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… 

 

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