New York Dolls

Why were the Dolls so goddam special? Weeeell…as someone much wiser than me once quipped – if ya gotta ask then y’ll never know..!!. You either get it or you don’t!

Rewind… I guess ya hadda be there too!  Way back in the early 70’s the oft mentioned (and now forgotten – as todays teens are boringly middle aged at 15) generation gap was REAL maan.. Marc Bolan had single handedly kickstarted our very own golden age of rock n roll with a handful of shimmering, killer diller 45’s…. Glam inspired fierce loyalties and had the kinda influence on just EVERYTHING that you couldn’t imagine today.. It was awesome to see a whole nation of bootboys (and bootgirls) sporting earrings and spiky Bowie cuts…and the music was noisy, glitzy, sexy and wildly intoxicating and got weirder and just more fucking amazing by the day! Remember this was the era when MOR bastion BBC Radio One played ‘Walk On The Wild Side’ to death – a song obviously celebrating junkies, trannies blow jobs and all round general decadence….sure wouldn’t happen today bub!

And then just when ya thunk nuthin’ could go any further or be more shocking…yup! Taadaa! Up stepped our hapless heroes in the shape of the faaaabulous New York Dolls….and the whole world shifted on it’s axis…and we’re still feeling the shock waves almost 30 years later..

I loved the name – always a good sign! – and one look at the picture and I was hooked. It was that simple. You either got it..and embraced and worshipped The Dolls wholeheartedly – or ya hated, despised and condemned ‘em. No middle ground.  I devoured the music press for anything and everything on ‘em…and pre ordered the records at a local record shop. The more I read the more I knew I’d hit paydirt…Every story was wilder than the last – every stunt more outrageous, every anecdote more improbable! Try this fer size! Johansen had starred in porn flicks..(‘Bike Boys Go Ape’ anyone?) Thunders threw up everywhere…they all fucked anything that moved…(and anything that didn’t!) and they insulted and outraged everyone they came across…and gobbled up enough drugs to keep Columbia’s economy buoyant for years! Whatta contrast with the dull ‘I’m a serious artist’ whinin’ and rock operas on ice that the music biz drooled over at the time!  These guys were different and dangerous and you  KNEW they weren’t faking it!  The ads and reviews of the first LP whetted my appetite and by the time the Dolls were booked to appear on the OGWT I was pissing myself with excitement.!  And so (like many many others!) I sat in front of the TV with a crappy cassette recorder and hand held mic just waiting for the Dolls to appear.

Now, as always, the OGWT was a dull, tedious smug bore of a show. Wanky hippy shit with the mealy mouthed baldy beardy Bob Harris fawning pompously over every burned out left over reject from the late 60s..I hated it! He was like the older guys at the youth clubs we went to who sneered at our T.Rex 45s and tried to put on Yes LPs instead…(which we always forcibly removed I’m eternally proud to confess!) …and then on stumbled the Dolls – careering brilliantly through Lookin For A Kiss and Jetboy….I was stunned…gobsmacked and just plain fuckin’ blown away! I’d thunk I was hep with my Bowie, Reed and Iggy  LPs..but this was sumthin’ much much wilder!

More eloquent folks (Hi Nina!) have called it an epiphany.! I’ll not argue with that! It really was a life changing event!

See..with the Dolls the music was only half the story..to see ‘em in action – even on TV – was a whole different ballgame.. One look at these sleazy semi transvestite fag hag frankensteins and you knew this was it! Sure one mighta looked like Jagger – if he was still pretty – and one looked like Bolan – before the puppy fat – but what was that huge birds nest on Johnny Thunders’ head? And just what galaxy (never mind planet) was the bassist from..? And even with all the satin and tat they just looked so goddam RIGHTEOUS…so goddam COOL!  They just didn’t give a fuck and went totally apeshit ..and their music was so goddammed raunchy, sexy and thrilling!

