New York Dolls

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New York Dolls - classic or dud, etc.

Also were they clever or radical? What did their ultra femininity/ultra masculinity mean? The first words on their first album are something pre-verbal and then: 'yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah- no no no no no no no no.' What of this? Did they promise something that wasn't acted upon, exchanged for the easier to contain cynicism of punk?

― Maryann, Saturday, 9 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

proto punk proto glam often out velveted the velvets and i worship the velvets. Classic

― anthony, Saturday, 9 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Should listen to New Yawk Dolls again since only now have I started to appreciate the Stones. Classic? Nah.

― Stevie Nixed, Sunday, 10 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I like their songs but everything they did ("hard" as opposed to "heavy" rock - i.e., 70s AM toons vs 70s FM[Stones/MC5 instead of Hendrix/Cream influence] with a package full of ambiguous gender signals) was done better earlier by Alice Cooper - except Alice admitted most of their influence was from TV and their albums had a go-all-the-way-showbiz production, so critics didn't find it as authentic and 'cool'.

― tarden, Sunday, 10 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

tarden - Critics preferred The Dolls to Alice Cooper because a. David Johansen was a much better singer and b. they made albums that sounded great from beginning to end, not 2-3 great songs in the midst of oceans of theatrical crap.

― Patrick, Sunday, 10 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Taking Sides: Glen Buxton vs Johnny Thunders

Cooper invented Glam *and* Goth (which is pretty good going), but his version of genderfuck was way timid (loud panto, basically), compared to the Dolls (who knew how to sew and cut cloth). "School's Out" is a way better *popsong* than the NYDs ever wrote: and both the Dolls LPs are so MUFFLED (but I know I turned Muddy Production-Presentation into a positive complication in re Pistols/Bollocks arrival and listener-inhabitation...).

The critics crack is just evasive: Tarden finding a way to avoid having to take responsibility for his own opinions.

― mark s, Sunday, 10 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

buxton vs thunders - gee i ain't even gonna try & choose ('cause fortunately in real life one does not have to)
but coop vs dolls is, c'mon tarden, another BOGUE POLARITY. coop vs aerosmith, go play with that if you wanna do that dumm shit.
Were they clever or radical? Johansen was clever, Johnny Thunders was radical even if he wouldn't've known why himself. What did their ultra femininity/ultra masculinity mean? it meant that it was 1973 & time to take rock back off the hippies once & forever. & it still is. (1973 I mean).
Dolls - classic/the Coop - merely Classic Rock (& round here that & 2 bucks might get you a cup of coffee.)

― duane zarakov, Sunday, 10 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Mark - that wasn't really a 'crack' at critics ('own opinion' - I prefer Cooper, OK? You know why? Because "Stranded in the Jungle" is the fucking LONGEST, STUPIDEST, most IRRITATING waste of space in vinyl history, that's why! Evasive enough for you?) Just an attempt to use a bit of historical perspective - in the early 70s TV wasn't the post-ironic all-embracing 700-channel amusement park it is today. There were only 3 channels (even in the US - I'm guessing, was about 3 at the time) and it provided a sense of community for the "squares", i.e. it was the citadel of "establishment" entertainment, where you could still see Dean Martin in prime time and the drug of choice was still Martinis, not Mandrax. TV in the US was notoriously conservative, Archie Bunker was a bigger nuclear alarm than "South Park" could ever be today. All the hippies and Weathermen shunned the 'glass teat' (Harlan Ellison - even 'Star Trek' was 'radical' at the time!) as another tool of 'the Man', but Cooper, WAYYY before the golf period, openly bragged of his addiction to shows like "Mod Squad", "Mannix" and "Mayberry RFD", all of which were seen as fascist propaganda by such tremendously influential types as Paul Kantner. Alice killed the 60s, not the Dolls. Wasn't really having a crack at the critics, it's more like, "Who knew"?
Also, I think that the Dolls' painfully deliberate lifestyles (you just KNOW they were looking in the mirror while turning blue in the tub) just looks silly 30 years on. In an endearing way, of course.

― tarden, Sunday, 10 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I mean, it has to be said that some of the Dolls appeal is based on their junkie "attitood" - but then, they came across as lovable, bumbling, oafish Queens urchins, while brothers of the poppy Led Zeppelin were coldblooded, sneering aristocrats, so critics didn't like them as...

― tarden, Sunday, 10 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Duane...what? Aerosmith did blues songs (alright, "Pills" yes I know) and worshipped the fucking Yardbirds - Alice did songs like "Dead Babies"! And remember what John Lydon mimed to when he wanted that gig with Malcolm Mclaren's boys!

