• Steve Jones Mercy

'What kind of guy am I?' Asked singer-guitarist Steve Jones, absent-mindedly stroking his chin as he pondered the question. You could tell something caustic was coming. 'I'll tell you. I'm not the kind of guy a girl would take home to her mother. She'd kick the girl out and probably call the cops on me.' Jones looked smug.

Bajar - Download: La Polla Records - Los Jubilados. Publicadas por Punk Fanatic a la/s. Mercy - Steve Jones; Bajar-Download: After the Anarchy. Madden Jones Steve Jones.

He obviously still likes being thought of as a rowdy rogue-just like in the old days. When he was playing guitar with the Sex Pistols, the infamous English punk pioneers, back in the late '70s, he was notorious-a rowdy, boozing rascal who was totally out of control. Jones and his colleagues-Johnny Lydon, Sid Vicious and Paul Cook-terrorized the rock music world. What redeemed the Sex Pistols was the music, which Jones helped write. But those four young Englishmen were bigger than their music. People who had never heard the music knew about the Sex Pistols. They were vile, surly and obnoxious, preaching decadence and anarchy back when the Beastie Boys were still innocent schoolboys.

But, as Jones was quick to point out, the Sex Pistols are old business. Things have changed for him. He's starting a new career as a solo performer on MCA Records. His first album, 'Mercy,' is out Monday. But Jones hasn't yet turned into a spiffy yuppie. Though he was lunching at a fancy West Hollywood restaurant, Jones was decked out in a T-shirt and old jeans.

His long hair was in disarray, having been whipped around in the wind as he rode his motorcycle-a big Harley-Davidson-to the restaurant. Though he still looked like a tough, dangerous character, that look was somewhat misleading. By his own admission, Jones is fairly tame now. 'I've mellowed out,' he announced, his Cockney accent largely garbling the words. 'That happens when you get older.' At 31, Jones looks grizzled and worn. He's crammed a few decades worth of action into the last 10 years.

During that time, music wasn't his focus. It was drugs. From the time Jones left the Sex Pistols until two years and one month ago, he was a junkie. Ironically, kicking the heroin habit has made Jones more popular than anything he's done since leaving the Sex Pistols. People recognize him from his anti-drugs spot on MTV, which he proudly re-created: 'I'm polishing my motorcycle and the camera zooms in. I say, 'Hi, I'm Steve Jones.

I used to play guitar for the Sex Pistols. A good friend of mine, Sid Vicious, died from drugs. I nearly died from drugs. That's it-cool, real cool.' Jones recalled that, after the Sex Pistols split, he turned to drugs out of boredom and discontent. 'I didn't want to be what I was,' he said.

Steve Jones Mercy

'I wanted to be someone else. Drugs helped me feel like I was somebody else.' After the Sex Pistols, he played in two bands, the Professionals and Chequered Past. But those were fruitless exercises. 'I was only interested in getting high then,' he said. 'I had no interest in the music.

I was writing songs and I didn't know what I was writing about.' What convinced him to kick the habit? 'Some friends I used to get loaded with got straight,' he recalled.

'I ran into them. I had nowhere to live. I was this lowlife, scum-bag junkie, ripping off houses. They said come to this meeting.

I went because I thought I might get some money for drugs. But they got me to go to a detox center.

I've been straight ever since.' 'Mercy,' Jones' new MCA album, is more in the rock mainstream than you'd expect. Surprisingly, it's neither offensive, angry nor daring.

Though some songs rock fairly hard, they're all rather melancholy. His vocals most often resemble Bryan Ferry's-deep, droning and detached.

In lower registers, Jones' sexy growl is like Elvis Presley's. Actually, the album is very good. 'There's darkness on some of the songs,' Jones said. 'Maybe that's because things were pretty dark for me for many years. But there was no point in me doing punk songs. I don't even like them.'

'One minute I was kicking the hell out of people at football (soccer) matches and the next minute I was playing guitar in the Sex Pistols,' recalled Jones, just a novice guitarist when he started with the Sex Pistols. 'The whole thing wasn't that serious to us when we started out.

We were getting drunk and chasing women. When you were in a band, you could do all that. I wasn't a musician. I was a hoodlum.' Bad memories of that period still haunt him. 'I can listen to the Sex Pistols' music, but I don't like to do it too often. It brings back a lot of memories I don't particularly like.'

According to Jones, who wrote some of the Sex Pistols' songs, he didn't like a lot of the group's music. 'You can't listen to some of those songs,' he said. 'Johnny's weird way of singing gave them some distinction.

That's why some people liked them. To me, a lot of the tunes are just rot.'

Mercy by Released June 1987 Recorded, Image Recording Studios and Baby'O Recorders, Los Angeles, California Length 47: 00 Bob Rose, Paul Lani chronology Mercy (1987) (1989) 1989 Professional ratings Review scores Source Rating Mercy is a 1987 album. It was the first from Jones, a former member of the. The single 'Mercy' was used in a episode called 'Stone's War' and was also featured on the soundtrack album.

The song 'With You or Without You' was used in, and is on the soundtrack for, 's 1986 film. 'Raining in My Heart' was originally recorded as 'When Dreaming Fails', a 1985 demo with which they recorded at Olivier Ferrand's home studio in. Jones added new lyrics. Contents.

Track listing All songs by, except where indicated Side one. 'Mercy' – 5:04. 'Give It Up' – 4:55. 'That's Enough' – 4:05. 'Raining in My Heart' – 5:33. 'With You or Without You' – 4:29 Side two. 'Pleasure and Pain' – 4:51.

'Pretty Baby' – 6:01. 'Drugs Suck' – 4:30.

'Through the Night' – 4:43. ' (, ) – 2:57 Personnel.

– lead vocals, guitars, bass guitar, co-producer., – drums. Bob Rose, – keyboards For his solo debut, Jones chose a spare arrangement and played most instruments himself. He partners with just two drummers and a keyboardist as he 'gamely sing-speaks his way through'. Production. Bob Rose - producer. Paul Lani - producer on track 7, engineer, mixing on tracks 3 and 9.

Charlie Brocco, Cliff Kane, Jim Dineen - assistant engineers. mixing at, Can-Am Recorders,. mastering at Sterling Sound, New York. Jim Shea - photography Reception Critic notes that original Jones 'caught followers off guard' with this release. Unexpectedly, the album 'allows low-key, sentimental moments – like the title track, the hopelessly sappy 'Love Letters' and others – to mingle with the rock numbers'. References.