The New York Dolls, The New York Dolls(1973)
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| The New York Dolls(1973) |
If I asked you what came to mind when I say Punk Rock, what would you say? Today a lot of your associates might answer that question with something like NOFX or Bad Religion. Once I wipe the cheeky smirk or look of malicious frustration off my face I might rephrase the question with something like where did it come from? Who were the first punk bands? Who were the pioneers? The Godfathers? Most likely The Clash and The Sex Pistols will be the reciprocated comment. This is the association that most people have with Punk and that opinion is completely valid, but hell, if your talking to somebody who knows their shit, some fucker might even go off on The Stooges as the engineers of Punk, and that would be a billion times more valid. One band that has fallen out of the spot light, through the fault lines of pop culture, and into Rock’s graveyard and various moldy dust covered milk crates, scattered in dank basements across the U.S. is a grossly androgynous band that had a profound impact on not only Punk groups like The Ramones and The Sex Pistols, but the glam rock likes of Dee Snider’s Twisted Sister, and New Wave Groups like Blondie and The Pretenders, even hair metal-cock sucking-stadium rock bands like KISS. They are The New York Dolls.
In 1973, guitar giants like Jimmy Page dominated the earth, The New York Dolls unwittingly helped pioneer a minimalist rock movement that would destroy the musical taste and elitist sensibilities of an entire generation. These boys found that the necessary ability to hypnotize crowds with completely self-indulgent 20 minute guitar solos was a complete fucking waste. The Dolls rework old Chuck Berry and Stones riffs, playing them with a sloppy, violent glee and a brutally authentic street sensibility. They play as if they can barely keep their song from falling apart. It plunders and rapes history while celebrating it, creating sleazy urban riot mythology. If Iggy Pop and the Stooges ever did a cover performance of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, it would have sounded and maybe more importantly looked, exactly like The New York Dolls. The Dolls wanted be The Rolling Stones and the Ronettes in that order, but since they couldn’t even play instruments when the band was first formed, they weren’t competent enough to become either, instead they accidently invented this thing called Punk Rock. Or maybe they didn’t, since you had Raw Power out in 1969, so lets just say they were an important link in the chain on the way to ’77. Actually fuck that, and this pathetic attempt to find the genesis of punk, because the word has been re-defined so many times that anybody my age who heard The Dolls today, is going to ask, “Hey is this Poison?”
“Yeah yeah yeah yeah no no no no no!" are the first words you hear on the first track ‘Personality Crisis’ and it sums up the Dolls 'cause no matter how fucked up they were and nihilistic they tried to be, their zest for life in the urban jungle came through LOUD and clear. The New York Dolls dressed up like brazen tarts, and you can tell they weren't serious drag queens 'cause they wound up looking like ugly men raiding their girlfriends' closets for a drunken bachelor party, wearing disheveled wigs, smudged lipstick, stilted platforms, painfully tight lurex pants and crimpline dresses all the while, standing under the umbrella of complete anarchy. Technically limited though they were, they made up for it with volume, energy, amplification, great song writing, and drug fueled stage antics, thus proving that you can make great rock'n'roll without possessing the chops of Emerson, Lake, and Palmer. Unlike the punks they inspired, the Dolls weren't politically charged nihilists ranting about life as pain. They were just hometown boys trying to meet chicks and score some chemical refreshment. No matter how much innocent early '60s girl group fun they tried to revive, the grit and grime of Gotham back alleys always seeped in.
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