SOUNDTRACK4LIFE: THE B-SIDES: Rewind: New York Dolls

Wednesday, 27 July 2016

Rewind: New York Dolls - New York Dolls (1973)

On this day in musical history Mercury Records released the Debut Album from the New York Dolls.

Much maligned when it was released it is regarded these days as somewhat of a classic. It's one of those albums that surely inspired a lot of the early Punk bands and is considered to be one of the best Debut Albums ever.

The album was recorded over the space of eight days and the band had no real idea what they were going to do when they began recording and opted for songs that they considered had been received well during their live performances.

Although it was released in the States on this day back in 1973 here in the UK we would have to wait until 19th October 1973 for Mercury to release it here.

In a rave review for NME, Nick Kent said the band's raunchy style of rock and roll was vividly recorded by Rundgren on an album that, besides Iggy and the Stooges' Raw Power (1973), served as the only one "so far to fully define just exactly where 1970s rock should be coming from".

In 101 Albums That Changed Popular Music (2009), Chris Smith wrote that the New York Dolls pioneered punk's aesthetic of amateurish musicianship on the album, which undermined the musical sophistication that had developed over the past decade in popular music and had been perfected months earlier on Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon (1973). In The Guardian's list of "1000 albums to hear before you die", the newspaper credited the record for serving as "an efficacious antidote to the excesses of prog rock".

All songs except Pills (Bo Diddley) were written by the band and it's an album loaded with cracking tunes right from the off with Personality Crisis to the very end with Jet Boy. Many of the songs have been covered down down through the years I especially like Joan Jett's Personality Crisis and Sonic Youth also did a pretty tidy acoustic version of it as well. The Pastels did Lonely Planet Boy. Morrissey has done Trash in an almost Rockabilly style (he has also done Subway Train - a part of it anyway as an introduction to Everyday is Like Sunday and also Human Being from Too Much Too Soon), also The Panic Buttons released it. Dee Dee Ramone and The Lurkers had both done Pills inspired by the Dolls version. The New Bomb Turks have covered Bad Girl. Electric Frankenstein recorded Frankenstein (Orig) for their We Will Bury You Project.

New York Dolls - New York Dolls

Mercury

Produced by Todd Rundgren
Released 27th July 1973
US Chart #116

Tracklist

A1 Personality Crisis
A2 Looking For A Kiss
A3 Vietnamese Baby
A4 Lonely Planet Boy
A5 Frankenstein (Orig.)
B1 Trash
B2 Bad Girl
B3 Subway Train
B4 Pills
B5 Private World
B6 Jet Boy

New York Dolls
    David Johansen – gong, harmonica, vocals
    Arthur "Killer" Kane – bass guitar
    Jerry Nolan – drums
    Sylvain Sylvain – piano, rhythm guitar, vocals
    Johnny Thunders – lead guitar, vocals

Additional personnel
Buddy Bowser – saxophone
Todd Rundgren – additional piano, Moog synthesizer
Alex Spyropoulos – piano

Singles on New York Dolls