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I wanna say
one thing first of all. This here is not Mick Jaggers long lost half
brother,, this here is David Johansen, the legendary singer of the New
York Dolls, who says about himself and the band: "We have been the
guys on the top just before victory, but then we fell and broke our
legs."-
And that's how it happened.
Founded in 1971 by Arthur 'Killer' Kane these paradisebirds made
themselves noticable via their extensive live shows and got famous, but
strangely the record sales did not do well at all with the two
longplayers "New York Dolls" and "Too Much Too Soon",
which came out in 1973 and 74, produced by none other then Todd
Rundgren. They rose up like phoenix from the ashes in the shade of Andy
Warhol's popart era. And their music was a mixture between glamrock and
punk. The line up then consisted of: Arthur "Killer" Kane (bass),
David Johansen (voc) and Rick Rivets (git), who went off pretty soon.
And in came Syl Sylvain.And there was Johnny Thunders (git) and
Billy Murcia (Drums). Thanks to an excessive consume of drugs,
Murcia did not return form the one and only UK tour. Jerry Nolan came in
and the party really shot off. But again, the whole thing came to a
rather soon end, and after some unsuccessful trys to keep the band alive,
Johansen and Sylvain called it a day. By the way Nolan died as well on a
stroke in 1991, and Thunders bit the dust in 96 on drugabuse. Although
their records didn't do too well, the New York Dolls reached sort of a
cultstatus, and the received the reputation to be the founder of punk
music. But well, they said the same thing about Iggy Pop, didn't they?!
Fact is, it
was the english musician Morrisey, who persued the remaining members of
the New York Dolls to reform. It happened at the english Meltdown
Festival in 2004, when Sylvain, Johansen and Kane met again and were
accompanied by
Libertines-Drummer Gary Powell, guitarist Steve Conte and Keyboardist
Brian Koonin
Both stints were released together on one DVD named: "Morrissey
Presents: The Return Of The
New York Dolls. - Live at the
Royal Albert Hall.
It was rather tragic, that Arthur 'Killer' Kane died aged 55 from
leukemia short after the reunion. His position is taken nowadays by
Sammy Yaffa, who once belonged to the original line up of the Hanoi
Rocks. On drums now - Brian Delaney. Last july the reunionalbum has been
released:
"One Day It Will Please Us To Remember Even This". And here
they are again, 30 years later and rather pretty fit. At least what's u
to Sylvain and Johansen the last surviving members from the popart era.
Yeah, okay, the show ain't as crazy as it used to be and Johansen left
his infamous Greta Garbo costume at home. But he is still covered with
all kinds of sparkling juwelery and a lot of make up, which reminds us
of the old times. But most important, - he has not forgotten anything,
though Johansen still has got a very well visible reminder on
stage beside him with the lyrics for a little help - just in case of
course :-)))
He doesn't use it very often, I must admit, but still turns round the
pages at every song. It seems a little funny, but I've got to say, -
rather a frontman, who reads his lyrics from time to time and is still
good, as one who's voice comes from a playback recording.
Unfortunately it happened quite a few times lately....
A show of the
New York Dolls is a dejavu in the past tense, underlined by songs like: "Personality Crisis", "Jet
Boy" und "Subway Train", fans are longing for... An
aspargarus tarzan is fat compared with the skinny shape of David
Johansen, and he still got something of a rebell with much provokation.
And if this is only his pair of jeans, size 28 or even less with
ebviously nothing underneath. And yes, the similarity to Mick Jagger is
still there. But with his sunglasses at night he is still pretty unique.
Sylvain rather goes for understatement with his hat and his tie, but
having kept his personal guitarstyle. The rest of the band brings in the
youthful vision on stage and the additional drive. Aprox. 200 fans are
celebrating the party with much enthusiasm. No, honestly, I don't think,
this second spring will be a big deal for the New York Dolls. Times have
changed and there ain't too many music lovers who remember the band from
the early seventies. So let's celebrate those nostalgic moments and
let's hope, that the New York Dolls will last a bit longer than last
time. We all get older and wiser, don't we`?!
And they are kinda experience, honestly....... |
