Jerry Nolan Take A Chance With Me & Show # 422

 

Jerry Nolan is perhaps best known as being the drummer in The New York Dolls and Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers, he however has been involved in numerous groups and in 1982 he released a one off single. The single was titled Take A Chance With Me, but the song dates back to the mid 70s. After leaving the New York Dolls due to a number of factors, one being the bands lack of direction Jerry Nolan along with Johnny Thunders left the New York Dolls to form a new group, Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers. When forming this group in 1975, then known as The Heartbreakers, the band initially featured Richard Hell on bass, eventually Hell left the group and Walter Lure was added as second guitarist and Billy Rath on bass. With this line up The Heartbreakers became Johnny Thunders and The Heartbreakers. While in The Heartbreakers, Nolan wrote the song “Take A Chance With Me” among others and usually worked with Walter Lure as a song writing partner, before bringing the song to The rest of The Heartbreakers.

While the song was played with Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers the song never made it onto their LAMF studio album, it did however appear on the Live At Max’s Kansas City release. Following the release of LAMF in 1977, Jerry Nolan who was disappointed with the result of the mixes, left the group. He would continue to play off and on with Johnny Thunders as a solo artist and also for Heartbreakers reunions in 1979 and 1984. After relocating to Sweden with his wife in 1982, Jerry recorded the Take A Chance With Me single at Decibel Studios in Stockholm, Sweden. The single featured Jerry on vocals and drums, his backing band was the Teneriffa Cowboys, which featured Michael Thimren on guitar/vocals, Bonne Lofman on guitar/vocals, Sylo Eliason on bass. The recording of Take A Chance With Me also features ex-New York Doll Sylvain Sylvain on keyboards. The b-side to this track was a new track at the time penned by Jerry Nolan called “Pretty Baby”. Both tracks exuded elements of his Proto-Punk, and Heartbreakers sound while also featuring what some say are underlying hints of Power Pop. The single was not only produced by Jerry, but also mixed by him. When released in Sweden it sold poorly, it is now a collectable and greatly sought after. Through out this 1982-1983 period Jerry Nolan also recorded two additional tracks with this line up, the Chuck Berry cover “Havana Moon” which was featured on the Sword – The Best In Scandinavian Rock compilation in 1984, and “Countdown Love” which was released posthumously on a split single with Johnny Thunders in 1997, Jerry Passed away in 1992 shortly after his long time friend Johnny Thunders passed in 1991.

The Take A Chance With Me single represents a short period of time in Jerry Nolan’s music career which initially started in the late 60s. Jerry Nolan is often accredited to the bands he had played with The New York Dolls, Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers as a great drummer, whenever he played and whoever he played with he was always in the pocket, holding the rhythm section down, but he was also a great musician. This single is evidence of this, Jerry had the ability to keep the beat in the background, but when he came to the forefront he could also deliver. Another element of Jerry’s career and those of the Dolls and Heartbreakers was the role of drugs that played in the music. In an interview for Swedish television’s Studio B in 1982, Jerry had this to say on the connection between drugs and music:

"It kinda varies I guess, you know? Some people might look at it as a romantic type of thing where they say wow I guess they’re that good because they’re on drugs. But that is definitely not so, I think that a musician just sticks to his art and spends more time on that then he does on drugs or anything else."

And that’s exactly what he did in his music career, he stuck to his art regardless of all the other factors surrounding the music. Take A Chance With Me represents exactly that statement. It is a short single backed with “Pretty Baby” that serves as an underrated moment in Nolan’s career, where he stuck to his art.

This Week's Play List:

1. Cold Warps – Endless Bummer
2. Thee Oh Sees – Wax Face
3. The Mark Inside – Lime Green Monkeys
4. Eric's Trip - Unnoticed
6. The Vapids - Mikey Was A Punk
7. The Shades – New Clientelle
8. Active Dog – Fun While It Lasts
9. No Fun – Mindless Agreesion
10. New York Dolls - Jet Boy
11. New York Dolls - There Is Gonna Be A Showdown
12. Ry Cooder – Kool-Aid
13. The Black Angels – Black Grease
14. Richard Hell & The Voidoids – The Kid With The Replaceable Head
15. Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers - Take A Chance With Me (Demo)
16. The Pack AD - Lights
17. The Idols – You
18. Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers – I Wanna Be Loved
19. Destroyer - The Sublimation Hour
20. Little Girls - Youth Tunes
21. Wire - It's So Obvious
22. Jerry Nolan – Take A Chance With Me
23. Jerry Nolan – Pretty Baby

To download this weeks program, visit CJAM's schedule page for Revolution Rock and download the file for September 18. Or subscribe to Revolution Rock as a Podcast.