Resurrection of a classic
After Track Records went out of business, manager Leee Black Childers took possession of all of The Heartbreakers' tapes; the Essex demos, the Speakeasy live recordings and the masters from the L.A.M.F. sessions, including thirty-five reels full of various mixes, from the Track Records offices, thanks in part to the contract provision the band signed early in 1977.In 1982, the rights to The Heartbreakers' tapes were acquired from Childers, acting on behalf of the band partnership, by Jungle Records, an independent English label. Jungle convinced Thunders and former Generation X bassist Tony James (then with Sigue Sigue Sputnik) to remix L.A.M.F., but the results met with mixed reaction from purists.
Johnny Thunders died in 1991 and Jerry Nolan died in 1992.
In 1994, Jungle Records executive Alan Hauser had all of The Heartbreakers' tapes reviewed, and had the best available mixes preserved on Digital Audio Tape. It was soon discovered by Hauser that many of the original mixes left behind by The Heartbreakers were best suited to the band's protopunk sound, while others had a sound similar to sixties pop hits. It was finally realized that the problem with the sound on the original Track Records release of L.A.M.F. lay in the manufacturing of the vinyl records. A rare cassette edition, released by Track at the same time, "sounds as if it had a shower, shave, coffee and a cigarette". (liner notes of 2002 reissue by Nina Antonia, p.10).
The 300-plus available mixes were narrowed down to a shortlist of fifty tracks, and various London-area friends and colleagues of Johnny Thunders, including sometime Thunders collaborator Patti Palladin and journalist Nina Antonia, were asked for their input. The mixes used were primarily what Hauser and company considered to be the "rockier, punchier" versions. This edition of L.A.M.F. was amended with a bonus disc featuring studio outtakes, demo versions of three tracks, and other related tracks and alternate mixes, including demos of "London Boys" and "Too Much Junkie Business" that the band recorded for EMI.
The first edition of what is sometimes referred to as L.A.M.F.: The Lost '77 Mixes was released by Jungle in 1994. Eight years later, a remastered edition, appended with an MPEG video of "Chinese Rocks", was released; this is the version currently in print. Henry Rollins picked L.A.M.F.: The Lost '77 Mixes as the recommended version of the album (over L.A.M.F. Revisited) in his 2005 book Fanatic!.