― tarden, Sunday, 10 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

why Aerosmith? 'cause they were the calculated mersh version of the Dolls. I.e. they were in the same game as the Coop. The Dolls weren't. They probably didn't even know they weren't but they just weren't. NO FUCKIN SHIT Johnny Rotten mimed to Alice Cooper for his "audition", he was going to be a POP STAR. Miming to a Dolls song, that would've been like if he'd mimed to a - do we have a sarcasam emoticon - Big Star song. Apparently there was all this NEXT-YEAR'S-BIG-THING hype around the Dolls around the time they got signed but i think their record co. were just throwing shit at the wall, i don't think the Dolls would've really "made it" if David Bowie had given them fuckin' "Rebel Rebel", & (sincerity emoticon) YAY for them.
Todd Rundgren tried (fuck him) but they weren't radio-ready in 1972 or whenever that shit was , the voice wasn't saying the right stuff in the right tone for then or maybe ever - unlike Cooper's totally calcated commercial "outrageousness" (& i love that shit too BTW. (yeah & Aerosmith also)) - & the guitar sound/style was too rude for radio too - which gives us a winner out of Buxton-vs-Johnny, a rock guitar player who makes radio programmers sick is doing his job real well. Rock'n'roll isn't the same kind of music as pop 'cause it (after its tenure as the main "pop" form, which was over by - what, 1967?) is generally done better by LOSERS.

― duane, Sunday, 10 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Maybe a combination of sound factors is most important? There's something genuinely expressive about Johnny Thunder's guitar playing. He solos all through the songs – often just distorted extended notes. It bears little relation to the 'acceptable' guitar playing of commercial radio; it's even 'decorative,' fragile, or delicate. It makes all the lyrics of the songs much more melancholy, because they're accompanied by this sporadic, almost contrapuntal, harmony. It doesn't sound like other music. I think the producers tried to make up for it by making these random notes really quiet except in the 'proper' places (at the end of the song usually) but you can still hear them, all the time – it's quite disturbing. I guess he's actually listening to what they sound like.

Johnny Thunders was the one who went on to make great music after the New York Dolls, in my opinion.

The image question; perhaps that's misguided - that wasn't what PREVENTED them from becoming popular, if anything, that was their selling point. You could argue that the NYD image was really scary because it didn't seem calculated enough - unlike Alice Cooper's - but then early Prince, same, still he went on to be acceptable.

― Maryann, Sunday, 10 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

> image question >if anything, that was their selling point. yeah EXACTLY. as music it wasn't really very marketable.
anyway for people that've never heard them that have bothered to read this far down the New York Dolls sound about half way between the '60s Rolling Stones & the Sex Pistols. So if you don't like either of those bands you might as well not bother. But! if you do! these guys are better than BOTH OF THEM!
they did 2 albums & todd rundgren produced the 1st one & tried to make it sound "good" which is why i said fuck him (not 'cause i don't like his own music 'cause i do) but it has fantastic songs. 2nd one they got produced by - INSPIRED choice - SHADOW MORTON & he got it much righter but there are a few varying-degrees-of-filler songs. Both records are CLASSIC though.

― duane zarakov, Sunday, 10 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

two years pass...

just pulled out my dolls recs for the first time in years. good on them! was it christgau or [x] who pointed out the semantic brilliance of the chorus to "trash"?

except i wish they were recorded a bit better. where was mutt lange back then?

― amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 13 June 2003 05:51 (twenty-two years ago)

i want mark s to come back to this thread.

and please god someone tell me why their first record always calls to mind "the pirates of penzance"!

― amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 13 June 2003 05:58 (twenty-two years ago)

in theory i adore the dolls. in practice they've never quite done it for me.

johansen's entire performance on the first album is totally classic, especially his shangri-las rip on "looking for a kiss," but am i the only person who doesn't see what the big deal is about johnny thunders?

― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Friday, 13 June 2003 06:06 (twenty-two years ago)

Cool stuff on this thread. I'm not really a Dolls fan (it boils down to the songs, which I always found kinda half-assed and unremarkable). I like Johansen's early solo albums though.

― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 13 June 2003 06:06 (twenty-two years ago)

Heh, crosspost with Justyn.

― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 13 June 2003 06:07 (twenty-two years ago)

actually now that i said that i realize that i like "born to lose" and "chinese rocks" more than any dolls song. i just don't see why everyone thinks he's such a fantastic guitarist, at least on the two dolls lps. he's not keith richards and he sure ain't steve jones.

― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Friday, 13 June 2003 06:07 (twenty-two years ago)

i like the rhythm guitar sound but the lead guitar sound (is that thunders?) is sort of unvaried and wearing after awhile. i guess the idea is that it's all messy and stuff but even messiness should have its own internal logic and variation.

johnny thunders is like one of keith richard's musical tics made flesh.

― amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 13 June 2003 06:12 (twenty-two years ago)

They were sloppy. Put them up there with Radio Birdman in hugely revered bands with very poor rhythm sections and poorly recorded albums. Yeah, I like the Dolls well enough, but the albums sound like such crap its hard for me to get into them.

mark s is wrong: Black Sabbath invented goth! Or maybe it was Black Widow. I've never heard them though, so I'll say it was the Sabs.

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Friday, 13 June 2003 06:12 (twenty-two years ago)

thunders does some cool stuff on "jet boy" until the end when it gets kind of rote.

― amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 13 June 2003 06:14 (twenty-two years ago)

Also, Johansen is great in Let It Ride, seriously one of the funniest movies I've ever seen.

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Friday, 13 June 2003 06:14 (twenty-two years ago)

He's dead, that's mostly the thing I always thought... "You Can't Put Yr Arms Around a Memory" is classic, yes?

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Friday, 13 June 2003 06:15 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah what are those thunders solo records like? we shd do a johnny thunders classic or dud/search and destroy.

i really don't like his voice. johansen adds so much to the dolls i don't know why they bothered. it;s like that ccr album where the other people sing. what's the point?

― amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 13 June 2003 06:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Well "Born to Lose" by the Heartbreakers is more memorable to me than any individual Dolls song. I get that in my head at odd random moments. I'm not sure if it's as good as "Johnny Thunder" by the Kinks though.

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Friday, 13 June 2003 06:19 (twenty-two years ago)

(anytime anyone wants to tell me stop sounding like Eddy is fine)

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Friday, 13 June 2003 06:19 (twenty-two years ago)

you DON'T sound like Eddy thank god. [/cheap shot]

― amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 13 June 2003 06:29 (twenty-two years ago)

no, it's funny; I mean, he's totally a favorite of mine but I think that's because my mind tends to work in similar silly associative ways. Like I read Johnny Thunders and I think of the Kinks song and the Heartbreakers song. I get self-conscious if I write something like that though since he kind of oWNz0rS that style.

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Friday, 13 June 2003 06:37 (twenty-two years ago)

Absolute classic. First album is pretty much their '72 live show in the studio, second album is the most awesome sound-effects record this side of Van Halen's debut. Among their many accomplishments, the Dolls invented 80s hairspray metal (yes, this was a good thing) and made it cool to be less-than-killer musicians, leading directly to the Ramones (merged with Hamburg-era Beatles) and the Sex Pistols (the Malcolm connection).

PS Alice Cooper mostly deserves credit/blame for turning rock concerts into a spectacle sport, although "Killer," "School's Out" and "Billion Dollar Babies" was as great a triple-crown run as the Replacements' "Let It Be," "Tim" and "Pleased To Meet Me."

― Chris Clark (Chris Clark), Friday, 13 June 2003 10:47 (twenty-two years ago)

Nico invented goth.

btw, Alice Cooper and the Dolls are two of my favorite bands, I'm surprised I didn't notice this thread the first time around. And yeah Cooper had the better singles, but I could never ever choose between the two.

― Sean (Sean), Friday, 13 June 2003 14:24 (twenty-two years ago)

steve jones is a piss-terrible gtrist

― duane, Friday, 13 June 2003 15:09 (twenty-two years ago)

even worse than the guy in the clash

― duane, Friday, 13 June 2003 15:10 (twenty-two years ago)

Ha - they're available at the iTunes store! Including a song I hadn't heard, "Lone Star Queen," into which Johansen stuffs almost all of the stylistic tics that have always made him so indispensible for me.

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Friday, 13 June 2003 19:19 (twenty-two years ago)

oh duane, you are SO SO wrong.

(which guy in the clash?)

― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Saturday, 14 June 2003 05:24 (twenty-two years ago)

hi, my name is jess, and i have never liked the new york dolls. i have always thought there was something wrong with me until now. thank you.

― jess (dubplatestyle), Saturday, 14 June 2003 05:37 (twenty-two years ago)

oh there's something wrong with you all right. but if you go listen to personality crisis, trash, and lookin' for a kiss everything will be alright.

