Under The Influence

Thunder's passing has always seemed like such an injustice to me. OK, so he was the hardest rocking junkie punk in the whole industry... but still, he'd kinda cleaned up his act. Besides, he was still creating really kick-ass music - 1998's Copy Cats being a perfect example.

There are all sorts of interesting elements on Copy Cats (which, not surprisingly, is a covers album); Rockabilly, surf-guitar, rock, pop. Embarrassingly I'm unfamiliar with most of the covers on here. More research required methinks.

I always like to think of Thunders as a bubble-gum pop artist - the emphasis is often placed on the lighter side of the tunes. And listening to Love is Strange now I still think it's a valid description. As always his guitar work is exquisite - it always was on the studio recordings, it's when he stuck a needle in his arm and stumbled out onto the stage that things got a bit inconsistent.

R.I.P. Mr Thunders.