Pure Punk Picks
Born To Lose – Johnny Thunders
If someone wanted to know what punk was like living in the eighties? Well, I’d probably select this song.
The first dissonant, discordant guitar notes sound like, to me, as someone stumbling, awakening from a drunken hangover and then, after a random cymbal splash, the song kicks in, in a swingin’, rockin’, garage/punk groove.
All the lyrics allude to depression, desperation and city bleakness. And yes, that was a big part of the early Boston punk scene I lived and witnessed. But then some Chuck Berry like guitar solo, hops and bops in that is infused with so much joy and energy- that you knew whatever anyone else was listening to at the time. That it couldn’t match the passion, the grit, the realness of this song.
Yeah, put on your Foreigner, Supertramp or Phil Collins crap- this song burns it to embers.
This song is about someone who loses in life, is a “loser.” And I guess that would describe Johnny Thunders.
But the emotion, spirit and wild fucking fun of his best songs and his impassioned playing cannot be denied.
Lose as a person? Yes, he died pretty young. But lose as an artist? No fucking way! Put this right up there in your fancy museums with your DaVinci’s and Michaelangelos, it deserves to be displayed right there.
Born to lose? Yes, we surely are and that’s how we’ll all end our compromised, sordid lives. But to put forth this much desperation and elation, despair and exuberant fun, mixing rock’n’roll innocence with punk rock nihilism is a masterpiece- is a potent, wonderful mix.
This song wins by a mile.
(Slimedog)
