Background information
Origin
New York City, U.S.
Genres
Years active
Labels
Past members
David Johansen
Sylvain Sylvain
Johnny Thunders
Arthur Kane
Billy Murcia
Rick Rivets
Jerry Nolan
Peter Jordan
Blackie Lawless
Chris Robison
Tony Machine
Bobby Blaine
Steve Conte
Gary Powell
Sami Yaffa
Brian Koonin
Frank Infante
Jason Hill
Jason Sutter
Aaron Lee Tasjan
John Conte
Kenny Aaronson
Earl Slick
Brian Delaney
Claton Pitcher
New York Dolls were an American rock band formed in New York City in 1971. Along with the Velvet Underground and the Stooges, they were one of the first bands of the early punk rock scenes.[4] Although the band never achieved much commercial success and their original line-up fell apart quickly, the band's first two albums—New York Dolls (1973) and Too Much Too Soon (1974)—became among the most popular cult records in rock.[1] The line-up at this time consisted of vocalist David Johansen, guitarist Johnny Thunders, bassist Arthur Kane, guitarist and pianist Sylvain Sylvain, and drummer Jerry Nolan; the latter two had replaced Rick Rivets and Billy Murcia, respectively, in 1972.[5] On stage, they donned an androgynous wardrobe, wearing high heels, eccentric hats, satin,[6] makeup, spandex, and dresses.[7][8] Nolan described the group in 1974 as "the Dead End Kids of today".[6]
After reuniting, they recruited new musicians to tour and record. They released three more albums—One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This (2006), Cause I Sez So (2009) and Dancing Backward in High Heels (2011).[1] Following a 2011 British tour with Alice Cooper, the band once again disbanded.[2]
Sylvain Sylvain and Billy Murcia, who went to junior high school and high school together, started playing in a band called "the Pox" in 1967. After the frontman quit, Murcia and Sylvain started a clothing business called Truth and Soul and Sylvain took a job at A Different Drummer,[9] a men's boutique that was across the street from the New York Doll Hospital, a doll repair shop. Sylvain said that the shop inspired the name for their future band. In 1970 they formed a band again and recruited Johnny Thunders to join on bass, though Sylvain ended up teaching him to play guitar. They called themselves the Dolls. When Sylvain left the band to spend a few months in London, Thunders and Murcia went their separate ways.
Thunders was eventually recruited by Kane and Rick Rivets, who had been playing together in the Bronx. At Thunders' suggestion, Murcia replaced the original drummer. Thunders played lead guitar and sang for the band Actress. An October 1971 rehearsal tape recorded by Rivets was released as Dawn of the Dolls. When Thunders decided that he no longer wanted to be the front man, David Johansen joined the band. Initially, the group was composed of singer David Johansen, guitarists Johnny Thunders and Rick Rivets (who was replaced by Sylvain Sylvain after a few months), bass guitarist Arthur "Killer" Kane and drummer Billy Murcia. The original line-up's first performance was on Christmas Eve 1971 at a homeless shelter, the Endicott Hotel. After getting a manager and attracting some music industry interest, the New York Dolls got a break when Rod Stewart invited them to open for him at a London concert.
While on a brief tour of England in 1972, Murcia was invited to a party, where he passed out from an overdose. He was put in a bathtub and force-fed coffee in an attempt to revive him.[10] Instead, it resulted in asphyxiation. He was found dead on the morning of November 6, 1972, at the age of 21.[11]
Once back in New York, the Dolls auditioned drummers, including Marc Bell (who was to go on to play with Richard Hell, and with the Ramones under the stage name "Marky Ramone"), Peter Criscuola (better known as Peter Criss, the original and former drummer of Kiss), and Jerry Nolan, a friend of the band. They selected Nolan, and after US Mercury Records' A&R man Paul Nelson signed them, they began sessions for their debut album. In 1972, the band took on Marty Thau as manager.[12][13]
New York Dolls was produced by singer-songwriter, musician and solo artist Todd Rundgren. In an interview in Creem magazine, Rundgren says he barely touched the recording; everybody was debating how to do the mix. Sales were sluggish, especially in the middle US, and a Stereo Review magazine reviewer in 1973 compared the Dolls' guitar playing to the sound of lawnmowers. America's mass rock audience's reaction to the Dolls was mixed.[14] In a Creem magazine poll, they were elected both best and worst new group of 1973. The Dolls also toured Europe, and, while appearing on UK television, host Bob Harris of the BBC's Old Grey Whistle Test derided the group as "mock rock," comparing them unfavorably to the Rolling Stones.[15]
For their next album, Too Much Too Soon, the quintet hired producer George "Shadow" Morton, whose productions for the Shangri-Las and other girl-groups in the mid-1960s had been among the band's favorites.