I was totally mesmerised!  Even better Bob Harris loathed ‘em – whispering feeble asides about ‘em being ‘mock rock’ and being ‘to the Stones what the Monkees were to the Beatles’ – what a smug cunt! First time I’d ever heard him snub a band…and the final seal of approval for me!!  And I wasn’t the only one! That one TV appearance changed history !!  Remember, back then there were 3 TV channels and not a lot else to do…so most everyone, young and old, watched TV…and so MILLIONS of folks got to see the Dolls stumble be raggedly right into their living room…

Natch most folks hated ‘em…but to the rest of us..well nuthin’ was ever the same since…and STILL after all these years I meet people who remember sitting down to watch that show and whose lives were totally turned inside out…

For me the Dolls real impact was in their attitude…Disappointingly even most of the glam bands had wanted to be taken seriously. Many of ‘em were sixties throwbacks and were almost ashamed of their success.. The Dolls were young blood – a new generation who wanted everything and wanted it NOW! They were OURS! And nobody came close – and inspired so many people in so many ways!

Song wise they were unbeatable…three minute three chord footstompin’ classics – slapping together the sheer panache and spunk of the wildest early 50’s rockers (many of whom who were not exactly averse to lipstick powder and paint!) along with the bittersweet melody of the Noo Yoik girl groups and raw street corner gang bang doo wop and rollickin’ R+B the Dolls came up with their very own unique sound…single handedly dragging rock n roll kicking and screaming into the 70s! Like all true greats and innovators the Dolls not only had their own sound but also their very own look and style..sado sluts on smack mebbe – but look at them the wrong way and there’d be trouble…

Some prats claim the Dolls couldn’t play..WRONG.. They were fuckin musical geniuses! Many have tried to copy em since – and ALL have failed miserably..It’s that simple!

Other equally vapid scholars have claimed that their only significance lay in the fact that they were the first band to show that anyone could do it – which has an element of truth – but which I personally find condescending and insulting. Why Da Dolls inspired folks wasn’t because they were sloppy or that it was somehow easy to sound like them (which it so patently wasn’t and isn’t!..) but ‘cos they DID remind everyone that true rock’n’roll was sexy, sassy and in your face and FUN! (remember that!…)

A glorious two fingers to the whole world – if ya don’t like it…then fuck off! What an attitude ..irresistible!  And hey! Who wouldn’t wanna go out and start a band like that!

Also the fact remains…They just looked and sounded like the greatest band to ever walk the earth.. The chemistry was there in spades – sumthin ya can’t fake! I mean fer chrissakes folks even all had their fave Doll…!  Also they were young dumb hungry and angry and just didn’t give a shit…and you can’t fake that either (though McClaren tried time and time again).. They never set out to change the world…(but did!) They just wanted to party party and then party…and in the dismal 70s with strikes three day weeks and all sorts of shit (especially here in wunnerful Belfast..) they were a blinding ray of hope amidst the darkness..  Compare their  seven day weekend with lashing of sex drugs an rock n roll and any other debauchery ya ever dreamed of with your shitty dead end existence in a dead end town…I mean who wouldn’t wanna follow in their footsteps!

Don’t get me wrong though…back then people DIDN’T wanna clone the Dolls…that woulda been silly.. Sure I worshipped at the altar of Thunders but I never wanted to have fucking long hair – perish the though! Or EVER wear lame ass platforms…That whole idea of copying bands is dumb, lazy and very 80’s/90’s.. Mind you Thunders’ black leather jacket with the skull an bones on the back was ultra neat – and his guitar playing was truly incendiary!  Listening to Johnny made me wanna play…but I never copied him slavishly… Same for the junkie schtick.. that always fuckin’ sickened me – and JT was the best advert I ever saw for staying off drugs. ( I know some folks probably fell for that angle – but wasted junkie chic woulda been a pile of pretentious wank for a 13 year old teenager in Belfast…)

The impact the Dolls had was HUGE…Likin’ em was a sure sign of good taste.. I carried their LPs round school with pride..gladdened and vindicated when folks laffed at em …cos I knew I was cool and they weren’t! (..and face it wasn’t I right!)

