You Can't Put Your Arms Round a Memory

You Can't Put Your Arms Round a Memory Review by Greg Prato

Throughout his musical career, rumors always swirled around guitarist Johnny Thunders concerning his well-being and his drug use. It was common knowledge that the influential guitarist partied hard, and Thunders made no secret about his tumultuous personal life in such songs as "Chinese Rocks" and especially the ballad "You Can't Put Your Arms Round a Memory." One of four songs on his 1978 solo album, So Alone, to be entirely written by Thunders, it is both sobering and chilling lyrically. It appears as though Thunders is apologizing and predicting his eventual death due to his lifestyle (he succumbed to a heroin overdose in New Orleans in 1991). Musically, the song is classic Thunders -- sloppy guitar playing that's full of attitude, very similar to his idol and main musical influence, Keith Richards. New York Dolls/Thunders-admirers Guns N' Roses would later cover the song on their 1993 all-covers release The Spaghetti Incident.