New York Dolls: The Glam Rock Sun of the 1970s

Aerosmith, Guns N’ Roses, The Ramones – each of these bands are entirely distinct in their sound, image and era. But despite their differences, all three iconic bands revolve around one proto-punk, glam rock sun: New York Dolls.

New York Dolls were a band originally formed in New York City in 1971, one of the first bands of the early punk rock scene. Plagued by internal conflicts from alcohol and substance abuse, the band’s original five-piece lineup never lived long enough to achieve commercial success. But their first two albums, New York Dolls and Too Much Too Soon, released in 1973 and 1974 respectively, have become one of the most popular rock records to this day and have since amassed a cult following.

From left, Kane, Thunders, Johansen, Nolan, Sylvain)

The band’s classic and most popular lineup consisted of frontman and vocalist David Johansen, guitarist Johnny Thunders, bassist Arthur Kane, guitarist and pianist Sylvain Sylvain and drummer Jerry Nolan.

The formation of New York Dolls is a tangled web, as the band underwent many changes in membership prior to its official formation and status as recording artists.

Sylvain debuted the band The Pox with longtime childhood friend and drummer Billy Murcia in 1967. The band ultimately failed after its frontman quit, prompting Sylvain and Murcia to form their own band in 1970. The two initially recruited Thunders to play bass, but Sylvain later taught Thunders the guitar.

The band, which was informally called “The Dolls” struggled to thrive and each musician went down their own paths after Sylvain left to spend a few months in London. Thunders was then again recruited into a band called Actress, which was formed by Kane and his childhood friend guitarist Rick Rivets. Murcia then joined to replace the original drummer at Thunders’ suggestion, officially forming the brief band known as Actress in 1971.

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Thunders was originally slated to be the band’s frontman but later grew disinterested with the role, prompting the band to welcome local blues harmonicist Johansen, who first knew of the band through a shared friend between him and Murcia. Sylvain then reunited with former band members Thunders and Murcia to replace Rivets, who left after just a few months to form the Brats.

Sylvain’s role in the band was instrumental in both its naming and creation of its image. It was Sylvain who gave the band their iconic name after a few months, citing inspiration from the New York Doll Hospital, a doll repair shop. The New York Doll Hospital was across the street from the men’s boutique, A Different Drummer, where Sylvain had worked following the dissolution of the Pox. Also during that time, Murcia and Sylvain created a clothing business called Truth and Soul, which contributed greatly to the inspired fashion of the band.

The image of New York Dolls is famed; blending glam rock and punk aesthetics to create a theatrical androgynous style that drew heavy inspiration from drag fashion. The band’s members often donned platform boots and high heels, feather boas, tight leather or satin pants and wore heavy makeup with wildly teased hair.

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New York Dolls held their first show on December 24, 1971 at a homeless shelter called the Endicott Hotel. The band’s climb to notoriety was slow going at first but over time they eventually obtained a manager and gained moderate traction in the music industry, but earned their biggest break when a British singer and songwriter invited New York Dolls to open for him at a London concert.

Not long after their formation and first big break, New York Dolls also faced their first tragedy and major shake up. Murcia, who was a fixture of the band’s sound in its early days, unfortunately died of a drug overdose during the band’s tour of England on November 6, 1972, at just 21 years old.

Billy Murcia

After Murcia’s death, the band came back to New York and began to audition various drummers to fill his place in the band. New York Dolls auditioned many now well-known drummers, including Peter Criscuola, better known as Peter Criss or The Catman, the future drummer of rock band Kiss. They eventually landed on Jerry Nolan, a friend of the band.

And with that, the famed lineup of New York Dolls was officially sealed.

By 1973, New York Dolls had garnered a modest local fanbase through playing regular shows in Lower Manhattan, but continued to struggle with achieving success in the music industry itself. The band’s bold look and behavior was compounded by the homophobia and steep intolerance present in New York discouraged most music producers and record companies from agreeing to work with and signing New York Dolls.

Despite the struggle, New York Dolls got signed to US Mercury Records by A&R man Paul Nelson, beginning sessions for their debut album soon after. The band officially took on rock and roll entrepreneur and music producer as their manager in 1972.