― scott seward, Saturday, 14 June 2003 05:45 (twenty-two years ago)

Nah, jess is right on, they're overrated. Glad to see him here.

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Saturday, 14 June 2003 06:43 (twenty-two years ago)

(but still, Johansen in Let It Ride = brilliant)

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Saturday, 14 June 2003 06:43 (twenty-two years ago)

(which guy in the clash?) um you know, the guitarist. steve jones tho - i like the sex pistols but oh man, don't you think he is one of the most unimaginative squares in the hist of the elec gtr...i didn't mean "terrible" like "can't play", just stodgy & undynamic...you know when he does stuff like that (bo diddley/pete townshend type) scrape along the strings thing, "raunchy" hi-energy takeoff sound as used by say for inst maybe the gtrist for pat benetar or someone - a real stiff!

― duane, Saturday, 14 June 2003 09:19 (twenty-two years ago)

the clash had two guitarists, Mick Jones and Strummer. I can see what you mean, S. Jones isn't the most interesting or original punk guitarist by a long shot, but I think his very direct style works for the Pistols' songs and Thunders' doesn't for the Dolls: as someone said upthread, it just sounds sloppy.

(haha Pat Benatar = OK by me)

― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Sunday, 15 June 2003 04:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh, it was hott! Classic.

― Francis Watlington, Sunday, 15 June 2003 05:28 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah i knew that about the clash really, i don't think joe strummer played much gtr on their records tho. also like someone else upthread said There's something genuinely expressive about Johnny Thunder's guitar playing. He solos all through the songs – often just distorted extended notes. It bears little relation to the 'acceptable' guitar playing of commercial radio; it's even 'decorative,' fragile, or delicate. It makes all the lyrics of the songs much more melancholy, because they're accompanied by this sporadic, almost contrapuntal, harmony. It doesn't sound like other music. I think the producers tried to make up for it by making these random notes really quiet except in the 'proper' places (at the end of the song usually) but you can still hear them, all the time – it's quite disturbing. I guess he's actually listening to what they sound like.

Johnny Thunders was the one who went on to make great music after the New York Dolls, in my opinion. , i agree although actually most johnny thunders solo albums are pretty bad i guess

― duane (doorag), Sunday, 15 June 2003 06:37 (twenty-one years ago)

how do you all feel about buster poindexter?

― amateurist (amateurist), Sunday, 15 June 2003 06:41 (twenty-one years ago)

i thought he sucked but i only remember seeing him on tv, i never listened to the actual records

― duane (doorag), Sunday, 15 June 2003 06:45 (twenty-one years ago)

he's hot hot hot

― jess (dubplatestyle), Sunday, 15 June 2003 06:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Criticizing the New York Dolls for sounding "sloppy" = Classic

― David Allen, Sunday, 15 June 2003 06:47 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah they could've tightened up & been as good as the clash or the sex pistols

― duane (doorag), Sunday, 15 June 2003 06:51 (twenty-one years ago)

>how do you all feel about buster poindexter?

Thrilled that DavJoh finally made some money, although it figures it would come from extending "Stranded in the Jungle" into a full act.

>i don't think joe strummer played much gtr on their records tho

What?!? All that Telecaster dub-scratching/powerchord mania is him! Jones handled the Mott the Hoople lead lines and harmonic counterpoints. Both totally classic, as was Steve Jones, who merged Ramones chainsaw with Chuck Berry boogie (well, so did Eddie and the Hot Rods) to make the Pistols (dare I say it?) swing!

― Chris Clark (Chris Clark), Sunday, 15 June 2003 09:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Joe Strummer just played along unplugged while he sang, didn't he? He probably played a bit later, I suppose.

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Sunday, 15 June 2003 09:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Skipping 259 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

back and to the loft
back and to the loft

― the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 2 March 2025 22:48 (three months ago)

Usually I am suspicious of eclecticism but I am really enjoying the selection and sequencing of this show and I mean, this guy kind of invented and showed us the right way to do it.

― Blind Willie Minitel (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 2 March 2025 23:15 (three months ago)

Just remembered that I had a friend in high school who was the one who introduced me to The Dolls who was a huge fan of theirs and whose mother was the original black supermodel and father was descended from the family that controlled a certain part of Memphis

― Blind Willie Minitel (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 2 March 2025 23:20 (three months ago)

alltime posting by tfs. favorited in my mind.