It was like a forbidden religion or secret society  – only ya you wanted to go out and convert everyone in the world to the cause!  Battle lines were drawn – if someone liked the Dolls they were generally good people with wit, intelligence and snappy taste – and you had a pal for life. If they hated the Dolls they were probably lunkheads with lousy taste and no brains and you ignored ‘em..  Back then people who liked the Dolls tended to be creative and imaginative and one step ahead of the pack..

For example…Back in 75/76 I saw an ad in the NME where a guy in Manchester was hopin’ to set up a New York Dolls fan club.. Turned out to be Steven Morrissey (The Smiths) and though the club never took off we swapped long passionate letters about the Dolls for years! And like so many folks who dug the Dolls ethos we both went out and started bands…(though his ventures were somewhat more successful in the long term! ) Factor that throughout towns and cities throughout the land and lo and behold you have ..PUNK ROCK! (yawn!)

See it’s as simple as this – without the Dolls there woulda been no PUNK ROCK!!  Most every band in the early days played a Dolls song…or at least one ‘influenced’ by our heroes…!  RUDI’s first self penned song ‘Alcohol’ started with the riff from ‘It’s Too Late’  (the full title was ‘Fill Your Balls With Alcohol’ – which kinda explains why commercial success was not around the corner..)  The Undertones swiped the same riff to kick off ‘Get over You’…and there are many many other such examples.. Similarly, the number of rats nest Thunders cuts (once he got rid of the flowing locks) was alarming (OK I do gotta own up to that!)….

There are even stronger direct links to McClaren. , whose erstwhile protégés copped every riff and pose straight from the Dolls…and they were so guilty about it they hadda deny it in their lumpen ditty ‘New York’ – methinks they doth protest too much! (Thunders put ‘em in their box with ‘London Boys’ even roping in two ex Pistols to play on it…did I say DUMB or what!) And it was no accident that the Heartbreakers were treated as conquering heroes when they hit these shores for the Anarchy Tour…Whilst talcy Malcy was quick to try and pull the punters by adding  ‘ex New York Dolls’ to the posters I’m sure he was dismayed that when they did finally get to play Thunder’s crew wiped the floor with their UK counterparts..! Ironic huh!

Still…it’s a new millennium and it’s been fun to watch another two or three generations flip their wigs over New York’s finest.. Not so much fun to watch the watered down rip off merchants get fat and rich whilst the original Dolls were snubbed, reviled and shafted metaphorically, financially and any other way ya can think of….No happy endings here either as Billy, Johnny and Jerry died long before their time…Art left for dead and Syl (the most under rated and quite possibly the most talented Doll!) flat broke and busted…(down but not out…check out his recent work!) and only Davey Jo finally retaining his cool and still showing the rest of us how it should be done..

Still unlike so many of their contemporaries the New York Dolls still stand the test of time…and always will! I’m just glad I was there first time round! …

’When I say I’m in love you’d best believe I’m in love…LUV!’   

Brian Young. 8.11.2001

Just two albums but seismic in their impact. As seminal as anything by the Velvet Underground or The Stooges. Essential listening to understand what became Punk Rock afterwards.

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New York Dolls – 1973

Arguments over Todd Rungren’s production and a year that saw them pronounced the best and worst band of the year in music magazine Creem saw this seminal album come out would influence Punk rock.

Given all the shitty, banal music that hit the airwaves in 1973, I would characterize the failure of the listening public to embrace The New York Dolls as somewhere between tragic and astonishingly stupid. Looking back at the miasmic environment of 1970’s America, yanks would have been a lot better off rocking out to “Personality Crisis,” “Trash” and “Subway Train” than fretting about gas lines, scaring themselves silly over horrifying stories of rampant crime on the streets or in the White House, and trying to soothe their shattered nerves with heavy doses of Carly Simon, Elton John, Dawn and . . . (yecch) Wings.