The band’s titular debut album, New York Dolls, was released on July 27, 1973. New York Dolls featured a total of 11 songs over two sides; the first consisting of tracks “Personality Crisis,” “Looking for a Kiss,” “Vietnamese Baby,” “Lonely Planet Boy,” and “Frankenstein (Orig.)” and the second of “Trash,” “Bad Girl,” “Subway Train,” “Pills,” “Private World,” and “Jet Boy.” New York Dolls was produced by singer-songwriter Todd Rundgren, with Johansen writing most of the songs alongside Thunders, Sylvain and Kane. Just one track, “Pills,” was not written by a band member and was instead written by revolutionary guitarist Bo Diddley.

New York Dolls was considered a commercial failure. Though the album sold over 100,000 copies at the time, New York Dolls ultimately failed to meet the expectations that had been previously publicized, reaching only number 116 on the American Billboard 200, 81 on Canadian charts and did not earn a spot on the UK charts.

Critics held harsh opinions on New York Dolls, specifically on the band’s guitar playing that lead many to believe New York Dolls was making a mockery of the entire rock genre, rather than the possibility that the band was attempting to revolutionize the genre.

To make matters worse, the album cover sparked considerable controversy. The New York Dolls cover featured each member donning their iconic look; dark heavy makeup, wild long hair and clothes that leaned feminine with busy patterns and shiny textures. The cover was intended to spark shock value rather than controversy, and though the back of the cover featured the band wearing their stage look instead, the damage from a largely less than progressive 1970’s audience had already been dealt.

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Following the release of New York Dolls, the band set out on a tour of the United States as a supporting act for English rock band Mott the Hoople. It was on that tour that New York Dolls began to receive some positive attention from critics, who praised the band’s songwriting and the entertaining back and forth bits between guitarists Sylvain and Thunders. Their overall image finally began to be seen in a more positive light, with their fashion viewed as intentionally campy rather than outrageous and unsightly.

Still, New York Dolls struggled to be seen as serious artists in the music scene. They faced further mockery for their punk rock style performances and began to demonstrate the worst of the rock star stereotypes: attracting groupies, indulging heavily in drugs and alcohol – which was aggravated by Murcia’s 1972 death – and causing raucous chaos among the public.

Though opinions surrounding New York Dolls were divisive following the band’s debut, they appealed to a large group of fans in New York City. On October 31, 1973, New York Dolls performed an evening concert at luxury hotel the Waldorf Astoria, which attracted hundreds of fans and even local television coverage.

Not long after, New York Dolls began recording their second album Too Much Too Soon. The album was recorded at A&R Studios in New York City and produced by veteran producer Shadow Morton at Johansen’s request following the disappointing release and reception of the band’s less than successful debut album.

Too Much Too Soon was released on May 10, 1974, featuring a total of ten songs on two sides. On the first side were tracks “Babylon,” “Stranded in the Jungle,” “Who Are the Mystery Girls?,” “(There’s Gonna Be A) Showdown,” “It’s Too Late” and on the second were “Puss ‘n’ Boots,” “Chatterbox,” “Bad Detective,” “Don’t Start Me Talkin’” and “Human Being.” Too Much Too Soon consisted largely of covers of older songs and re-recorded earlier demos.

The production of Too Much Too Soon was far smoother and cleaner compared to their previous sound, as the band attempted to cater towards radio audiences and produce the hit single they needed to establish themselves in the industry.

During the production of Too Much Too Soon is where the band’s foundation began to crack with alcoholism plaguing Kane and Morton, leading the latter to be unable to denote his full attention to the record, as Thunders and Nolan struggled with heroin addictions.

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Much like their debut, New York Dolls’s second album was another commercial failure for the band, charting at number 167 on the Billboard 200 and selling less than 100,000 copies. Though the album’s production had objectively improved compared to the band’s first, the heavy reliance on cover music and too-smooth sound stripped New York Dolls of the character they possessed in New York Dolls.

Following the release of Too Much Too Soon, New York Dolls performed several shows in Europe that July and set out on their second tour of the United States. The tour lasted only a few months as a significant majority of the shows were cancelled and tensions began to rise between the members, spurred by their drug and alcohol addictions.

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The dissolution of New York Dolls officially began in 1975 as abuse of drugs and alcohol and artistic differences now fully affecting the band. Now partnered with informal manager Malcolm McLaren, New York Dolls continued to perform together across the country, including a five-concert tour of New York’s five boroughs and a tour of South Carolina and Florida, but played significantly smaller venues.

