Back in time

4 October 2022

Band HEARTBREAKERS
Who/when: Formed by New York Dolls members Johnny Thunders and Jerry Nolan
in April 1975. Richard Hell came in to play bass and share songwriting/vocals. Walter Lure joined on rhythm guitar. A year later Hell was fired as he wanted to be the co-frontman along Thunders.

Anniversary album: L. A. M. F. (Like A Mother Fucker)
Released: 3 October 1977 – 45 years ago.

Pitchfork: “Like their peers in the city, the Heartbreakers took classic rock’n’roll archetypes and gave them extra doses of fuzz, muscle, and bite. Considering there were two New York Dolls in the band and that band’s self-titled debut had a masterful handle of tough, glammy rock’n’roll, it makes sense. The impressive thing on L.A.M.F., then, isn’t the power– it’s the diversity in their songs. At the center of the album, there’s Nolan’s hamfisted caveman crash in “I Wanna Be Loved”, which is followed by the jangling ballad “It’s Not Enough”, and that leads to “Chinese Rocks”. Unlike the Ramones, the songs don’t come across as loose clones of one another– they each have their own feeling and sound. Some of them, like “Goin’ Steady”, even have killer guitar solos.” Score: 8.5/10.

Turn Up The Volume: Johnny Thunders and Jerry Nolan wanted to jump on
the British punk wagon, formed the Heartbreakers and left NYC for London.

But kudos to the motherrockers who arrived in England’s capital with a classic punk monster of a record. To bad that the original LP sounded like, eh, trash, due to a horrible production/mix. Fortunately, in 1994, the lost 1977 mixes popped up, and with them a much better sound quality was fabricated.

Full 1994 remixed album

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HEARTBREAKERS: Bio – Discography