― "The Well-Tempered Holophonor by Philip J. Fry" (Austin), Sunday, 2 March 2025 23:25 (three months ago)

hey thanks! wfmu's glen jones did a wonderful 3-hour tribute to david this afternoon. https://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/149687

― Thus Sang Freud, Sunday, 2 March 2025 23:37 (three months ago)

He’s playing a Jonathan Richman favorite now, “The Wind,” Nolan Strong & The Diablos.

― Blind Willie Minitel (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 2 March 2025 23:59 (three months ago)

On the Mansion of Fun rerun tbc

― Blind Willie Minitel (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 3 March 2025 00:02 (three months ago)

I’m totally digging the sequencing and the fact that he’s just playing stuff he likes even if it might be sort of obvious, not trying to create some kind of hipster persona since, he had obviously already done that a few times.

― Blind Willie Minitel (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 3 March 2025 00:04 (three months ago)

Some of it reminds me of that list of Bowie’s favorite books, which some of the usual suspects attacked as being too middlebrow.

― Blind Willie Minitel (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 3 March 2025 00:05 (three months ago)

Now he is playing “Cast Your Fate to the Wind,” mention of which once set off a long FB discussion with Xgau’s nephew.

― Blind Willie Minitel (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 3 March 2025 01:31 (three months ago)

It used to be the sign-off song of one of the old WNEW-FM jocks. Dennis Elsas, I think.

― Blind Willie Minitel (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 3 March 2025 01:32 (three months ago)

Guess this is all going back to what was earlier said about The Dolls being a quintessential NYC band which goes way beyond some Lou Reed egg-cream stickball phony baloney nostalgia.

― Blind Willie Minitel (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 3 March 2025 01:38 (three months ago)

Oh there’s a rhyme: Johansen’s Mansion, do u see?

― Blind Willie Minitel (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 3 March 2025 02:27 (three months ago)

Did the Dolls play Ringolevio?

― timellison, Monday, 3 March 2025 02:46 (three months ago)

Heh

― Blind Willie Minitel (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 3 March 2025 02:50 (three months ago)

Something about his song selection reminds me a wee bit of Jonesy’s Jukebox.

― Blind Willie Minitel (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 3 March 2025 03:01 (three months ago)

can’t decide whether to keep listening to this or go sing a few of his songs at karaoke

― Blind Willie Minitel (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 3 March 2025 04:02 (three months ago)

The latter

― Blind Willie Minitel (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 3 March 2025 05:59 (three months ago)

which did you sing

i would do Trash, Jet Boy and ? cant decide on third

― werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 3 March 2025 06:05 (three months ago)

Mystery Girls!

― sleeve, Monday, 3 March 2025 06:08 (three months ago)

given that yr first 2 are perfect

― sleeve, Monday, 3 March 2025 06:08 (three months ago)

“Build Me Up Buttercup” and “Pills”

― Blind Willie Minitel (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 3 March 2025 06:29 (three months ago)

May try for “Trash” soon

― Blind Willie Minitel (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 3 March 2025 06:29 (three months ago)

Also just found a video for “Looking for a Kiss.”

― Blind Willie Minitel (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 3 March 2025 06:31 (three months ago)

A band from San Antonio called Sons of Hercules used to do an awesome version of “Who Are the Mystery Girls?”

― Blind Willie Minitel (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 3 March 2025 06:33 (three months ago)

They still exist! Maybe they are still doing it

― Blind Willie Minitel (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 3 March 2025 06:34 (three months ago)

He just said “Right here! In the Manse. With Johanse.”

― Blind Willie Minitel (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 3 March 2025 06:47 (three months ago)

Sounds like Amalia Rodrigues right now

― Blind Willie Minitel (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 3 March 2025 07:10 (three months ago)

Laura Nyro now

― Blind Willie Minitel (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 3 March 2025 07:17 (three months ago)

Really enjoying listening to this but need to sleep. Maybe I will put that gigantic playlist on shuffle mode tomorrow

― Blind Willie Minitel (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 3 March 2025 07:18 (three months ago)

We picked the kid up Sunday morning after a sleepover and were running errands, listening to the Dolls & my wife, who went through a deep Buster Poindexter phase in 80s asked to hear "Hot Hot Hot" and the moment it came on the ten y.o. was all "what is this? what is this?" and barely a minute later she was singing "hot!hot!hot!" and laughing which seems like as fitting a tribute as anything, RIP David

― chr1sb3singer, Monday, 3 March 2025 14:21 (three months ago)

It's funny, because in the UK, "Hot Hot Hot" is Arrow, and nobody else.

