard to plan for the future." After a number of gigs, the band was chosen to tour the U.K. with the Sex Pistols and the Clash, where they were uniformly praised in the music press as being "more New York Dolls than the New York Dolls." After the tour, the band stayed on in London for a year, where they recorded their only album, L.A.M.F. While the other members spent most of their downtime scoring drugs, Lure additionally explored London and saw such productions as The Mousetrap in the West End. After arguments about who was to blame for what they felt was poor sound quality on the LP after it was released, the members decided to go their separate ways, with Thunders starting a successful solo career. This is perfect for fans of punk and post-punk music.
