the best New York Dolls song from their two 70's records

vietnamese baby.
the drumming and the nick cave-birthday-party-souting-like vocals at the end is the best minute in their career.

trash

"Looking For a Kiss" would work great in karaoke.

Impossible...does not compute...HALP!

Oh what the hell--I went with "Frankenstein" cos sometimes I just feel like a...

Could have just as well been "Human Being," or "Vietnamese Baby," or "Subway Train," or "Trash," or "Looking for a Kiss," or "Personality Crisis," or "Jet Boy," or "Who Are the Mystery Girlz," or etc.

Frankenstein

Who Are the Mystery Girls!

I can hold my head so high, just like a human, a riff raff human being.

Gotta go with the epic, Frankenstein.

I'm with Dr. C,I pick "Who Are The Mystery Girls?"

These guys used to do a good cover of it.

"Mystery. Aaah"

"Pills", even though it's a cover.

Yeah, they really were the best cover band since the mid '60s Stones.

FRANK
N.
STEIN

Who's song is Pills?

Bo Diddley!

I know the Lurkers version.

^^^Bo Diddley's, rather.

xp

"Trash"

almost impossible to decide, went with "Personality Crisis," in part because its first on the album.

i like frankenstein of course,it's their most new wvish post punk song,but it's kinda repetetive, and i could never really listen to it till the end

"Trash"
Don't pick it up.

Uh, how do you call your lover boy?

trash

Though I really love the the way the first side of the first album hangs together, "Human Being" seems definitively Dollsy to me. It's the last song on what turned out to be their last record. They've reached the end of the line, but they're still barely holding it together. More precisely, just holding it together exactly enough and no more. The threat of collapse, of failure, never disappears. It sounds loose but it doesn't sound easy. The train's hurtling down the track, but off in the distance you can see the bridge has been washed out.

The lyrics are great too. They feel almost improvised. Johansen goes from telling off some girl about she wants "a plastic doll (Doll?) with a fresh coat of paint" instead of a human being like him, almost your standard rock star bitching. But then the words kind of swirl outward. He's a riff raff human being, he wants too many things, he has to dream, it's bit obscene... he keeps working himself up until he's yelling that "In fact I'm talking about the human race! You're trying to cover up the big disgrace!" Which seems like as clear as The Dolls ever got about their mission: to uncover the big disgrace and and scream, "Yeah Yeah OHHH Yeah!" about it. And by the end he's got his head hung down and his head held high in the same breath, he's a "first class human being". It's like a Tony Robbins self-help tape for fuck-ups. Not to be a hippy, but it makes me glad to be alive.

"Looking for a kiss" edges "Trash" for me, but only just. I've got a lot of time for "Jet Boy", but I don't know if that's down to the endlessly recycled - but still great - OGWT clip.

"Human Being" is indeed the Dolls' fight song. But the GNR version was so ace (and for the unDolls-like reason that their rhythm section cooks) that it took away some of the song's singularity. So I'm going with "Puss 'N' Boots," the song that made me realize that Johnny Thunders was the greatest guitarist of all-time. Just listen to the fun he's having up and down the neck from 2:30-2:34. Pure joy.

The greatest non-disco guitar-drum-bass band of all-time.

Trash, all the way.

More Trash

Lonely Planet Boy - why has Morriseey never covered this?

Lonely Planet Boy - why has Morriseey never covered this?

Well he did pinch the title for that Jobriath compilation album.

Anyway, I voted for "Personality Crisis". The obvious choice, but it does sum up a lot of the Dolls' best qualities: great observational lyrics, lead guitar that serves the song rather than stomping all over it, and a tight band who also sound loose at the same time.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

"Yeah, they really were the best cover band since the mid '60s Stones."

not really looking for an argument at all, but what about the Ramones(do you wanna dance, california sun, surfin' bird, let's dance, baby i love you)!? not to mention the Clash (brand new cadillac, armagideon time, police and thieves, pressure drop, etc.)

these are two of my favoritest records, i.e. very tough to pick. today it shall be "jet boy"

Right. So the Ramones/Clash were maybe the best cover bands since the Dolls then? (Although, I suppose which one of the three you prefer would be a matter of personal taste.)

"Lonely Planet Boy" and "Trash". All the other songs seem to be performed in a slightly stagey way that doesn't do them justice.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Aw, I forgot to vote (for "Trash"). Eh well.

"Lonely Planet Boy" and "Trash". All the other songs seem to be performed in a slightly stagey way that doesn't do them justice

yeah, and what's up with those costumes?