While most in the punk scene in the Seventies were lathered up in leather for a punk mean street look, the Dolls preferred a more androgynous look of near bitch butch femininity more on the glam rock Spiders from Mars side of the gender fence. These were guys as Dolls and damned if eventual lead singer, David Johansen on occasion in his pre-Buster Poindexter in the Dolls afterlife liked to wear his best froo froo dress on stage to flaunt flamboyantly as he strutted his manly stuff while singing garage raspy low about Jet Boys and Showdowns. It was West Side Story Sharks and Jets with attitude and a mean demeanor.
The band was started by Sylvain Sylvain and Billy Murcia, high school students who started playing in a band called the Pox in '67. Yes, it was clearly a case of punk pox forming in a petrie dish that would soon begin to morph into the poster punk child for all who came later. Yes, Johnny Rotten, that means you! The Pox disbanded in 1970 and Sylvain landed a day job at a clothing store in NYC that was across from a doll repair store called "The New York Doll Hospital" ..yeah, you figure it out. In the same year Sylvain and Murcia formed a new band with Johnny Thunders on bass. The union didn’t last long and the band broke up yet once again.
You know what they say..where there's thunder there's lightning and in this case Ka-BOOM! Thunders joined a band called Actress and an audition tape recorded by them was released as Dawn of the Dolls in 1971. At this point Thunders was playing lead guitar and singing for the band but soon took multi-tasking to task and wanted a change...he wanted to concentrate on guitar so a void was avoided , when the band recruited a young Johansen to over and give the Dolls a voracious vocal vortex that swallowed the listener whole..it was an audio blow job of mind blowing magnitude. "Meanwhile...back in the states" as David would croon later, the Dolls as Dolls came down the chimney on Christmas Eve in 1971 for their very first performance, a real panhandlers spare change affair at a homeless shelter! Ok, so it ain't the Fillmore, and in Dolls lore and legend the second gig was a paying gig at the Mercer Arts Center where a whopping hardly SRO crowd of 14 paying customers shelled out a buck of two to watch the bouffant coifed dolls snarl and bark in platform heels about sex, drugs and rock and roll. The Holy Ghost of Garage Ghetto Gang Bangers. Interestingly enough the Mercer Arts Center became ground zero home base for their raw energy performances. Any night in New York you could go the arts center and enjoy some Dolls live in the Oscar Wilde Room! Oscar would have appreciated the effete look of the band and would have hit on them with the fury of a homosexual hurricane in hard-on Honduras!
Other gigs followed and soon the big break came when Rod Stewart, who had seen them perform at one of the small venues invited them to open for him at a London Concert. London concert? Hell it was wonderland at Wembley Stadium where the Dolls shared the stage as warm up act with the Pink Fairies and then....lights cameras action..Rod Stewart. the record biz shit hit the fan. Atlantic Records wanted them...the Who's new label, Track Records wanted them and Jumpin' Jack Flash himself, the Mick as in Jagger came to see them at a showcase. To the Dolls...it was good to be the king! Mercury Records in the end signed the Dolls to a contract.
Life was looking good for Maggie May's offspring until the Dolls drummer at the time died drowning as a result of drugs and alcohol so the search was on for a new drummer. Many auditioned including Marc Bell who would later become Marky Ramone of the Ramones. The chose Jerry Nolan and were now signed by Mecury Records and the sessions for their first release were underway. Sure its the Dolls at their garage best, sort of, but it was the production of singer songwriter and solo artists Todd Rundgren, the Runt who gave it the velvet touch by leaving it alone! He said in later interviews, "I barely touched it" I think former Prez Clinton said that too...but then he also said he never inhaled..in my case I have "touched a few ITS and I never exhaled!
The new lineup returned to the hood in NYC and returned to the Mercer. This time around they were playing to sold out crowds of punks, fairies and hipsters of every stripe. The cash rolled in, new equipment was purchased (state of punk rock art electronics).New clothes from real stores and not the army navy surplus emporiums they had been frequenting cleaned them right nice and groupies were now lining up to rmp under the rock covers with David and the Dolls. Fuel injected by growing fame, and not just a few snorts of coke up the nose,the Dolls were riding the wave..ready to jump the shark!
Although they rocked the house wherever they played, the reviewers were not only kind. Stereo Review mag said the guitar work was more like the sound of a lawnmower, and Creem mag did a poll and the Dolls won in two categories...the best new group of 1973 and conversely the worst new band of 1973! They were also bashed unabashedly in Britain as "mock rockers" trying to imitate the Rolling Stones!
As will happen in bands after the surge of fame subsides into a low tide combined with mind altering drugs used and abused (Why? Because now they can afford the good blow!) the band started to come apart in 1975 at the leather seams, but, they did do a few "adios" concerts in NYC wearing red leather garb and flaunting a monster Communist flag as a backdrop on stage, and no Karl Marx was not their road manager!
Various Dolls lineup continued touring with band mates changing faster than diapers at a senior citizen home. The band continued to tour with personnel changes that diluted the impact of the music and the energy levels were juiced out. Coke was replaced by downers and it showed. By 1977 it was officially over for the Dolls. Most pursued solo careers including David Johansen’s reincarnation as Buster Poindexter..Hot, Hot, Hot if you remember and dabbled as former Doll in Hollywood with a miniscule acting career.
Thunders died in Dr. John's Night Tripper city of New Orleans in 1991 ironically of an overdose of heroin and the drug designed to help kick the syringe habit of horse, methadone. Nolan died in 1992 from a stroke.
Old is new again as proven in 1981 when Dolls demos were released on cassette at first, then CD and ultimately on vinyl. Backward progression in technology that culminated in vinyl...the choice of the gods. One of the cuts is a cover of the cartoon show theme from Courageous Cat!
The Dolls were not dead in the water yet, despite drug overdoses and strokes. Hell no, their train kept a rollin' and the three surviving members including Johansen played the Meltdown Festival in London in 2004 which led to a live album and docu-film. By 2005 only Johansen and Sylvain were left but they toured with a new lineup of punks and released yet one more album.This time guitar work handled by Steve Conte. All this led to an appearance on Conan O'Brien and also on the Harry Rollins show.
The tour bus was gassed up again heading for Australia and they did more shows with Beck, Pet Shop Boys, Jarvis and Gnarls Barkley. In 2011 they were on tour as the opening act for Motley Crue and Poison. Their legacy is legendary and they came along at just the right time to give music a vinyl kick in the balls...lets face it Dolls Have Balls!