The Gun Club - Fire of Love (1981)

 Terry Graham- drums, Rob Ritter-bass

Ward Dotson- guitar and slide guitar

Jeffrey Lee Pierce- slide guitar and vocals

 Back in 2009 I wrote, in a post on The Gun Club's Miami: Anyway- I’m sure that you’ve all got Fire of Love- it should be ubiquitous, like Dark Side of the Moon, Sgt Pepper’s and After the Goldrush. 
Having just listened to this LP for the first time in a while I had to post it.
The energy of punk infused with a dark and swampy blues.
The words 'nigger' and 'fuck(ing)' appear quite a few times.


http://d01.megashares.com/dl/ylICWd1/The Gun Club Fire of Love.rar

Next time you're looking at the books in the charity shop keep an eye out for Go Tell the Mountain: The Stories and Lyrics of Jeffrey Lee Pierce- It's going for a hundred and ten quid on Amazon.

The Gun Club- Miami (1982)

I was ‘on’ Facebook the other day… I thought that picking your five all time greatest albums would be close to impossible and of course it is. But I used the intuitive approach and didn’t ponder for to long, a sort of an automatic selection. Just in case anybody’s interested here were my choices:
The Clash- London Calling
The Smiths- Hatful of Hollow
Orange Juice- You Can’t Hide Your Love Forever
The Velvet Underground and Nico
The Gun Club- Fire of Love.

As with any list of five drawn from tens of thousands there are regrettable omissions (Pixies, Joy Division…). But on reflection the selection of Fire of Love seemed so obvious. Merging punk with blues and throwing in some rockabilly symbolism it is still a very exciting record.
Anyway- I’m sure that you’ve all got Fire of Love- it should be ubiquitous, like Dark Side of the Moon, Sgt Pepper’s and After the Goldrush. So here’s another offering from The Gun Club. As an aside Jeffrey Lee Pierce was a devoted fan of Blondie, president of their fan club, and this LP was produced by Blondie’s Chris Stein.

Line up:
Jeffrey Lee Pierce-vocals, piano guitar
Rob Ritter- bass
Terry Graham- drums
Ward Dotson -guitar
Chris Stein -bongos
D.H. Laurence Jr. - backing vocals

Jeffrey Lee Pierce- Ramblin' Jeffrey Lee & Cypress Grove with Willie Love (1992)

I beat scars into my arms waiting for an early death- JLP

Here’s a blues album.
Ramblin' Jeffrey Lee, is of course,Jeffrey Lee Pierce (June 27 1958 - March 31 1996) frontman of one of the most exciting bands of the 1980's, The Gun Club, who churned out a haunting mix of blues and punk . If you like high octane music with a dark edge and you haven't heard their 1981 masterpiece Fire of Love, then get it today. If you can't find it anywhere let me know and i'll post it.
Go Tell The Mountain, Pierce's slim volume of autobiography and lyrics, is much sought after, often changing hands for £100 or more, so if you see it in the local Oxfam it's a good investment.
This 1992 LP features a couple of Pierce numbers and versions of songs by blues masters such as Howlin Wolf, Skip James and Son House.
I don’t know much about guitarist Cypress Grove except that he took his name from a Skip James number.Of the others i know even less.
Line up:
Ramblin'Jeffrey Lee - guitars & vocals
Cypress Grove - guitars
Willie Love - drums
Carl La Fong - acoustic bass, bass guitar
Kimberley S. - bluesharp
produced by Jeffrey Lee Pierce