The Punk of the New York Dolls is often blurred by groups such as the sex pistols, the Clash or Ramones who dominated the punk scene of the 70s; nevertheless The Dolls, too often underestimated, represented in those years a drastic and all new breaking point with the music scene of the timeanticipating the anarchist spirit of punk, through an incredible mixture of glam rock, garage and nihilistic attitude.
A new punk between chaos, makeup and rebellion
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In the early 70s in New York the music scene was dominated mainly by the refined progressive rock and the rock folk rock typical of the West Coast; It was in this climate that In 1971 the New York Dolls was born, from the initiative of guitarist Sylvain Sylvain and drummer Billy MurciaStudents of the New Town High School in Queens. The two, who initially part of another band, The Pox, decided to put themselves “on their own”, driven by the desire to propose something completely different and revolutionary and starting from the name that took inspiration from a toy shop that was in front of the laundry in which Sylvain worked. The guitarist Johnny Thunders (real name John Genzale) and then the singer David Johansen soon joined the duo; The band also agreed the type of image they wanted to propose, that is A androgynous and provocative look, with female clothes and brazen attitudes, in a period in which the hippi counterculture was still the dominant one. When they performed for the first time in 1971 They were welcomed by the musical media with strong skepticism, but decidedly attracted attention instead of the Underground audience of New York who began to follow them and appreciate their energy. The following year, however, during a tour in London, the band suffered a serious blow: the death of Billy Murcia from overdose (even before having engraved the first album). However, the band quickly found a substitute in Jerry Nolan, thus continuing his race to success.
New York Dolls: the debut album
In 1973 the New York Dolls released their first album for Mercury Records, “New York Dolls”. The disc, which sold relatively little by the standards of the time, It is now considered a milestone for the proto-punk. Songs like “Personality crises”, “Looking for a kiss“And the extraordinary”Subway train“(Unforgettable here the solo of Thunders) are a very interesting mixture of Rolling Stones, Stooges, Mc5 and other 60s groups, but Con a completely new urgency, that of urban alienation, drugs and decadent glamor, with a raw, imperfect and rough sound that contested any type of technical perfectionism. The criticism split: the media accused them of being “of amateurs dressed as disguised”, while Rolling Stone praised them for the all -new energy and freshness they proposed.
The second (and last) album: Too Much Too Soon
In 1974 the Dolls released “Too Much Too Soon”, second and last album with the original formation. The title, with an almost prophetic message, anticipated what would soon happen: after an even more warm welcome from the public and criticism, The album and the band were unable to achieve the commercial success hoped for. The sound approach of the songs was always very visceral, but lAt an internal tension to the group that was created, due to drugs by drugs (especially of Thunders and Kane), and the continuous lack of support from the record company, led to the rapid disintegration of the band. The New York Dolls officially dissolved in 1975, after the abandonment of Thunders and Nolan (who then formed the Heartbreakers). Johansen embarked on a solo career of discreet success, also becoming the singer “Buster Poindexter” in the 80s; Arthur Kane, on the other hand, fell into a personal and spiritual abyss, as documented in the 2005 “New York Doll” film.
New York Dolls: the founding fathers of punk
Although the New York Dolls have had a career both short and bankruptcy (from a commercial point of view) orGGI are considered the “founding fathers” of New York punk, but also of British punk: Malcolm McLaren, who was their manager for a short period, drew direct inspiration from them for the look and the provocative attitude of his future sex pistols. Bands like The Clash, The Damned, Guns and Roses retain a bit of New York Dolls in their musical identity, as well as having always mentioned them as an important source of inspiration, both for the aesthetic and existential approach but also because in fact they represent the starting point of the hard rock and the glam of the 80s and 90s. In 2004, thanks to the push of Morrissey, their big fan, the surviving members Johansen, Sylvain and Kane (Thunders unfortunately died in 1991) met for the Meltdown Festival in Londonreceiving a more than enthusiastic welcome that will even bring them back to the studio to work on three new albums “One day it Will please us to Remember Even this” (2006), followed by “Cause i Sez So” (2009) and “Dancing Backward in High Heels” (2011) who represent A closing of the dignified circle for those New York boys who contributed to the birth of punk in the 70s.
The Punk of the New York Dolls: conclusion
Like many of the groups of the first punk scene, the Dolls represent the path, sometimes too short, of the artists who embraced that new musical current because they are burned by sudden success and dependencies. On the other hand, however The Dolls have been precursors of styles and themes, incarnating perhaps one of the darkest sides of punk, the sensual, brazen and nihilistic, not oriented towards perfection or commercial success, but towards rebellion and authenticitya road that led them to be considered cult heroes of that musical current so controversial and much discussed today.
Fonte immagine: (By AVRO – FTA0019053 001 con.png Look And Sound Wiki – Gallery: Topp 1973, CC BY-SA 3.0 nl,
