Heartbreakers / L.A.M.F. – The Found ’77 Masters (Vinyl LP)

Description

Vinyl  LP / Reissue – Repress – Remastered

Pink & White Splatter.

Mastered from 24-bit audio transfer from analogue tape.
Includes inner bag with new notes by Simon Wright, and a yellow obi strip with hype on the front (including a quote from Clem Burke of Blondie) and more Heartbreakers releases on the back.

1977-USA

Format: Vinyl LP

#Ref: TRACKLP77

Release date: 2022

Release notes

On release in 1977, Johnny Thunders & the Heartbreakers’ ‘L.A.M.F.’ had a mastering fault, widely condemned as a ‘muddy mix’.  Track Records went bust and the master was lost – so subsequent releases were compiled from outtake or re-mixes.  Forty-four years later, the master has been found in an attic – and ‘L.A.M.F.’ can at last be heard as the band and producers intended!

FOUND IN AN ATTIC – a punk rock archaeological discovery: a copy master of the original 1977 Track Records tape, without ‘mud’!  This classic punk album, recorded in London by the New York band featuring two New York Dolls, was always controversial – and not just for the acronym.  Upon release on Track Records in 1977, it was universally condemned in the music press for having a ‘muddy mix’ – later found to be a mastering fault.

When Track went bust the following year, manager Leee Black Childers managed to burgle the Track Records’ Carnaby Street 3rd floor office and liberated the tapes that belonged to him and the band.  He found everything – except for the master-tape.

Subsequent releases were remixed from the multi-tracks (‘Revisted’, 1984) or compiled from outtake mixes – the ‘lost ’77 mixes’ (1994) being the version most known.  A lift from the vinyl for a ‘definitive’ box set didn’t achieve full clarity.  Meanwhile, fans found the 1977 cassette version didn’t have the infamous ‘mud’, nor did certain European vinyl matrixes.

Unexpectedly, in 2020 a chance meeting led Jungle to Daniel Secunda‘s archives.  Danny was an old-school music biz pioneer who became a Track Records director – and the Heartbreakers ‘L.A.M.F.’ co-producer.  In amongst his archives stored in his attic were numerous tape boxes, including two with no artist name, marked: ‘Copy Master 12.7.77’.  They turned out to be a crystal-clear ‘L.A.M.F.’, just as the band and producers intended it.

Sadly, in August 2020 the Heartbreakers co-lead vocalist, guitarist and songwriter Walter Lure passed away. He was the last of the Heartbreakers’ L.A.M.F. line-up: Johnny Thunders died in 1991, Jerry Nolan in 1992, and Billy Rath in 2014. Walter’s autobiography is published in paperback in May 2021.

Limited edition release on pink & white vinyl with new notes by Simon Wright.

Tracklisting

SIDE A
A1. Born To Lose
A2. Baby Talk
A3. All By Myself
A4. I Wanna Be Loved
A5. It’s Not Enough
A6. Chinese Rocks
A7. Get Off The Phone

SIDE B
B1. Pirate Love
B2. One Track Mind
B3. I Love You
B4. Goin’ Steady
B5. Let Go
B6. Can´t Keep My Eyes On You
B7. Do You Love Me