Dolls

The New York Dolls are a rock band formed in New York City in 1971. In 2004 the band reformed with three of their original members, two of whom, David Johansen and Sylvain Sylvain, continue on today and released a new album in 2006. more...

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The band found little commercial success during their existence, but the New York Dolls prefigured much of what was to come in the punk rock era and even later; the Dolls' over-the-top crossdressing influenced the look of many new wave and glam metal groups, and their shambling, sloppy but highly energetic playing style set the tone for many later rock and roll bands.

History

Initially, the group was comprised of singer David Johansen, guitarists Johnny Thunders and Rick Rivets (who was replaced by Sylvain Sylvain after a few months), bass guitarist Arthur "Killer" Kane and drummer Billy Murcia. The original lineup's first performance was on Christmas Eve 1971 at a homeless shelter, the infamous Endicott Hotel.

They got their big break when Rod Stewart invited them to open for him at a London concert. Shortly thereafter, Murcia died of accidental suffocation (after he passed out from drugs and alcohol, groupies put him in a cold bath and forced coffee down his throat). He was succeeded by Jerry Nolan, a friend of the band's, though future Richard Hell and Ramones drummer Marc Bell (Marky Ramone) later claimed he auditioned to take Murcia's place: "Only two people showed up to audition, me and Jerry. They gave it to him because I was doing all the fancy fills."

The band was influenced by vintage rhythm and blues, the early Rolling Stones, classic American girl group songs, and anarchic post-psychedelic bands such as the MC5 and the Stooges, as well as then-current glam rockers such as Marc Bolan. They did it their own way, creating something which critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote "doesn't really sound like anything that came before it. It's hard rock with a self-conscious wit, a celebration of camp and kitsch that retains a menacing, malevolent edge.".

Johansen's energy made up for what was a weak singing voice; Thunders's fuzzy guitar sound became a near-instant band trademark, as did Sylvain's minimalistic rhythm guitar, Arthur's bouncing basslines and Nolan's tom tom-heavy drumming style. Sartorially, the Dolls looked like a Halloween party gang of transvestites who had broken into the Rolling Stones' and Marc Bolan's wardrobe trunks and made it even more androgynously exaggerated - best described by journalist Alan Parker as "still shocking today... devastating then." Musically, their repertoire - mostly written by Johansen (he spelled his name JoHansen at the time) and Thunders, occasionally by Johansen and Sylvain - was a series of unapologetically high-energy, demimonde expressions of the seamy New York underground from which they emerged, particularly through their legendary shows at the Mercer Arts Center. Songs like "Personality Crisis," "Trash," "Frankenstein," and "Jet Boy" were seminal squalls of guitar abuse, making up in attitude what they lacked in musical ability. But for all their squall the Dolls didn't entirely lack for subtlety; "Subway Train," for one, was as striking a piece of songwriting and even musicianship as the band could execute.

Read more at Wikipedia.org