Have you ever listened to LAMF by The Heartbreakers? If you haven't then you should. In my opinion, it is the greatest album ever recorded. It is on my Xmas day playlist. I always listen to all of my favourite albums whilst I prepare Xmas dinner. If the rest of the family don't like the playlist, they can either go hungry, or take the dog for a walk. Over the years many albums have made the cut, but only LAMF makes it every year. I was feeling particularly down today. Not for any particularly rational reason, other than I have lots of things to attend to that don't fill me with glee and I simply don't feel like doing any of it. My studio manager has been off, so I had to work a full shift and cancel a meet with a couple mates in town for an early evening drink. When I feel down and I am working, I always play my favourite albums on the shop system. This usually perks me up, but I always save LAMF for the days when nothing else works. When I put it on, I was reminded why. There is literally no one who plays guitar like Johnny Thunders. Unlike Thunders I am not a junkie, but his songs really connect with me. His voice is the absolute perfect mix of aggression, swagger and vulnerability. People often ask who I think is the greatest ever Rock vocalist. When I say Johnny Thunders, they usually say something ridiculous like "You cannot seriously say he's better than Freddie Mercury" or soe such character. Yes I can. I will concede that Mercury is technically better as a singer. However, his singing is far too controlled for me. There is no vulnerability at all in his performance. If Rock and Roll was Opera, then Mercury would win hands down. However, when Thunders sings the line "Baby I love you" not only does he sound like he means it. He sounds like he wants to be loved and doesn't think he is. Mercury just delivers the line. As to his guitar playing? I will confess that there are people like Hendrix who have the same brilliance. At his best Hendrix is the man. The tragedy of the Heartbreakers is that they only released LAMF, they were like a shooting star that burned brilliantly and disappeared. All the members of the classic line up are dead. The odd thing is that the older I get, the better the album gets and it was pretty amazing the first time I played it. Of all the people I have ever met, only the False Dots very first drummer, when we were getting the band together, a certain Mr Dave Edwards, agreed with me. There are many brilliant albums, but only LAMF takes me back to the day I bought it, in the same way. It was in the window of the record shop in Mill Hill and I had some cash. I'd not really heard of the Heartbreakers. I'd only just got into the music and only had one album, as there had not been too many released. I bought it, rushed home, played it continually until my folks got home. I thought life would always be this good..................
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