Johnny Thunders - Who's Been Talking? Johnny Thunders in Concert (DVD)

All Music Guide

Johnny Thunders was always hit or miss in concert; like fellow underground icon Nico, he could be brilliant and sublime or utterly boring onstage depending on what he had injected or absorbed at any given moment. If you happened to have witnessed either artist in both good and bad shape, it was easy to detect when and if either one would have the magic. Now here's the good news: despite the VHS feel to this multicamera shoot from Club Citta in Osaka, Japan (taped on April 3,1991 yes, the very month he died), Johnny Thunders is very much on and rips through 22 songs that sound good and dare it be said professional. To understand the difference, you have to have seen Thunders when he was, say, unprofessional. Some nights he was toast, but here he is a rock star and is taking his craft seriously. The DVD opens with a solid "In Cold Blood," the Jimmy Millerproduced song that launched a new phase of his career in Europe just eight years before his passing. It slips right into a medley in...cluding "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone" and on to about 25 songs over 22 tracks that are a really fabulous, if lofi, documentary on this unique but quintessential rock roll figure. On "Louie, Louie" and "Hang on Sloopy," the most natural of medleys, he is his Keith Richards best the look, the wardrobe, and the great guitar sound that he didn't have when the New York Dolls first played Boston in 1973 and everything was cranked up to 11. A new song entitled "Society" has him strumming the electric, and with the addition of Jamey Heath's saxophone the crisp band sounds like Lou Reed's mid'80s ensembles. The tragedy here is that in just 15 years' time from when this was recorded when Iggy Pop's Stooges and the New York Dolls would gain the respectability and massive audience they deserved, his untimely death kept that adulation and appreciation from Thunders himself. Truly a pity. There are many Johnny Thunders videos out there, but this collection of solo material, covers, and one Dolls song, "Personality Crisis," is a keeper despite the blurry and foggy footage and grainy texture. Actually, there's a second bit of New York Dolls as Thunders' reinvention of Bo Diddley's "Pills" "Too Much Junkie Business" actually dissolves into a superb "Pills," covered with much of the same abandon as the newmillennium New York Dolls, tight and displaying more of a Rolling Stonesstyle presentation. This DVD has lots to offer the Thunders fan and anyone who appreciates lifeontheedge underground rock roll. Described as "rare live footage from the last ever recorded concert," the DVD also includes a 12page biography by Betty Chienne. It's a nice testament to a truly twisted life. - Joe Viglione, All Music Guide Read more Less