Music Review: New York Dolls - Live At The Filmore East

Once upon a time in a city called New York a band called the New York Dolls were born.

They played rock and roll music with attitude and energy, and made The Rolling Stones look tame. Unfortunately they were very young and self-imploded after a few years. Yet their influence on those who came after them can't be underestimated as you can see traces of them in everyone from the glamour boys to the punks.

New York has turned out so many different bands playing so many different types of music that it would be silly to say there was a New York sound. In spite of this, there is a core group of bands and performers who I will always associate with New York City: Lou Reed, Willy DeVille, The Ramones, Patti Smith, and of course the New York Dolls. Each of them, in their own way, has an edge to their music that could only have come from the streets of New York City. Cool, a little arrogant, a little dangerous, and very exciting — just like the city that gave birth to their music.

In the late 1970s the names of Johnny Thunders, David Johansen, and Sylvain Sylvain had already taken on near mythical status among the punks I knew in Toronto, Ontario. By that time, the Dolls had pretty much broken up after releasing two albums, the self titled New York Dolls and the eerily prescient titled Too Much Too Soon.

Maybe they knew that neither they nor the world was really ready for the New York Dolls sound, for although they toured for a few years more following that release, the band started falling apart by 1975.

When the band reunited in 2004 for the Meltdown Festival in England it was only David Johansen, Sylvain Sylvain, and bass guitarist Arthur Kane from the original band who showed up. Johnny Thunders had left the band in 1975, and pursued his own career until his death in 1991, supposedly from a drug overdose, and drummer Jerry Nolan had died in 1992 of a stroke caused by bacterial meningitis. While the reunion was successful and led to the release of a live CD and DVD, Kane died later that year from leukemia.

Article Author: Richard Marcus

Richard Marcus is the author of the forthcoming book What Will Happen In Eragon IV? and has had his work published in print and on line all over the world. The not so long-haired Canadian iconoclast writes reviews and opines on the world as he sees …

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