"When I say I'm in love, you'd best believe I'm in LUV, L-U-V!"
--The New York Dolls, "Looking For a Kiss," 1973
I could have done this next week. I probably should wait since I'm still kind of mentally and emotionally processing it. But I was presented with some information this morning from "CBS Sunday Morning" that... well... frankly, kind of spoiled my day. This morning, during the weekly "Passage: In Memoriam" segment highlighting those we lost in the past week, I was stunned to see that David Johansen had died this past Friday at the age of 75. As I've said before, I don't normally get bent out of shape over celebrity deaths unless the celebrity in question created a body of work that somehow left a lasting and profound impression on me. I guess I never realized until now how much his work has affected me over the last 35 years. And, aside from a handful of rock snobs who are geekier than I am about it, I'm sure most people my age and certainly younger wouldn't have the first clue who David Johansen was.
In the mid- to late-1980s, I would occasionally see this lounge singer in a pompadour and tuxedo on late night television who called himself Buster Poindexter. He had a hit in 1987 with a song called "Hot Hot Hot" (a cover of a calypso song by an artist named Arrow). When I saw him perform it (or any other song, for that matter), I really dug it. It was different from the pop stuff I was hearing on contemporary radio, which I always appreciated. When I was in college, I found a copy of his self-titled album (I believe at Best Buy, which used to have an amazing selection of music). Remembering how much I enjoyed him in the past, I bought the album. As is usually the case in these situations, I found that the big hit from the album wasn't even my favourite song on it. I fell in love with that album and listened to it repeatedly throughout college. I still do.
After I graduated, I explored more of Poindexter's catalogue. After some research on my part (and picking up two more albums--because it's always good to have some lounge music for variety), I discovered that Buster Poindexter's real name was David Johansen. He had also recorded a number of albums under his own name in the late 1970s and early 1980s and before that, he fronted a group called The New York Dolls, a proto-glam-punk outfit that was around before words like "glam" and "punk" existed in the musical vernacular. I heard the Dolls' song "Personality Crisis" on a various artists compilation CD that I got from a magazine. What I loved about it was that Johansen's vocals worked in both a loungey (if that's even a word) context as well as in punk rock. I found that he was just as adept at other genres of music including blues, and folk. He could sing the hell out of a good torch song. If nothing else, it encouraged me to get the Dolls' first album.
The Dolls were the epitome of sex, drugs, and rock and roll--so much so that their original drummer, Billy Murcia, drowned in a bathtub after overdosing on pills before the group even recorded their first album. Neither of their first two albums (released in 1973 and 1974 respectively) were very successful, so Mercury Records dropped them from the label shortly thereafter. The band fell apart after that. And even though they never had any kind of chart success, they left a lasting influence on future generations of musicians. Today their albums are considered rock classics.
It wasn't until Morrissey (one of their biggest fans) managed to reunite the three surviving members--Johansen, guitarist Sylvain Sylvain, and bassist Arthur "Killer" Kane--to perform at his Meltdown Festival in London in June of 2004. A month later, Kane died very suddenly shortly after being diagnosed with leukemia. In 2006, Johansen and Sylvain released the first New York Dolls album in 32 years, One Day It Will Please Us To Remember Even This. They released two more albums in 2009 and 2011 before finally disbanding. Sylvain died in 2021, leaving Johansen the last original member of the group.
Johansen didn't stop there. He also acted in a number of films, most notably as the taxi driving Ghost of Christmas past in the 1988 movie Scrooged with Bill Murray. The two clearly had a friendship as Murray also appeared as a bartender in the "Hot Hot Hot" video. Johansen returned the favour in 2015 playing a bartender in Murray's Netflix holiday special, A Very Murray Christmas. (And he led the cast in a rendition of "Fairytale of New York" that made me openly weep the last time I watched it.)
In 2023, Martin Scorsese directed a documentary about Johansen called Personality Crisis: One Night Only that chronicled his recent performance at the Café Carlyle in New York. In it he discusses what it's like to be both David Johansen and Buster Poindexter.
Ultimately, when I hear Johansen's music--both with the New York Dolls and as Buster Poindexter--it takes me back to various periods of my life that always make me smile. I look back on those moments and the music with nothing but fondness.
It's almost hard to pick which album to memorialize him with. I'm overly fond of everything I've ever heard. There are a number of his albums that I haven't had a chance to explore (yet)--I'll even go as far as to say in advance that I'm overly fond of them too. When I find myself in a situation like this, I find it's best to go back to the start. So, in honour of David Johansen--as well as Sylvain Sylvain, Arthur "Killer" Kane, Johnny Thunders, and Jerry Nolan--please enjoy as a bonus album this week The New York Dolls with their self-titled 1973 debut album.
Until next week, stay safe, be good to your neighbours, and please remember that if at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you.
Yours in peace, love, and rock and roll!
The Reverend Will the Thrill
No comments:
Post a Comment