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Review: New York Dolls
By Jeremy Johnson
jjohn308@mscd.edu

New York Dolls One Day It Will Please Us To Remember Even This (Roadrunner, 2006)

“And now you’re walkin’ just like you’re ten feet tall,” sang the New York Dolls on their 1974 album Too Much, Too Soon. At the time, when the band was inventing a new blues/punk sound and taking Marc Bolan and David Bowie’s bi-curious look to new levels, the cross-dressing punks were walking like they were ten feet tall.

But 32 years and nearly half a dozen band members later, the high-heeled go-go boots have started to fall a bit flat.

Their new release, One Day It Will Please Us To Remember Even This, has much of the same bluesy, rowdy, breakthrough sound as their earlier efforts, which were reminiscent of early Rolling Stones. But unlike those albums, One Day is missing the Dolls’ distinctively whimsical style. It is a lot to ask the two original 50-something band members (lead singer David Johansen and rhythm guitarist Sylvain Sylvain) to still pull off high heels and patent leather, but it is even more to ask them to recreate a sound so reliant on the fuzzy lawnmower licks of deceased lead guitar man Johnny Thunders.

Johansen’s vocals, which were never strong to begin with, now show signs of a heavy life of hard drugs and chain smoking. In the past Johansen’s squawk was conspicuously covered up by raw and pounding sound, but One Day relies too much on a voice that only reached Billboard fame as Johansen’s ’80s pseudonym, Buster Poindexter. And we all know that shtick got old quick.

Not only does legendary John Lennon producer Jack Douglas highlight the quirky, clichéd lyrics of Johansen too much, but, by previous standards, vastly over-produces the entire album. It’s like Douglas and the new Dolls are trying to take the trash out of the ’70s’ trashiest band.

Still, there is enough garbage rock to make One Day a necessary acquisition for any true fan. One track, “Fishnets and Cigarettes,” embraces the band’s early decadence and desire as Johansen strains to sing, “You’re gettin’ a little impatient, smokin’ like a mental patient/Happiness is fishnets and cigarettes.”

One Day also offers a pair of burned-out ballads that address the rock and roll excess that led to the demise of members past: “I Ain’t Got Nothin’” and “Maimed Happiness.” In the former, Johansen existentially croons, “It don’t make no sense and it seems so odd/ And it makes me wonder if there’s a God.”

One Day also adds some backup vocal boosts from punk icon Iggy Pop on “Gimme Luv and Turn on the Light,” as well from androgo-prodigy Michael Stipe on “Dancing on the Lip of a Volcano.”

Upbeat numbers like “Runnin’ Around” and “Rainbow Store” are reminders of the band’s legacy as well, wailing out enough down-in-the-dumps keyboard hooks and characteristic Johansen catcalls to leave one whooping it up for more.

In One Day’s opening track, “We’re All in Love,” Johansen reminds listeners that he’s “got a bad reputation that just won’t quit.” While that may be true, the fact remains that the Dolls are just not nearly as bad as they once were.