By 1975, the Dolls were playing smaller venues than they had been previously. Drug and alcohol abuse by Thunders, Nolan, and Kane, as well as artistic differences added to the tensions among members. In late February or early March, Malcolm McLaren became their informal manager. He got the band red leather outfits to wear on stage and a communist flag as backdrop (communist chic). The Dolls did a five-concert tour of New York's five boroughs, supported by Television and Pure Hell. The Little Hippodrome (Manhattan) show was recorded and released by Fan Club records in 1982 as Red Patent Leather. It was originally a bootleg album that was later remixed by Sylvain, with former manager Marty Thau credited as executive producer. Due to Kane being unable to play that night, roadie Peter Jordan played bass, though he was credited as having played "second bass". Jordan filled in for Kane when he was too inebriated to play.
In March and April, McLaren took the band on a tour of South Carolina and Florida. Jordan replaced Kane for most of those shows. Thunders and Nolan left after an argument. Blackie Lawless, who later founded W.A.S.P., replaced Thunders for the remainder of the tour after which the band broke up.[16][17][18]
The band reformed in July for an August tour in Japan with Jeff Beck and Felix Pappalardi. Johansen, Sylvain and Jordan were joined by former Elephant's Memory keyboardist Chris Robison and drummer Tony Machine. One of the shows was documented on the album Tokyo Dolls Live (Fan Club/New Rose). The material is similar to that on Red Patent Leather, but notable for a radically re-arranged "Frankenstein" and a cover of Big Joe Turner's "Flip Flop Fly." The album is undated and has no production credit, but was issued circa 1986.
After their return to New York, the Dolls resumed playing shows in the US and Canada. Mercury dropped the Dolls on 7 October 1975, their contract with Mercury having expired on 8 August 1975[19] - five months after Thunders' and Nolan's departures from the band. Their show at the Beacon Theatre, on New Year's Eve, 1975 met with great critical acclaim. After a drunken argument with Sylvain, Robison was fired and replaced by pianist/keyboardist Bobbie Blaine formerly a member of Street Punk.[20][16][21] The group toured throughout 1976, performing a set including some songs with lyrics by David Johansen that would later appear on David Johansen's solo albums including "Funky But Chic", "Frenchette" and "Wreckless Crazy." The group played its last show December 30, 1976 at Max's Kansas City; on the same bill as Blondie.[16]
Shortly after returning from Florida, Thunders and Nolan formed The Heartbreakers with bassist Richard Hell, who had left Television the same week that they quit the Dolls. Thunders later pursued a solo career. He died in New Orleans on 23 April 1991, allegedly of an overdose of both heroin and methadone.[22] It also came to light that he suffered from t-cell leukemia. Nolan died on 14 January 1992 following a stroke, brought about by bacterial meningitis. In 1976, Kane and Blackie Lawless formed the Killer Kane Band in Los Angeles. Immediately after the New York Dolls' second breakup, Johansen began a solo career. By the late 1980s, he achieved moderate success under the pseudonym, Buster Poindexter. Sylvain formed The Criminals, a popular band at CBGB.
A posthumous New York Dolls album, Lipstick Killers, made up of early demo tapes of the original Dolls (with Billy Murcia on drums), was released in a cassette-only edition on ROIR Records in 1981, and subsequently re-released on CD, and then on vinyl in early 2006. All the tracks from this title – sometimes referred to as The Mercer Street Sessions (though actually recorded at Blue Rock Studio, New York) – are included on the CD Private World, along with other tracks recorded elsewhere, including a previously unreleased Dolls original, "Endless Party." Three more unreleased studio tracks, including another previously unreleased Dolls original, "Lone Star Queen," are included on the Rock 'n' Roll album. The other two are covers: the "Courageous Cat" theme, from the original Courageous Cat cartoon series; and a second attempt at "Don't Mess With Cupid," a song written by Steve Cropper and Eddie Floyd for Otis Redding, and first recorded independently for what was later to become the Mercer Street/Blue Rock Sessions.