― Mark G, Monday, 3 March 2025 14:27 (three months ago)

Listing to the big Mansion of Fun playlist now.

― Blind Willie Minitel (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 3 March 2025 15:23 (three months ago)

What with all the jump blues in there it’s making me think of Charlie Gillet’s Sound of the City

― Blind Willie Minitel (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 3 March 2025 15:24 (three months ago)

Gillett

― Blind Willie Minitel (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 3 March 2025 15:25 (three months ago)

Xgau Remembers

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/david-johansen-new-york-dolls-robert-christgau-1235286728/

Neither the 1973 debut New York Dolls nor its 1974 follow-up Too Much Too Soon — produced by Shadow Morton, whose sole major credit was the legendary girl group the Shangri-Las — cracked the Top 100, great albums though both are now thought to be. The finale of the follow-up summed up what Johansen would be about till the day he died — titled simply “Human Being,” its tireless refrain went simply: “Well if I’m acting like a king, that’s because/I’m a human being.” And on a personal note, I’ll add that those two lines were the title I proposed for a criticism collection that in the end was called Grown Up All Wrong. A little long, Harvard thought, and that wasn’t all.

― Okay, heteros are cutting edge this year, too. (C. Grisso/McCain), Tuesday, 4 March 2025 17:47 (three months ago)

Saw that.

― Blind Willie Minitel (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 4 March 2025 18:19 (three months ago)

that was great. I have always enjoyed xgau the most when he writes about the Dolls. I like him in fan-boy mode <3

― werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 4 March 2025 19:07 (three months ago)

cant even imagine how thrilling it must have been seeing the 72 shows at the Mercer

― werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 4 March 2025 19:12 (three months ago)

i love this video of Mystery Girls from Maxs Kansas City ‘73 - they’re so on it! makes me want to timetravel to see this gig

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chd_JUkec8M

― werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 4 March 2025 19:39 (three months ago)

man yeah. just squarely ON it

― J Edgar Noothgrush (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Tuesday, 4 March 2025 20:32 (three months ago)

I like him in fan-boy mode <3

There's a documentary about NYC (pre-)punk where Christgau's one of the interviewees, and the level of involvement increases palpably once he gets to talk about the Dolls instead of the Velvet Underground.

― Halfway there but for you, Tuesday, 4 March 2025 20:47 (three months ago)

I was wondering what happened to that video, it went missing the last time I posted it myself, thanks.

― Blind Willie Minitel (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 5 March 2025 01:26 (three months ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08MuQAC5zpw

― Who Are the Mystery URLs? (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 6 March 2025 19:35 (three months ago)

Not that I needed assurance, but my listening to the Dolls and DJ again in the last few days helped me realize anew what a first-rate lyricist he was.

― the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 6 March 2025 19:36 (three months ago)

I was wondering what ever happened to the New York Doll Hospital on Lexington Ave between 61st/62nd Sts which inspired the band’s name… bc I remember spying the old NY Doll Hospital sign when it was still in business and suddenly realizing that’s where the name came from, and feeling the thrill of historical connection.

It’s now an establishment called 787 Unique Head Spa. And not for nothing, Unique Head strikes me as a good band name as well.

― Josefa, Friday, 7 March 2025 01:25 (three months ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kH8TuI2uzvo

― Who Are the Mystery URLs? (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 7 March 2025 01:26 (three months ago)

I was wondering what ever happened to the New York Doll Hospital on Lexington Ave between 61st/62nd Sts which inspired the band’s name… bc I remember spying the old NY Doll Hospital sign when it was still in business and suddenly realizing that’s where the name came from, and feeling the thrill of historical connection.

It’s now an establishment called 787 Unique Head Spa. And not for nothing, Unique Head strikes me as a good band name as well.

Oh yeah. Saw both of those, hadn’t realized it was the same location.

― Who Are the Mystery URLs? (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 7 March 2025 01:28 (three months ago)

It’s now an establishment called 787 Unique Head Spa. And not for nothing, Unique Head strikes me as a good band name as well.

I was in the laundromat one day when it occurred to me that 80 Lb. Speed Queen would be a great band name. (Speed Queen is a brand of industrial clothes dryer.)

― Instead of create and send out, it pull back and consume (unperson), Friday, 7 March 2025 01:38 (three months ago)

80 lb Speed Queen = Taylor Mead?

Sorry, I’ll see myself out

― Josefa, Friday, 7 March 2025 02:34 (three months ago)

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