New York Dolls

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New York Dolls

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It was 30 years ago today (27 Jul 2003) that The New York Dolls debut album hit record store shelves. I think it's safe to say, these thirty years would have been much different had that record not come out.

It has been suggested that The New York Dolls emerged in 1973 just as The Rolling Stones relavence was ebbing (a point I might argue if provoked). And, as if things don't happen all on their own, one might look at The Dolls and see a trashier, dumbed-down lip-stick-smeared drag-queen version of Jagger and Richards (especially David Johansen and Johnny Thunders - it's uncanny!) but musically made up of equal parts Iggy Pop swamp-monster sleaze, Lou Reed's gritty street-sense, T. Rex's jangly mess, and the charging glam-jam of David Bowie. The result was The New York Dolls were louder, and even more strung-out than their peers.

Iggy Pop once said that he single-handedly killed the sixties. That may be so, but it wasn't until July 27th, 1973 that The New York Dolls came kicking and screaming, in their high heels and track-marked arms, it wasn't until then that they showed us how good and gritty bad music can sound.

The punk scene would have been much different minus The Dolls. It's unlikely The Ramones would have done it quite the way they did, and The Sex Pistols certainly wouldn't have happened. In fact, Malcolm McLaren managed the tail end of The Dolls before he moved back to England to create The Sex Pistols. Malcolm dressed The Dolls in patent red leather and draped giant sickle & hammer red flags behind them on stage, all this to upset the American public. None of his antics seemed to work with The Dolls, as they were nodding out of consciousness more than half of the time. It may have been easier for Malcolm McLaren to go from a band with two zonked junkies to a band with only one.

'I was trying to do with the Sex Pistols what I had failed with the New York Dolls' --Malcolm McLaren

In fact, Malcolm wanted to hire either Sylvain Sylvain of The New York Dolls or Richard Hell (then of Television) to front his incomplete Sex Pistols.

'Malcolm...he always wanted me to come over and start a group called the Sex Pistols' --Sylvain Sylvain

...and in retrospect:

'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 naïve.' --Malcolm McLaren

The Sex Pistols, on the other hand, perhaps spawned at least partly by The Dolls, rejected the accusation completely on their song called New York. Johnny Rotten explained he and the rest of the band were sick and tired of Malcolm McLaren endlessly going on about The Dolls and The New York scene, which the Pistols felt was too poetry based and arty. New York was their reaction against The New York Dolls.

Johnny Thunders and drummer Jerry Nolan, after the demise of The New York Dolls, formed The Heartbreakers with Richard Hell (who didn't stay long). Amoung the many great punk songs that Johnny Thunders is responsible for, one is a response to The Sex Pistols nasty New York called London Boys. It was more brutal than the flimsy musical fight Lennon and MacCartney employed on their albums.

But it was with their debut album, only 11 songs, that the Dolls created all that haggard, whacked and wasted neo-Euro clumsy art rock. A fantastic set of stripped down freak-out garage-boogie.

I write this review as an original fan of the NY Dolls from 30 years ago (even saw them live in '74 at the Joint in the Woods in New Jersey when they showed up an hour late, and too wasted to play.) Bought their first and second albums after reading about them in Rolling Stone magazine, 'cause even the progressive FM radio stations in N.Y. (like W-NEW) wouldn't play them. Loved their glitter rock punk Stonish image (it was all about image back then) but stopped playing the album after 4 or 5 spins. Guess it was because none of the songs (except "Personality Crisis" and "Looking for a Kiss") really stuck with me. I still have the original vinyl that I'm sure wasn't played more than a half dozen times if anyone wants to buy it. Ran into David Johansenn a couple times in Woodstock N.Y. over the years (he likes to shop in this art supply store), and he likes to forget about the Dolls days. My advise is buy this only if you're a collector of old rock albums. (The NY Dolls definitely influenced Aerosmith, who were smart enough to stick it out and rake in the bucks, and Motley Crue a decade later.) But as far as listening to this over and over, I don't think so.