Sad Vacation - Johnny Thunders

By 1984, ex-New York Doll and junkie extraordinaire Johnny Thunders was well on his way to undermining the Replacements' bold 1981 prediction, "Johnny's Gonna Die." Having already lived well past his anticipated expiration date, Thunders was experiencing something of a career renaissance, especially in Europe. In search of a more receptive audience for his streetwise blend of R&B, punk, and doo wop, the guitarist enlisted the aid of erstwhile Dolls axeman Sylvain Sylvain and, along with regulars Jerry Nolan and Billy Rath, hopped the pond for a tour of Sweden, where he was already well known to country authorities. The Revenge '84 tour, as it was dubbed, found Thunders in fine, spitting form. The addition of Sylvain -- the linchpin in the Dolls' rhythmic assault -- seemed to spur him, and the resultant performances show it. Most of the 35 songs on this two-disc set swing with a dirty, loose-limbed energy that more than compensates for the frequently sloppy playing (almost always on Thunders' part, it should be noted). The proceedings get off to an appropriately chaotic start with Thunders proclaiming, "I'm gonna die on-stage tonight." When the crowd applauds lackadaisically, he sneers, "I thought you might like that." The band then tears into a longtime Thunders set opener, a cover of the Chantays' surf classic, "Pipeline" (the song appears twice, once on each disc). From there, the track list reads like a Thunders career retrospective, careening wildly from the Dolls ("Personality Crisis," "Don't Mess With Cupid," "Courageous Cat Theme") to the Heartbreakers ("Born to Lose," "It's Not Enough," "Baby Talk") to his solo work ("Sad Vacation," "You Can't Put Your Arms Around a Memory," "Great Big Kiss"). The band even covers a few rock classics (Booker T. & the MG's "Green Onions," Barry McGuire's "Eve of Destruction," and the Stones' "Wild Horses," "Play With Fire," and "The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man") for good measure. As one might expect from a Johnny Thunders live document, not everything works: "Have Faith" begins out of tune and never quite recovers; "Born to Lose" pales badly next to the version on D.T.K. Live at the Speakeasy; and a solo acoustic rendition of "Wild Horses" is plagued by audio dropouts. The sonic quality, to be kind, is ragged, though it's a marked improvement over that of the original double-LP bootleg, There's a Little Bit of Whore in Every Little Girl. All in all, Sad Vacation isn't a bad purchase for committed Johnny Thunders fans, since it documents a memorable tour and does so with a very generous song selection -- but neophytes should definitely start with Live at the Speakeasy for their first fix of live Thunders. ~ Andy Claps, All Music Guide