Why are the New York Dolls still offensive to some?!
Happy 59th birthday to me! Come watch my favorite band on The Midnight Special with me! Also, Happy Jesse Sublett Day!
“They were terrible. Brought Johansen some success, but the rest not so much.”
“Johnny Rockets (sic) the guitar player was killed by a thief.”
“They were junkies!”
“That really sounds like shit. I thought they were better.”
“That was worse than Yoko.”
[Rolls eyes] One day, I will learn to stop reading the fucking comments on social media.
Should I be ecstatic or as pissed-off as I am that, 50-going-on-51-years after my favorite band in the world the New York Dolls appeared on The Midnight Special, they still polarize people as drastically as current American politics?
As I read that load of bollocks above, I now get why, whenever I talk about what utter shit Rush is, some people get madder than Cheeto Mussolini and his running mate Jethro Bodine every time the Harris-Walz campaign calls them weird. Then again, anyone who is a Rush fan SHOULD be offended by my opinions, the Dolls, punk rock or anything else that constitutes real rock ‘n’ roll. Those people like “rock.” We like rock ‘n’ roll.
I will never forget watching this very performance October 19, 1973. I’d just turned 8 on Sept. 12th. [Yes, today is my 59th birthday. More on that later.] The babysitter watching me that night was a neighborhood teenage John Denver fan, as I recall. I know that when the Dolls tottered on — a riot of stacked heels, smeary Max Factor, teased hair and distorted Marshalls — the sitter added a new word to my vocabulary. I got in so much trouble the next day when I asked my mom what a “fag” was! As an early ‘80s teenager, the rednecks in Alice, Texas called me that when they chased me down to beat me up for being a punk rocker. So, maybe that’s what a “fag” is? Someone completely different?
One other wag from that comments section remarked that the Dolls sounded like “every American 17-year-old picking up a guitar for the first time,” or words to that effect. Well, that’s kinda the point! That’s the sound of rock ‘n’ roll! That’s the sound I love, and I’m pretty sure most of you reading this screed feel the same.
It all reminds me of possibly the greatest written description I’ve seen of the Dolls, their impact, and the continuing reactions, both positive and negative. It came from The Patron Saint Of This ‘Stack, Lester Bangs, in the course of a three page essay, 20 pages into his 1980 Blondie biography. Titled “In Which Another Pompous Blowhard Purports to Possess the True Meaning of Punk Rock,” it’s the best capsule history I’ve read of punk’s development in the ‘60s and ‘70s. He wrote therein of the Dolls, “They might have taken some cues from The Stooges, but who they really wanted to be was an American garage band Rolling Stones. And that’s exactly what they were. Everything about them was pure outrage. And too live for the time — ‘72-3-4 mostly. They set New York on fire, but the rest of the country wasn’t ready for it.”
“I was talking to a guitarist friend,” Lester continued, “and the subject of the Dolls came up.
“‘God,’ she said, ‘the first time they were on TV, we just couldn’t believe it, that anybody that shitty would be allowed to do that! How did they get away with it?’
“I felt like throwing her out of the house. They didn’t ‘get away’ with anything. They did what they could and what they wanted to do and out of the chaos emerged something magnificent, something that was so literally so explosive with energy and life and joy and madness that it could not be held down by all your RULES of how this is supposed to be done! Because none of ‘em are valid! Rock ‘n’ roll is about BREAKING the form, not ‘working within it.’ GIVE US SOME EQUAL TIME. Let the kid behind the wheel. Like Joe Strummer of The Clash says, ‘It’s not about playin’ the chords right, for starters!’”
I’ve frequently wondered if that contentious “first time they were on TV” was the same Midnight Special appearance that got my mouth washed out with soap. All I know is, nearly 20 years later, as a punk rock loving teen, I’d finally picked up Mercury Records’ budget line $5 reissues of both Dolls albums after years of reading interviews with my favorite bands all singing psalms to the Dolls, Stooges, MC5, etc. And from “Personality Crisis”’ first filthy chords, I got it: The New York Dolls invented EVERYTHING! The attitude, the elevated amateurishness, Johnny Thunders’ guitaristic mash-up of Chuck Berry, power chords and Romilar, the thrift shop stylistic genius – the Dolls got there first, or second if you count The Stooges and MC5 (and you should).
No, they ain’t perfect. That’s what makes them superior to note-perfect bores like Yes. (OKAY, RUSH FANS! I’M PICKING ON SOMEONE ELSE! STOP CRYING!) That messiness is what makes them rock ‘n’ roll, alongside the basis in r&b and girl group pop. This ain’t supposed to be classical music or jazz, both of which I like, too. But I can’t play those, and I don’t want to. I can play “Personality Crisis,” however. And I frequently do.
