Down to Kill

The Heartbreakers’ recording career was a short one, leaving a lone (now classic) studio album (L.A.M.F.) to speak for them. Down to Kill does well by the band, collecting Heartbreakers material most fans will be happy to find:  there are demos for six of  L.A.M.F.’s bright spots (tracks 1 through 6), two demo versions of their sadly autobiographical “Too Much Junkie Business,” and cool instrumentals of “Get Off the Phone” and “I Wanna Be Loved,” showcasing the surf and rockabilly flavors of Thunders’ guitar playing. Demos of songs like “Seven Day Weekend” and “London Boys” are as decent as anything on L.A.M.F., and some of the remixed live tracks pulse with historical significance, such as the bumpy take of the Contours’ “Do You Love Me?”  A buried gem is Heartbreakers guitarist Walter Lure sitting in with the Ramones one day in a practice session, covering the Stones’ “Street Fighting Man.” He’s singing for Joey, who was suffering a bout of laryngitis (or so the story goes). Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers were at the epicenter of the famed New York punk scene, and this collection is a vivid and enjoyable time capsule.