3.
How to get to the
sex of your
choice |
Factually, the Dolls' first
live appearance, in the basement of New York's Hotel Diplomat, was uneventful.
They adopted the legendary back room at Max's (their natural heritage)
whilst assaulting the city club circuit. Their live shows were frenetic
insights on sex and satire. They were most certainly never dull. However
untogether they might have been the Dolls had no serious competition in
New York. Wayne County was far too explicit for general consumption, and
Jobriath - despite two excellent albums - was far too enigmatic and probably
not half as much as fun. The Dolls immediately developed a hybrid
breed of devotees. Their songs were much closer to home than most of the
period: they were bitter ('Vietnamese Baby'), urban ('Subway Train'), self-applauding
and a little polluted. They sang about what they knew best - the bleak
realities of ordinariness. New York as a "vicious kinda place where no-one
cares" upset the American Pie ramblings. "I'm getting sick of the slums/I'm
tired of dodging the bums" offered Loudon Wainright to no response. It
took the Dolls, brash little things that they were, to bury the 'kinda
groovy' mythical vision of the city. The message was loud and clear: "a
nuclear bomb is gonna blow us all away", which of course meant that we
would never get taken to the Mardi Gras. "I'm-uh-lookin-for-a-REAL-HOT-KISSS"
which was perhaps what the group America had intended to say in 'A Horse
with No Name', but couldn't. The Dolls simplified things: "all I know is
TRASSSHH". David Bowie wrestled about in space with beings of a less humane
society than ours, and |
it was fascinating.
The Dolls barked "I've seen enough drama... riding on the subway train",
and it sounded real. Their criterion, as with ghetto music - ghetto rhythms.
Johnny Thunders was as much a bona fide "rocker' as Gene Vincent. Sylvain
Sylvain had studied Jan and Dean. David Johansen's girlie-group obsession
knew no bounds. And Arthur Kane, well Arthur just went blmmm blmmm blmmm.
By October 1972 the Dolls
were invited to England by The Faces. It was here that they made their
first recordings at Escape Studios in Kent on October 15th. The group
were as yet without a contract, and the tapes were forgotten. Whilst in
England the Dolls played a handful of dates - with Lou Reed at the Alhambra
Theatre, Birmingham, with Curved Air at the Sundown, Mile End, and with
the Faces at Wembley. Following the Wembley show the Dolls were to play
Manchester Hardrock with Roxy Music. This final date was cancelled. Billy
Murcia's sudden death following The Faces concert stunned the rest of the
group. Rumours varying concerning Billy's death - excessive alcohol, extravagant
doses of drugs. He died in the house of a lady friend who tried to revive
him. Slyvain recalls: "...I think he drowned.."
The Dolls returned to
New York immediately. Johnny and Sylvain were especially disturbed by Billy's
death as the three had been close friends for some time. Billy's death
aroused a curious affection for the much-maligned Dolls. It had, at least,
brought them publicity....The group kept a low profile until Spring 1973
when they reappeared with a new drummer, Jerry Nolan. The audition for
a drummer had |