So, I turn 59 today. Happy birthday to me! I have been so busy with The Books, I have not planned any way to celebrate, other than not sign up for a shift at the day job. Maybe a few paid subscriptions could buy me a plate of BBQ and a slice of cake? I dunno. But if you really wanna help me celebrate the day in 1965 I entered this filthy world, then click that link below, turn up your speakers all the way, and bask in the New York Dolls’ glorious din! Let’s be like those kids in the front row in the clip, bopping along and singing every word back at David Johansen! Let’s not be like the uncomprehending buffoons sitting on their hands behind them, waiting either for James Taylor or 2024 to come along, so they can post a shitty comment on social media and piss me off until I write something! And remember that Mama Napalm was right when she washed my mouth out with soap: “Fag” is truly not a nice word!
Happy Jesse Sublett Day!
Austin’s first punk band The Violators, 1978: (l-r) guitarist Carla Olson, drummer Marilyn Dean, bassist Jesse Sublett, and guitarist Kathy Valentine. [PIC: Ken Hoge]
Yeah, it’s my 59th birthday. As a gift, Austin Mayor Kirk Watson declared it Jesse Sublett Day, even though this Austin punk pioneer’s 70th birthday was May 15th! LOL! I kid, of course. Jesse is a long-time supporter of The ‘Stack, and he really paved our local path in both The Violators and The Skunks. He’s also a helluva writer, having published several hardboiled detective novels starring a PI named Martin Fender, plus a number of Austin history and true crime books. Lately, he’s been concentrating on fine art, working primarily in acrylics on canvas, with an emphasis on a series called The Birds Of Austin, which you can check out at his Instagram page.
But yes, Jesse deserves this day! In Mayor Watson’s words, "Whereas, Jesse Sublett is an Austin music legend, one of Austin’s best living writers, a painter of iconic Austin birds, and, for 50 years, he has epitomized the Austin ideals of professionalism, passion, and love of nature; Now, Therefore, I, Kirk Watson, Mayor of the City of Austin, Texas, do hereby proclaim September 12th, 2024 as Jesse Sublett Day in Austin.”
According to the press release, these Jesse Sublett events follow in today’s wake:
Sept. 19, 7-9 PM, Jesse will be at BookPeople to introduce author Christopher Brown on the publication of Brown’s highly-anticipated new book, “A Natural History of Empty Lots.” (Registration through Eventbrite is encouraged. https://www.bookpeople.com/event/christopher-brown-natural-history-empty-lots).
Fri. Oct. 5, 6:30-8:30 PM, Jesse will be featured at the 23rd annual Evening with the Authors event at the Dr. Eugene Clark Library in Lockhart, alongside fellow local writers Joann Garza-Mayberry, Adrianna Cuevas, Jennifer duBois, Karen MacInerney and Danielle Belleny. Funds from admission fee and donations go to support the oldest continuously operating library in Texas: the charming 124-year-old Dr. Eugene Clark Library in downtown Lockhart. More info at:
https://www.eveningwiththeauthors.com/
November: Jesse’s paintings of iconic Austin birds will be shown at Cloud Tree Studio, kicking off the Austin Studio Tour Nov. 9th and continuing through November 24.
I’ve been promised more events are in the offering. In the meantime, let’s enjoy footage of Jesse and his fellow ex-Skunk Eddie Muñoz joining me and The Hormones (AKA “The Hormonal Skunks”) at SXSW 2014, for romps through Eddie’s Plimsouls hit “A Million Miles Away” and The Skunks’ “Gimme Some,” essayed in later years by the almighty Sons Of Hercules. Congratulations on Jesse Sublett Day, my friend! Please gimme a call.
Special Birthday Subscription Offer!
Like I said, I’m too broke to even get myself some cake right now! I’m hurtin’ from these times, just like you, Napalm Nation! So, as my birthday gift to you, understanding how stressed all our pocket books are these days, take 20% off FOR LIFE on your paid monthly or annual subscription to The ‘Stack! Even when you upgrade your free subscription! Just click the button below. Thank you, and happy birthday to us all!
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EXACTLY! Punk rock was not born. It wasn't "Adam and Steve." No one band should be heralded as "The First," nor ""The Best," It is what it is. It evolved. Fuck, Elvis was a punk--where do you think Sid Vicious and Billy Idol got that sneer from?
Man, I could write so much about the Dolls and their influence on punk rock. And crazy stories about people's reactions to that first record (some from gay disco/soul fans--who hated that first record!) I moved to NYC in 1972 when they were taking off. Never saw them at the Mercer Arts Center but saw them open for Mott the Hoople at Madison Square Garden's Felt Forum. Saw them many times after--the weirdest show was their last at the Little Hippodrome, when Television played their last show with Richard Hell... They could have been great, but they were so self-destructive (like so many rock 'n' roll bands)... But The Stooges were the biggest influence on 1970s punk rock.