Lone Justice: Go 'Way Little Boy (Live in '85)

"I was a big Lone Justice fan...(Maria McKee) was so young and so good. But she got told that way too much."

Jason Ringerberg, Babylon's Burning

Getting labeled promising in the mid-eighties via endorsements by such figures as Bob Dylan, Jimmy Iovine, U2, David Geffen, Emmylou Harris, Tom Petty and Linda Ronstadt ended up destroying L.A.'s Lone Justice's shot at cow-punk glory. Instead, after an almost-great album, Maria McKee ended up alone with Mimi Steve Van Zandt making a soulless, mercenary grab for eighties pop radio gold before finally striking out under her own name.


As proof of their anointing, their debut album from 1985 featured not only an unreleased Tom Petty song ("Ways to be Wicked) but also, as a B-side, a Dylan out-take from from his 1984 album Empire Burlesque called "Go 'Way Little Boy". Dylan himself plays on the song, which, not unlike his own version, never rises much past the pleasant mark.


16 is Bob Dylan's solo version "Go 'Way Little Boy"
11 is Lone Justice (w/ Bob Dylan) doing "Go 'Way Little Boy"

"We were fairly radical. We had all these punk rock influences. My style of music [which] had always been very raw and urgent...got sublimated by people who thought it would impede commercial progress. The minute the record business was involved, I was fodder to these satin-jacketed men."

Maria McKee, Babylon's Burning

Lone Justice's lived and died by Maria McKee's voice. It was a bold and powerful instrument but it was frequently showcased to such a degree that it overshadowed the songs, the band and anything else that got in the way. Their earlier work, from which era this FM broadcast originates, still sounds like a real band, and a damn fine one too.


Live at The Paradise Theater link is in the comments


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