Johansen formed the David Johansen Group, and released a self-titled LP in 1978, recorded at the Bottom Line in NYC's Greenwich Village,featuring Sylvain Mizrahi and Johnny Thunders as guest musicians. In May, 1978, he also released "David Johansen," on Blue Sky Records, a label created by Steve Paul, formerly of The Scene. Johansen continued to tour with his solo project and released four more albums, In Style, 1979; Here Comes the Night, 1981; Live it Up, 1982; and Sweet Revenge, 1984. During the later 1980s, Johansen, ever-evolving, decided to try to liberate himself from the expectations of his New York Dolls perceived persona, and, on a whim, created the persona Buster Poindexter. The success of this act led him to be invited to appear in multiple films: Scrooged,[23] Freejack, and Let it Ride, among others. He also formed a band called David Johansen and the Harry Smiths, named after the eccentric ethnomusicologist, performing jump blues, Delta blues, and some original songs.
Sylvain formed his own band, the Criminals, then cut a solo album for RCA, while also working with Johansen. He later became a taxicab driver in New York. During this period, in the early 1990s, Sylvain moved to Los Angeles and recorded one album Sleep Baby Doll, on Fishhead Records. His band, for that record, consisted of Brian Keats on drums, Dave Vanian's Phantom Chords, Speediejohn Carlucci (who had played with the Fuzztones), and Olivier Le Baron on lead guitar. Guest appearances by Frank InfanteofBlondie and Derwood Andrews of Generation X were also included on the record. It has been re-released as New York A Go Go,.
Morrissey, having been a longtime fan of the band and head of their 1970s UK fan club, organized a reunion of the three surviving members of the band's classic line-up (Johansen, Sylvain and Kane) for the Meltdown Festival in London on June 16, 2004. The reunion led to a live LP and DVD on Morrissey's Attack label, as well as a documentary film, New York Doll, on the life of Arthur Kane. However, future plans for the Dolls were affected by Kane's sudden death from leukemia just weeks later on July 13, 2004. Yet the following month the band appeared at Little Steven's Underground Garage Festival on August 14 in New York City before returning to the UK to play several more festivals through the remainder of 2004.[1]
In July 2005, the two surviving members announced a tour and a new album entitled One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This. Released on July 25, 2006, the album featured guitarist Steve Conte, bassist Sami Yaffa (ex-Hanoi Rocks), drummer Brian Delaney and keyboardist Brian Koonin, formerly a member of David Johansen and the Harry Smiths. On July 20, 2006, the New York Dolls appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, followed by a live performance in Philadelphia at the WXPN All About The Music Festival, and on July 22, 2006, a taped appearance on The Henry Rollins Show. On August 18, 2006, the band performed in a free concert at New York's Seaport Music.
In October 2006, the band embarked on a UK tour, with Sylvain taking time while in Glasgow to speak to John Kilbride of STV. The discussion covered the band's history and the current state of their live show and songwriting, with Sylvain commenting that "even if you come to our show thinking 'how can it be like it was before,' we turn that around 'cos we've got such a great live rock 'n roll show".[24] In November 2006, the Dolls began headlining "Little Steven's Underground Garage Presents the Rolling Rock and Roll Show," about 20 live gigs with numerous other bands. In April 2007, the band played in Australia and New Zealand, appearing at the V Festival with Pixies, Pet Shop Boys, Gnarls Barkley, Beck, Jarvis Cocker and Phoenix.
On September 22, 2007, the New York Dolls were removed from the current artists section of Roadrunner Records' website, signifying the group's split with the label. The band played the O2 Wireless FestivalinHyde Park, London on July 4, 2008, with Morrissey and Beck and the Lounge On The Farm Festival on July 12, 2008. On November 14, 2008, it was announced that the producer of their first album, Todd Rundgren, would be producing a new album, which would be followed by a world tour. The finishing touches on the album were made in Rundgren's studio on the island of Kauai.[25] The album, Cause I Sez So, was released on May 5, 2009 on Atco Records.[26]
The band played at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas on March 21, 2009, and a show at London's 100 Club on May 14, 2009 supported by Spizzenergi. On March 18, 2010, the band announced another two concert dates at KOKO in Camden, London and the Academy in Dublin on April 20. In December 2010, it was announced the band would release their fifth album which had been recorded in Newcastle upon Tyne.[27] The album, Dancing Backward in High Heels, featuring new guitarist Frank Infante (formerly of Blondie) was released on March 15, 2011.[28]
On March 1, 2011, it was announced the New York Dolls would be the opening act for a summer tour featuring Mötley Crüe and Poison. They announced a new lineup for the tour, featuring guitarist Earl Slick, who held previous stints with David Bowie and John Lennon, bassist Kenny Aaronson, who had toured with Bob Dylan, and drummer Jason Sutter, formerly of Foreigner.