In contrast to bland-and-boring, The Dolls provided nothing less than great rock ‘n’ roll—the kind of rock that empowers the spirit and shakes attitudes as well as hips. And if there’s one thing Americans needed in the 1970’s, it was a serious attitude adjustment. It’s too bad the public rejected what The Dolls had to offer, choosing instead to drift down the path of fear and denial only to end the decade in an atmosphere of malaise and disco music.

Because for one brief period in music history, there was no one on Earth as good as The New York Dolls in capturing the vibrant, rebellious and erotic magic of rock ‘n’ roll. AltRockChick

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Too Much Too Soon – 1974

Although it is more geared toward cover versions than it’s predecessor, the eponymous album by the Dolls, this second and final album by the original lineup is by far the superior album. ‘The New York Dolls in Too Much Too Soon’ is both a key text of Glam Rock and Punk Rock. Dripping with bags of attitude, loads of fun, ridiculously and ebulliently energetic and strutting, the Dolls make the Stones look like teddy bears with their stuffing ripped out of them. Plus, the Dolls were cuter, right girls? Who needs Aerosmith when you coulda had dese boiys?

Like being punched hard in the face with a big soft pillow, this album will make you want to stomp around your house with one hand on your hip while you wag an admonishing finger in the face of your head-shaking girlfriend as you show her that you can be a bigger, more gossipy bitch than any woman ever could. A feather boa made of chrome, tracks like ‘Babylon’ and ‘Don’t Start Me Talkin’ will show her that camping it up with mojo is something only real rock and roll mensch do well – David Johanssen makes Handsome Dick Manitoba of The Dictators look a like a big girls’ blouse on this record (incidentally, if you like the Dolls and don’t own ‘Go Girl Crazy’ by The Dictators, buy it now).

‘Stranded in the Jungle’ is a hoot, ‘Showdown’ makes spectoresque pop look lame and the girly-fronted ‘Chatterbox’ is gum-chewing sullenness as poetry.’ Puss’n’Boots’ is of course the track that the Sex Pistols lifted for ‘Liar’, only changing the lyrics – good for them, they had impeccable taste! Thunders and Sylvain invented the whole cowboy-lick guitars that gave Steve Jones his signature sound and of course McClaren gave Steve Sylvain’s old white Gibson guitar. Jerry Nolan is in the pocket writ large and bassist Arthur Kane made Glen Buxton from Alice Cooper look positively futuristic on the human evolution scale. What’s not to love. Reaper Amazon Review May 2014

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Red Patent Leather – 1984

Released in 1984 but recorded in New York a decade earlier, in March 1975, just a month before the group broke up while on tour in Florida. The record sees the New York Dolls in transit having hooked up with McLaren who was looking to use the band to provoke dressing them up in red leather and latex and sticking them in front of a hammer and sickle in conservative America.

The band were too far gone however with personal problems and McLaren would return to England and apply the blueprint to his next band the Sex Pistols and the rest as they say is history.

The song selection is also special compared to the well-known studio and live releases, with new songs and a series of rarely heard blues/RNR classics, along with a few hits at the end. This also clearly shows the beginning of the band’s decay, the solo ambitions of Johnny (here they already play Private Love, which was released on the Heartbreakers LP in 1977). And the apparently stronger influence of Sylvain Sylvain with several self-written, strong songs (as well as Red Patent Leather).

The sound or rather the mix has good bootleg quality, which has its appeal due to the direct live atmosphere and the energy of the band… that must have sounded when you were there live. Unfortunately, the guitars are hardly to be heard (!!!) , while Nolan’s drums were probably right on the microphone (which is really great, because their sound is really good). On the other hand, the much too loud and shrill keyboards sometimes annoy… Nevertheless, due to the energetic performance, the direct live experience and the many previously unknown and strong songs for fans an absolute must and definitely an important extension to the well-known collection. Amazon Review

Paul Cook There’s still a lot of talk that New York started the punk scene and we ripped them off, or some bullshit. People think we were influenced by it. But we weren’t The track was ultimately a put down of that scene. We thought we could do it better and we did.  Sleeve notes to ‘Kiss This.’

