“Johnny Hit and Run Paulene” (1983) * Written by John Doe and Exene * Produced by Ray Manzarek * LP: Los Angeles * Label: Slash
X became the vibrant Los Angeles punk scene’s spokespeople, doing themselves a historiographical favor by calling their first album Los Angeles and getting LA rock icon Ray Manzarek (the Doors’ keyboardist) into the producer’s chair. They also had a memorability knack – the dual lead vocals of Exene and John Doe could sound arrestingly tribal, and the guitar work of Billy Zoom was as rock ‘n’ roll classicist as that of the Sex Pistols’ Steve Jones. The song on the debut LP that stuck in most listeners’ heads was “Johnny Hit and Run Paulene,” a dutiful punk mangle-up of the Johnny myth, complete with a close-enough “Johnny B. Goode” guitar intro, in which “go Johnny go” had implications of drug-fueled sexual violence. It was a demonstration of how the iconoclastic turn, in rock ‘n’ roll, often serves traditionalism just fine.