CD Reviews

Johnny Thunders

Who's Been Talkin? In Concert | MVD

By JIM SULLIVAN | August 29, 2007

4.0 Stars

“I’m so lucky to be alive/I have so many friends who’ve lost their lives,” sang Johnny Thunders in “Disappointed,” from a Japanese stage early in April 1991. About three weeks later, after relocating to New Orleans, the one-time New York Doll and Heartbreaker overdosed on heroin and died. Few were shocked; many were sad. The DVD Who’s Been Talking?: Johnny Thunders in Concert captures the diminutive singer/guitarist’s last stand in Japan. His backing band are the Oddballs. The sound is only a little murky, and the video is a straight-on concert shoot with the crowd barely acknowledged — “You guys fallin’ asleep or something?”, Thunders asks at one point. The good news is that this is not one of those ’80s gigs where he’d leave the stage to do his “junky business” and the audience (his fans!) would heckle him, hoping (I swear) he might keel over and die on their watch. On Who’s Been Talking?, Thunders seems pretty together, indulging his love for surf and blues, as well as for Stonesy rock. In “Sad Vacation,” he mourns his pal Sid Vicious, and he’s proud to sing his all-time anthem, “Born To Lose.” He knew what he was singing: shortly after this concert, Thunders passed into history, leaving a tattered legacy and a messy stain.

Related: The wild bunch, Standard bearer, New York Doll, More

Topics: CD Reviews , Johnny Thunders, Johnny Thunders, Sid Vicious

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