Malcolm McLaren The Sex Pistols were identical to the New York Dolls…and they were identical in terms of their actions. Please Kill Me

Glam was essentially dispensable fun; it was vacant and directionless. All image and no substance. Ok maybe sexually subversive but not a lot more. The New York Dolls suffered too from this and more. Yeah they were rock’n’roll in spades, short snappy songs to react against the boring farce music had become and yeah their lyrics had attitude but hell they were too ugly to be pin ups, too wasted to be effective, controversial yes but hell barbarians at the gate? nahhh. More like the cast of Prisoner in Cell Block H and ultimately disposable. Unlike the UK the media and general public in the USA weren’t shocked…they never had a manager like Malcy boy pulling the strings and when they did they never understood the reasoning . You can’t argue with their influence tho….. from the American punks to the the first wave of British punk they were the reference point and fucking good!

More than that, the link with Malcolm McClaren is obvious as their manager for a short but undistinguished period of time. The Dolls were the first band  that met his expectations of rebel rock. His first attempt to dress such a band was not a qualified success not helped by them being on their last legs with drug wastage. 

Malcolm McLaren I was trying to do with the Sex Pistols what I had failed with the New York Dolls.  Please Kill Me

Syl Sylvain…’Malcolm…he always wanted me to come over and start a group called the Sex Pistols’ Search & Destroy #8

Malcolm McLaren It was a stupid idea of mine…no way Hell or Syl would have fit in with the Pistols. Hell and Syl had years on the Pistols…the Pistols were incredibly naive. Please Kill Me

After first unsuccessfully attempting to get Sylvain then Richard Hell to come to the UK and form a band, he instead took some of the sartorial ideas of the latter and the guitar of the former – the famous white Gibson Les Paul – ended up in Steve Jones’s hands. Steve idolized Thunders and aped and copied his moves.

Steve Jones …And I just got into that fucking album of theirs! I thought it was great, just the rawness of it. And y’know Thunders guitar was what I really dug at the time. Spiral Scratch Aug 1990

Glen Matlock Steve used to copy all Johnny Thunders moves ..he used to practise them.  Punk77 interview 2001

Both bands combined outrageous behaviour with outrageous clothes but God the Sex Pistols just looked so cool…hell you could start a revolution just with the clothes alone. We wanted to look like them not Lily Savage !!!!

Comparisons are futile. UK punk certainly owes a lot to the Dolls but as we have seen it owes something to a lot of things. The point is it added something else to make it its own. Would the Pistols have existed without the Dolls …quite probably…and then again ….you decide…we’re lucky to have them both.

Musicians Wanted ‘Decadent 3rd generation rock’n’roll image essential. New York Dolls Style.’ Melody Maker Advert. Mick Jones/Tony James London SS

Wanted’ Whizz kid  guitarist Not older than 20 Not worse looking than Johnny Thunders’  Sex Pistols Melody Maker ad 1976

The Pistols were the first out of the block with this pisstake of The New York Dolls giving them a good verbal going over. The reply was by Johnny Thunders below and the irony is that Steve Jones and Paul Cook play on the Thunders track. What I can argue is the Pistols win hands down in the sarcasm and verbal punching stakes. That said given the divide between Jones and Rotten maybe they enjoyed the chance to get on over their singer! To be fair Thunders also used it as a riposte to The Clash and Joe Strummer and their Bored With The USA song. In the end though we get two great songs!

Johnny Rotten The New York Scene…the mythology of it became unbearable. The song is a reaction to that…Everything that came out of there was poetry based and too arty. These people were older than us and with more old-fashioned attitudes.