Music Essay on the New York Dolls

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Music Essay on the New York Dolls

New York Dolls are-

David Johansson- Vocals

Johnny Thunders- Guitar/Vocals

Sylvain- Guitar

Arthur Kane- Bass

Rick Rivets- Guitar

Bobby Blain- Keyboards

Billy Marcia/Jerry Nolan- Drums

Formed in New York in 1971 the dolls went under the name of Actress

and rehearsed in an old bike shop doing early bluesy versions of their

early songs like subway train- which started life called That's

Poison. Very early on the suffered a shock touring with The Faces when

Billy Muncie Ode's on Pills on 6th of November 1972. Because of an

attempt to revive him in a bath by the band and roadies he drowned.

Jerry Nolan took his place. When Nolan took up the role of drummer the

band acquired a much more glam image than before. Mixing trash and

drag queen styles of dress they also wore roller skates and top hats

sometimes. The dolls drew influence largely from the Rolling Stones-

David Johansson is both a look and sound alike of Mick Jigger, and

their glam, feminine image complemented nicely with their masculine,

hard man attitude. They were often just described as thugs in drag.

Their first album self titled New York Dolls was released in 1973 and

pioneered a whole host of bands that would create the Cog's scene. It

contained such classics as Personality Crisis, Jet boy and

Frankenstein. The Dolls second album is pretty much summed up in the

title Too Much Too Soon, it left a lot to be desired but each song is

still a classic- Stranded in the jungle, a tale of a man trying to get

back to New York, and Puss in Boots- an attack on fake bandwagon

jumping glitter glam rockers . Early the following year, British

entrepreneur Malcolm McAllen made a last-ditch attempt to save the

band dressing them up in Red Leather an giving them a communist image.

Thunders was the first to leave in 1975 to form The Heartbreakers,

while Johansen and Sylvain sacked Kane before finally calling it a

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