Maillist
FOCUS ON: New York Dolls
- Official Website >>
- Label: Sympathy For the Record Industry >>
- Genre: Alternative & Punk
Initially, the group was comprised of singer David Johansen, guitarists Johnny Thunders and Rick Rivetts (who was replaced by Sylvain Sylvain after a few months), bass guitarist Arthur "Killer" Kane and drummer Billy Murcia.
They got their big break when Rod Stewart invited them to open for him at a London concert. Shortly therafter, Murcia died of accidental suffocation (after passing out from drugs and alcohol, groupies put him in a cold bath and forced coffee down his throat). He was succeeded by Jerry Nolan, though future Richard Hell and Ramones drummer Marc Bell (Marky Ramone) later claimed he auditioned to take Murcias place. The original lineups first performance was on Christmas Eve 1971 at a homeless shelter, the infamous Endicott Hotel.
The Dolls were influenced by vintage rhythm and blues, the early Rolling Stones, classic American girl group songs, and anarchic post-psychedelic bands such as the MC5 and the Stooges, as well as then-current glam rockers such as Marc Bolan and David Bowie. They did it their own way, creating something which critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote "doesnt really sound like anything that came before it. Its hard rock with a self-conscious wit, a celebration of camp and kitsch that retains a menacing, malevolent edge."[1].
Johansens energy made up for what was then a not-too-strong voice; Thunderss fuzzy guitar sound became a near-instant band trademark, as did Sylvains minimalistic rhythm guitar and Nolans tom tom-heavy drumming style. Sartorially, the Dolls looked like a Halloween party gang of transvestites who had broken into the Rolling Stones and Marc Bolans wardrobe trunks and made it even more androgynously exaggerated. Musically, their repertoire---mostly written by Johansen (he spelt his name Jo Hansen at the time) and Thunders, occasionally by Johansen and Sylvain---was a series of unapologetically high-energy, demimonde expressions of the seamy New York underground from which they emerged, particularly through their legendary shows at the Mercer Arts Center. Songs like "Personality Crisis," "Trash," "Frankenstein," and "Jet Boy" were seminal squalls of guitar abuse, making up in attitude what they lacked in musical ability. But for all their squall the Dolls didnt entirely lack for subtlety; "Subway Train," for one, was as striking a piece of songwriting and even musicianship as the band could execute.
Those and six others (including a speedballing cover of Bo Diddleys "Pills") turned up on their eponymous debut album, 1973s New York Dolls, on the Mercury label. Produced by Todd Rundgren, some critics think he laid too dense a hand on the bands raw thrust while others think he gave them precisely the guidance they needed to let the best of their singular snarl step forth. The album received mostly positive reviews, but sales were sluggish.
For their next album, the quintet opted for another legendary producer, George (Shadow) Morton, whose productions for the Shangri-Las and other girl groups in the mid-1960s had been among the bands favourites. Far from the atmospherics he lent those mini-epics, Morton gave the Dolls a leaner sound for 1974s Too Much Too Soon. The bands songwriting seemed to falter somewhat while their covers of vintage R&B flashed some of the original energy, particularly their cover of Archie Bell and the Drellss "(Theres Gonna Be A) Showdown." Critics applauded, mostly, but the public was even less impressed than theyd been with the first album (one magazine poll landed them wins as the best and the worst new group of 1973).
Mercury dropped the Dolls not long afterward, and the band recruited British clothier and would-be impresario Malcolm McLaren as their new manager. The kind of provocative stunts he later made work for the Sex Pistols blew up in the Dolls faces, especially his dressing the band in red leather for performances before a Soviet flag, which alienated record labels that might have pondered taking a chance on the Dolls after Mercury let them go. Except for a few brief periods, the two Dolls albums---considered incontestable classics of raw, protopunk, anything-goes rock and roll, have never been out of print.
