From Kira Ciliberto: With drugs, crime, and the do-or-die means of artistry in all its ghastly and authentic brilliance, no other LP presents mid-70s NYC like Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers sole full-length release ‘L.A.M.F.’, a sonic spew of raw, searing rock and roll with an encapsulation of influence from early 60s girl group pulp essentials to late 50s mastery of Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, and even a curl of Ventures snaked in around the edges.
Drummer Jerry Nolan and guitarist Johnny Thunders split with the New York Dolls' punk’s glam-trash roots at the same time that Richard Hell left Television, recruiting straight guy-by day Demon’s guitarist Walter Lure with two priorities, scoring smack around Hell’s Alphabet City appt and playing rock and roll with the desperate grit, street savvy, and experience all over every NYC dive there was.  They wanted a record deal, but this didn’t come with their growing reputation for heroin use, so they took the advice of their manager Leee Black Childers to join Malcom McLaren’s offer to play with the Sex Pistols in England. Once there, they were offered a deal to record an album with Track Records.  Preceded by several favorably received singles, L.A.M.F., released in 77 was widely condemned for its muddy mix, which was remixed multiple times, only to find that the problem lay in a mastering fault. With the original masters missing, multiple attempts to rerelease this in improved form from 1977-2021 occurred until the masters were finally found in sparkling clarity and as the Heartbreakers intended!