rock and roll musings by Tim Byrnes

Bringing It All Back Home: The New York Dolls Put Their Arms Around My Memories

    I’ve been surfing around aol music and found basically the whole NY Dolls reunion set from the Reading Festival last year on video. At first I was (how do I put this) kind of appalled at the sight of these old men (David Johannsen, and Syl Sylvain the only remaining members) w/session guys calling themselves the New York Dolls, but by the time I finished viewing the footage I was smiling and crying at the same time. Smiling because of the memories that hearing these songs brought back. Crying because of the poignat rendition of the late Johnny Thunders’ ‘You Can’t Put Your Arms Around a Memory’, sung by Sylvain that segued into a bittersweet and haunting version of ‘Lonely Planet Boy’ from their seminal 1st album.
     There’s been a release of an earlier concert, the last show with late bassist Arthur Kane, released under the title ‘Morrissey Presents the  New York Dolls’ that I haven’t seen yet so I can’t compare the two. Part of me resents the old Mozzer putting his name 1st in the title, but apparently he did get the show back on the road and, hey, before he was Morrissey, the Nabob of Nihilism, the Maharajah of Mope, he was the president of the New York Dolls Fan Club, Manchester Division and without whom etc. etc.
    That show (and resulting CD and DVD) was a certified and justified media event and I hope every one in the world buys a copy, I know I will. But the aol footage feels like an old bootleg from dear friends and the fact that it’s available free over the net smacks favorably of the punk rock ethic. And the Dolls are nothing if not punk rock. Back in 1972, before ‘punk rock’ was a gleam in Malcolm McLaren’s beady little eyes the Dolls were the grit in the effete stew of glam rock. The publicity photo above, along with the notorious cover of their 1st album shows the Dolls in way more makeup and tinsel than they wore onstage at that point. The shock value approach backfired though and middle America ignored the Dolls in droves. Their loss, as The New York Dolls will always be, to my mind, the closest we ever got to an American Rolling Stones and yes, I’m including Aerosmith in that equation.
    While Bad Company sang of roaming the land with a six gun in their hand, the Dolls sang of junkies wandering aimlessly with Vietnamese babies on their minds. While Edgar Winter humped a moog synthesizer and called it Frankenstein, the Dolls sang a song that asked the musical question ‘Do you think that you could make it with Frankenstein?’ While Led Zeppelin bought a Lear jet and strangled rock and roll with their excess, the Dolls sang of being boys on a lonely planet.
    Now these 30 some years later, the remaining Dolls bring it to the stage with the same amount of heart and commercial potential  as they did ‘back in the day’.  Five men dressed kinda like girls, rocking in the free world and shooting from the hip w/their hearts on their sleeves. It don’t get more punk rock than that.
    See you on aol, everybody.

Posted by: timbyrnes at 01:31 | link | comments (2)

Comments:

#1  31 March 2005 - 16:34

 

remember a NY/NJ band in the late 70s, around the same time as the Dolls, called The Good Rats?

JoeSchmuck

#2  04 April 2005 - 17:48

 

New York boys, all.

Leigh

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