Between late March and October 2011, the band undertook the "Dancing Backward in High Heels World Tour". This included dates in England, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, France, Spain and Australia. In the last week of October four additional gigs – billed as "Halloween Night Of Fear – were played in the UK, concluding at the Clyde Auditorium, Glasgow on October 31.
In a 2016 interview, Earl Slick confirmed that the New York Dolls had again split. "Oh, yeah, it's long gone. There was no point in doing it anymore and it was kinda spent. You know, David really does enjoy the Buster thing. He's so good at it. I've seen him do it a couple of times this last year, and man! He's got it down, you know."[2]
Sylvain Sylvain died on January 13, 2021, at age 69, leaving David Johansen as the last surviving original member of the band.
Certainly neither great nor punk in any of its variations were words applied to the Dolls when they began performing late in 1971 – awful and ugly were more like it. Moreover, at the time, the Dolls were associated with glam-rock and David Bowie in his most flamboyantly gay period, an understandable mistake.
According to AllMusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine, the New York Dolls developed an original style of hard rock that presaged both punk rock and heavy metal music, and drew on elements such as the "dirty rock & roll" of the Rolling Stones, the "anarchic noise" of the Stooges, the glam rockofDavid Bowie and T. Rex, and girl group pop music.[1] Erlewine credited the band for creating punk rock "before there was a term for it".[1] Ken Tucker, who referred to them as a proto-punk band, wrote that they were strongly influenced by the "New York sensibility" of Lou Reed: "The mean wisecracks and impassioned cynicism that informed the Dolls' songs represented an attitude that Reed's work with the Velvet Underground embodied, as did the Dolls' distinct lack of musicianship."[8]
When they began performing, four of the band's five members wore Spandex and platform boots,[7] while Johansen—the band's lyricist and "conceptmaster"—[29] often preferred high heels and a dress occasionally.[8] Fashion historian Valerie Steele said that, while the majority of the punk scene pursued an understated "street look", the New York Dolls followed an English glam rock "look of androgyny—leather and knee-length boots, chest hair, and bleach".[30] According to James McNair of The Independent, "when they began pedalling [sic] their trashy glam-punk around lower Manhattan in 1971, they were more burlesque act than band; a bunch of lipsticked, gutter chic-endorsing cross-dressers".[31] Music journalist Nick Kent argued that the New York Dolls were "quintessential glam rockers" because of their flamboyant fashion, while their technical shortcomings as musicians and Johnny Thunders' "trouble-prone presence" gave them a punk-rock reputation.[32]
By contrast, Robert Christgau preferred for them to not be categorized as a glam rock band, but instead as "the best hard-rock band since the Rolling Stones".[33] Robert Hilburn, writing for the Los Angeles Times, said that the band exhibited a strong influence from the Rolling Stones, but had distinguished themselves by Too Much Too Soon (1974) as "a much more independent, original force" because of their "definite touch of the humor and carefreeness of early (ie. mid-1950s) rock".[34] Simon Reynolds felt that, by their 2009 album Cause I Sez So, the band exhibited the sound "not of the sloppy, rambunctious Dolls of punk mythology but of a tight, lean hard-rock band."[35]
According to the Encyclopedia of Popular Music (1995), the New York Dolls were "one of the most influential rock bands of the last 20 years".[5] Writer Sean Sennett credited the band as a part of a legacy of raunchy, influential rock bands predated by the Rolling Stones, and succeeded by Aerosmith and Hanoi Rocks and eventually Guns N' Roses.[36] By the time the band's debut album was released, they had already spawned a number of derivative bands in New York including the Stilettos, the Brats, Teenage Lust and the Harlots. Two of the earliest groups that they inspired were Kiss and Aerosmith,[37] which would in turn become two of the most influential bands in rock music, especially hard rock and heavy metal.[38] Hanoi Rocks' music and aesthetic too were heavily inspired by the New York Dolls and would go on to have a significant influence themselves.[39]
The New York Dolls were the catalyst for New York's early punk rock scene, which included Television, Talking Heads, Patti Smith, the Ramones, Blondie and Richard Hell and the Voidoids,[40] in addition to being one of the most influential bands to the development of British punk rock, particularly the Sex Pistols, the Clash and the Damned.[41][42]InLonely Boy: Tales from a Sex Pistol, guitarist Steve Jones cited the New York Dolls as one of the most influential bands on the Sex Pistols style,[43] and in a 2023 interview with Spin, Dave Vanian of the Damned listed the New York Dolls' self-titled album as one of his five albums "I Can't Live Without".[44] The Guardian writer Ian Gittins called the album "the Year Zero of punk rock".[45] The band continued to inspire punk bands as the genre progressed, with the Misfits, Social Distortion and Green Day all recalling their influence.[46]
