| Too Much Junkie Business | |
| Type: | demo |
| Artist: | The Heartbreakers |
| Album: | L.A.M.F.: The Lost '77 Mixes |
| Released: | 1994 |
| Recorded: | December 13, 1977 |
| Studio: | Riverside, London |
| Label: | Jungle |
| Producer: | Mike Thorne |
"Too Much Junkie Business" is a song written by Walter Lure of the New York punk band the Heartbreakers. Johnny Thunders sometimes introduced it as "written by Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, and Waldo (Lure)."[1] The lyrics are a black-humored takeoff on Chuck Berry's "Too Much Monkey Business" (1956), about the complications of everyday life. Its melody is the New York Dolls' version of "Pills" by Bo Diddley.[2] Thunders performed it often in his post-Heartbreakers career. Lure has said that he let Thunders take co-writing credit because "he liked it so much and he wished he’d wrote it".[3]
A Heartbreakers demo recorded for EMI appears on L.A.M.F.: The Lost '77 Mixes and live versions are included on many compilations. Walter Lure has performed it often with and without his band the Waldos. He and Billy Rath recorded a version in 1978 for Island Records which was never released.[4] With Dee Dee Ramone's "Chinese Rocks," the song became a nostalgic anthem of sorts for punk-era and Thunders memorial concerts and tributes.