17. Listen to Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers
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Wow! The Johnny Thunders covers compilation was released
this week and I have a track on it. We recorded the song “I Love You” a while
back and I love our version- Danuta from Fur is on bass and Jesse Malin is on
drums and I sing and play guitar, great line up. You can get a copy of the 3
disc cd at at http://www.skykrebsrecordslimited.com/....
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Anyway……....
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It all happened on a freezing Christmas night. I was
14. My sister and her
boyfriend Keith had agreed to take
me to see Johnny Thunders at the Peppermint Lounge on 45th street,
where my grandmother had danced years ago. We left the family dinner at 9 and
drove downtown in the La Mans I wore fishnet stockings, a black mini skirt,
black pointy pumps and my leather motorcycle jacket, lots of eyeliner, very
much the London style. Inside I was dancing to Gary Glitter’s Rock and Roll
Part I. Keith went and got us beers. I sat down on a wooden platform near the
stage to drink and save a spot to see the show. And then I saw him, X (can’t say his name, as it is too good
a name to change and I do try to protect the guilty in these stories)!!!!! It
was like a dream come true. The cute guy that I liked was out at a club with
me!....
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I knew X because he worked at crazy Eddie’s on 8th
street and Sixth Avenue where, coincidentally, I had bought a Johnny Thunders
and the Heartbreakers record, LAMF. X came up to me and started talking about
the record. He told me his name and I told him mine. He had cool spiky black
hair worn just like Sid Vicious and pale blue eyes and milky white skin. He was
almost transparent, luminous and beautiful. X had a slight eastern European
accent mixed in with his Brooklyn accent, and it was so hot. I had never met
anyone who looked like him. I couldn’t believe he had approached me. I went
home with a huge crush and couldn’t wait to get some money so I could go back
and buy another record and see him again. And here he was at the Thunder’s show.
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X came over and sat with me and that cemented the deal. We
were an item, for the moment at least. We were talking for a while and soon we
were kissing, which happened effortlessly in a dark corner of a dark club with
a beer, and had been so impossible to achieve in the sunlight on the sidewalk
outside and electronics store, even if it is in the village. X tasted like
cigarettes and alcohol. It got later and later and Johnny hadn’t taken the
stage yet. X moved his hand higher and higher up my leg. ....
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X had come to the club with a friend, who sat next to us
the whole time. My sister and Keith were also on the platform with us. It
started to sound like the band might be coming on soon so we took a break from
kissing so that X could get us beers. That’s when his friend, whose name I
didn’t know, moved in on me. “Lets go back stage” he said and he grabbed my
hand and we went through the door that led to the dressing rooms. I had never
been backstage before. It was very exciting to see all these mysterious adults
getting ready for a gig. We went past a bathroom where I could see two pairs of
feet facing each other in the same stall. It was two men because the feet were
big, one guy wore high top sneakers, the other had on tight black leather
pants. We snuck around, holding hands, and peeking in rooms. It was hard to
process everything I was seeing because it was so new and amazing and my
adrenaline was soaring. Who are there cool looking people? I didn’t know but I
wanted to hang out with them. X’s friend put his arms around me and started to
kiss me. Given the excitement of the moment, this seemed appropriate and
perfect.....
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Suddenly we were pushed against the wall as a line of guys
walked by, some of them were holding guitars. Roadies and the band passed by
and then a man not much bigger than my 5 foot-nothing petite frame stumbled by.
Our faces were inches away from each other. It was Johnny Thunders. I had never
been close to someone so cool and it was amazing to see this person, who made
music that I loved, walk by me inches away in the privacy of backstage and then
into the spotlight. I heard the crowd roar as Johnny came on stage and me and
the guy went back to our spot to watch the show. X was mad at me and I wasn’t
sure why. I didn’t think I had done anything so terrible. We drove back home
that freezing night in the La Mans and I held a special feeling in my stomach,
like a pearl in my hand. I was getting closer to my destiny, to the exciting
life that I wanted to live, getting a little freer from my dreary upper
Manhattan miserable small town life.
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