In the 1980s, the influence of the New York Dolls helped to form the glam metal genre.[47][48] In particular, the band's androgynous aesthetic and wearing of spandex, dresses, high heels and teased hair were widely imitated amongst bands in the genre.[49] Alternative Press writer Tim Stegall even credited the band as having invented the look of glam metal,[46] and in Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, Hank Bordowitz called the band the progenitors of hair metal and "the most important band that most people never heard".[50] Prominent glam metal bands to take influence from the New York Dolls included Mötley Crüe, Poison,[48] Ratt,[51] Skid Row[52] and Twisted Sister.[53] With the increasing commercialisation of glam metal as the 1980s progressed, a number of bands from within its scene formed a new sound with a greater emphasis on the influence of the New York Dolls, namely Guns N' Roses,[54] L.A. Guns[55] and Faster Pussycat.[56]
Other musicians to cite the New York Dolls as an influence include the Smiths and their vocalist Morrissey,[57] the Undertones,[58] Joan Jett & the Blackhearts,[59] David Bowie, Japan, D Generation,[60] Billy Idol,[61] Terry ChambersofXTC,[62] Def Leppard, R.E.M.,[63] the Replacements, Soul Asylum,[64] Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Bruce Fairweather and Stone GossardofGreen River and Mother Love Bone (the latter also of Pearl Jam),[65][66] Ruby and the Rednecks,[67] Hollywood Brats,[68] Hoodoo Gurus, the Scientists,[69] Palaye Royale,[70] Marilyn Manson,[71] Jetboy,[72] Rock City Angels,[73] the Cramps, the Libertines and the Manic Street Preachers.[46]
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It's pretty much an accepted fact that Guns N' Roses are the next step in a lineage that began with the Stones and moved on to Aerosmith, the New York Dolls and Hanoi Rocks. You know, the almost graceful look of human demolition with a raunch and roll' factor on tilt.
The rise of The New York Dolls spawned dozens of local bands. Elda Gentile got The Stilettos together with former Max's waitress, Debbie Harry, and Rick Rivets started gigging with The Brats, while a rash of Dolls copyists like Teenage Lust and The Harlots of 42nd Street threw themselves on the bandwagon and fell belly-up. Aside from Aerosmith, the most significant group of that time to be influenced by The New York Dolls was Kiss. Sure, Kiss wore make-up but by painting their faces like comic book characters or goofy animals, they defused any sexual threat.
They'd [the New York Dolls] end up as one of my four biggest influences alongside Bowie, Roxy Music and that night's headliners [the Faces]. If you'd told me that in a couple of years' time I'd be playing Sylvain Sylvain's guitar in a band managed by the Dolls' ex-manager, that would've gone beyond even the most unrealistic fantasies.
New York Dolls, progenitors of punk and 'hair metal' the most important band that most people never heard
The only blip was that their second single, 'Get Over You', flopped. It was one of their best, a New York Dolls-influenced song that I much preferred to the irritating 'Jimmy Jimmy', which saw them break through into the Top 20 in April. The following month The Undertones reached no. 13.
A legion of bands and artists have been influenced by the Dolls in terms of style, attitude and in their approach to music. They include Aerosmith, Kiss, David Bowie, The Sex Pistols, The Clash, Japan, The Cramps, Hanoi Rocks, Guns N' Roses, The Smiths and D-Generation.
The New York Dolls influenced a host of rock bands such as the Sex Pistols, the Ramones, the Damned, KISS, Hanoi Rocks, the Replacements, the Smiths, and Guns N' Roses, among others. In Satisfaction: 10 Albums That Changed My Life, Soul Asylum singer- songwriter Dave Pirner called the Dolls "fearless, full of energy and rock 'n' roll madness in all the right ways. Set aside the lipstick, eye shadow and platform boots, and they just rocked out without a bunch of bullshit."
That whole thing was starting then - people wanted to have bands that were the New York Dolls meets Pere Ubu meets Def Leppard [laughs]. Stone was listening to Pyromania, KISS, and the New York Dolls. They started to put it all together, and it didn't work very well [laughs]. Green River is an example of that - "Hey, let's mash all this stuff together and see if it works!" People figured out how to make it work [later]. Alice in Chains and Soundgarden figured out how to make it be something that was new that sounded good.
It's really funny, because the Scientists, all those guys, who were now also the Hoodoo Gurus, they were all part of this heavy New York Dolls-influenced thing.
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