Man, ‘sad how any talk about real rocknroll nowadays is a conversation about all the people who died, died. Every come-lately in black hairdye and tattooed pajamas knows the Ballad Of The Heartbreakers. Richard Hell and Walter Lure lived to become upwardly mobile, autograph signing, elder statesmen. Johnny Thunders and Jerry Nolan died. Billy Rath went down the chutes and ladders of substance abuse for a few years before going to college and becoming a born again Christian. Jerry left the band because he hated the mix of the landmark lp.
I saw a couple o’ their reunions with Tony Coiro on bass. Stockbroker Walter Lure and Street Pirate Billy Rath apparently don’t get along. After the Heartbreakers heartbreak, Walter Lure started a blue-eyed soul revue with a couple of ex-Knots: the charismatic Tony Coiro, who sadly never lived long enough to be cast as an extra on “The Sopranos”; and heroic working class rocknroller, Joey Pinter, a rare flamethrower who brought some genuine street cred to the band, and Jeff West, who replaced Charlie Sox on drums after another premature death.
These four took the name, THE WALDOS, Johnny Thunders nickname for Lure, and energetically descended upon the proms and pubs and parties of NYC’s Lower East Side, wiping up the draft sticky stages with every lesser band they ever shared a bill with. A cool kid named Deanne Clapper captured many of their remarkable performances on vhs videotape. Adny Shernoff from the Dictators produced their anthemic longplayer for underground indie label, Sympathy For The Recording Industry, and it became one of the most played discs in the boomboxes of in the know rockers in the early 90’s, an otherwise dreary time for rock music.
An album full of hits honed live in sleazy bars and given a powerhouse sound by the Dictators most important member, there were no duff tracks on this always uplifting, absolute barnburner, “Rent Party”. Tony Coiro belts out rebellious rabble rousers like a frathouse Romeo in Memphis pimp threads. Jeff West was a machine from the Jerry Nolan School Of Swing. Walter Lure was a consummate entertainer playing each room like a Rat Pack song n dance man, his underrated songwriting still resonates decades later. Joey Pinter was a chain smokin’ swashbuckler, shooting stars like a confetti cannon with his lowstrung guitar, shades of Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Mick Ronson and Mick Taylor. A cry in your beer Pogues like ballad called “Golden Days”, a Ray Charles blues number, and about ten fast and furious, hard partying, good times sing-alongs that will still mandate you rent a keg and pack the kiddie pool with ice and plenty of cheap Mexican beer and call up everyone you don’t really socialize with no more, because this record is the essential soundtrack to your old gang’s wildeyed reunion. An undeniable dance party on your patio or breakfast nook. Rereleased by Jungle Records. Togas and tiki torches not included. /Anguish Young.