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Tuesday, March 05, 2019

The Gun Club : Fire Of Love 1981



The Gun Club were a highly influential post-punk/ blues band from Los Angeles, California that existed from 1979 to 1996.

Jeffrey Lee Pierce (June 27, 1958 – March 31, 1996) was an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and author. He was one of the founding members of the band The Gun Club, and also released material as a solo artist.


The Gun Club's debut is the watermark for all post-punk roots music. This features the late Jeffrey Lee Pierce's swamped-out brand of roiling rock, swaggerific hell-bound blues, and gothic country. With Pierce's wailing high lonesome slide guitar twinned with Ward Dotson's spine-shaking riffs and the solid yet off-the-rails rhythm section of bassist Rob Ritter and drummer Terry Graham, the Gun Club burst out of L.A. in the early '80s with a bone to pick and a mountain to move -- and they accomplished both on their debut album. With awesome, stripped to the frame production by the Flesh Eaters' Chris D., Fire of Love blew away all expectations -- and with good reason.


Nobody has heard music like this before or since.

Fire of Love is the debut album of the American punk band the Gun Club, released in 1981 on Ruby Records.


The Flesh Eaters' singer Chris D. produced five tracks on the album ("Sex Beat", "Preaching the Blues", "Fire Spirit", "Ghost on the Highway" and "Jack on Fire") at Quad Teck with Pat Burnette engineering. Tito Larriva produced the album's other six tracks at Studio America with Noah Shark engineering.


Chris D. was also credited with the cover design for the original release. Judith Bell was responsible for the bottle label illustrations on the rear of the cover.The album is considered groundbreaking in being the first of its kind to combine the hard, stripped-down sound of punk rock with American roots music. In turn, this innovation helped to create the punk blues style as well as inspiring countless garage rock musicians. Several musicians have cited Fire of Love as an influence.


The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.
The songs become rock & roll ciphers, erasing themselves as soon as they speak, heading off into the whirlwind of a storm that is so big, so black, and so awful one cannot meditate on anything but its power. Fire of Love may be just what the doctor ordered, but to cure or kill is anybody's guess.

TRAXS

01. Sex Beat - 2:45
02. Preaching the Blues (Robert Johnson; arranged by Jeffrey Lee Pierce) - 3:58
03. Promise Me - 2:35
04. She's Like Heroin to Me - 2:33
05. For the Love of Ivy (Jeffrey Lee Pierce, Kid Congo Powers) - 5:31
06. Fire Spirit - 2:52
07. Ghost on the Highway - 2:43
08. Jack on Fire - 4:40
09. Black Train - 2:11
10. Cool Drink of Water (Tommy Johnson; traditional, arranged by Jeffrey Lee  Pierce) - 6:10
11. Goodbye Johnny - 3:41

Personnel


    Jeffrey Lee Pierce - vocals, slide guitar, backing vocals on "Jack on Fire"
    Ward Dotson - guitar, slide guitar, backing vocals on "Jack on Fire"
    Rob Ritter - bass
    Terry Graham - drums

Additional musicians

    Tito Larriva - producer, violin on "Promise Me"
    Chris D. - producer, backing vocals on "Jack on Fire"
    Lois Graham - backing vocals on "Jack on Fire"

SHE'S LIKE HEROIN TO ME  LYRICS

I cannot get a look at it
So I'm burning them on the deal anyway
I see her come down from the top of the stairs
I guess that I'd be cool but there's a tickle in my veins
I've been a real good tombstone but now I'm blowing away
She is like an eye-blue swimming pool
But she will never know that she is there
We sit together, drunk like our fathers used to be
I'm looking up and God is saying, "What are you gonna do?"
I'm looking up and I'm crying, "I thought it was up to you"
She's like heroin to me
She's like heroin to me
She's like heroin to me
She cannot miss a vein
Don't let her take her love to town
They will never fill her heart
She needs a passion like her fathers used to be
I know because I'm like the train shooting down the mainline
I know… 

6 comments:

  1. Jeffrey Lee Pierce was one of the most amazing artists to ever grace a stage. I was lucky enough to get to see the Gun Club play at the 9:30 Club in DC when I was in high school, and they just blew me away. I went to see them because I was a huge Blondie fan, and when Debbie Harry mentioned them in an interview and I found out that they were playing there, I HAD to see them. I got this album about a week before the show, and I've been a fan ever since. His death was one of the great tragedies of rock n' roll.

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    1. In April 1982, the Gun Club signed to Blondie guitarist Chris Stein's Animal Records, a subsidiary of Chrysalis Records.The band temporarily relocated to New York City to record their follow-up album, 1982's Miami.
      This album featured not only Stein as producer, but Blondie's Debbie Harry singing backup vocals on several tracks. D.H. Laurence Jr.(Debbie Harry) - backing vocals.Manny thanks for your comment my friend.

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  2. Wow... no matter how old you get, there is always something to learn about in the rock and roll world!
    Thanks for the great info and share of the tunes!
    It's right in my wheelhouse.

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  3. A classic album! Thank you for sharing!

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  4. Thank you, Immensely! ~ Suboxer

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