In the midst of the band’s tour of South Carolina and Florida, Thunders and Nolan officially left New York Dolls after a heated argument. Immediately following the end of the tour, New York Dolls announced their breakup on April 25, 1975. Soon after, Kane moved to Los Angeles to start the band Killer Kane.

However, New York Dolls reformed months later in July for an August tour with Jeff Beck and Felix Pappalardi. Former Elephant’s Memory keyboardist Chris Robison and drummer Tony Machine and roadie and bass player Peter Jordan, who had previously filled in for Kane following an injury, assumed the vacant roles, joining Johansen and Sylvain.

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After the tour, New York Dolls returned to New York and performed throughout the United States and Canada. The band’s contract with US Mercury Records had expired on August 8, 1975 with the company officially dropping New York Dolls months later on October 7, 1975.

Despite the turbulence of the past six months, New York Dolls played a successful 1975 New Year’s Eve show at the Beacon Theatre, earning the band critical acclaim.

But the upheaval continued when Robison was fired after an alcohol-fueled argument with Sylvain, replaced by pianist and keyboardist Bobbie Blaine, formerly of Street Punk.

New York Dolls continued to tour throughout 1976 but could no longer sustain substantial relevance as a band. New York Dolls played their final show as a band at Max’s Kansas City on December 30, 1976.

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Following the dissolution of New York Dolls’s classic lineup, each member embarked on various solo ventures. Thunders and Nolan formed the band The Heartbreakers with bassist Richard Hall. Thunders later launched a solo career, releasing a total of five studio albums and performing with various artists and bands, including The Oddballs and members of The Golden Horde. Thunders died of a drug overdose on April 23, 1991.

After leaving the Heartbreakers in 1977, Nolan joined the Idols with Steve Dior and Barry Jones until the band’s breakup in 1979, then the London Cowboys in the early ’80s in which he played the drums on their live album. Nolan continued a variety of recording endeavors, including a solo single with the Teneriffa Cowboys of an unreleased song by the Heartbreakers titled “Take a Chance With Me” in 1982, a single with Swedish band Pilsner in 1983 and many more throughout the decade. Nolan also continued collaborations with Thunders until his death and joined ex-member Sylvain Sylvain in the short-lived rock band Ugly Americans in the late eighties. Nolan died of a stroke after falling into a coma on January 14, 1992.

Kane worked on several projects post-Dolls, playing bass in Sid Viscious’s band, joining the Idols alongside Nolan, The Corpse Grinders, and continued collaborations with Thunders on several tours throughout the 80s.

Though his many projects failed which led Kane down a dark path of depression and a worsening addiction to alcohol. After struggling financially and physically following a suicide attempt and a violent mugging in the early ’90s, Kane reunited with New York Dolls members Johansen and Sylvain for a reunion concert at the Royal Festival Hall in London on June 21, 2004.

The Royal Festival Hall reunion show was first sparked by English artist and The Smiths frontman Morrissey, who was a longtime fan of New York Dolls. In a 2005 interview with Ear Of Newt, Johansen explained how just one show managed to bring the band back together again.

“Morrissey was curating this thing called the Meltdown Festival in London and he asked me to come and sing with the band. And after considerable deliberation, I thought ‘You know, it would probably be fun,’” Johansen said. “Originally the reunion was going to be a one-show deal, but then one show turned into two shows – because they sold out – and offers started coming in for festivals in England, so we decided to take a couple of those. Things just kind of meshed, so we’re still doing it.”

Unfortunately, the reunion did not last long as just three weeks after the Royal Festival Hall concert, Kane died of undiagnosed leukemia on July 13, 2004.

Sylvain continued a modest music career after the Dolls, recording one record, (Sleep) Baby Doll, in the early ’90s and joining punk band the Streetwalkin’ Cheetahs in the late ’90s. After the New York Dolls reunion in the early 2000s, Sylvain debuted a new band Batusis in 2010, released a solo single in 2012, joined Glen Matlock on tour in 2013 and 2014, debuted another new band called Sylvain Sylvain and the Sylvains in 2015 and performed a few one-off shows in 2018. Sylvain died of cancer on January 13, 2021.

New York Dolls frontman Johansen had arguably the most successful career after the band’s run. Johansen released solo albums under his own name, but achieved more success after leaving the rock genre behind and adopting the pseudonym Buster Poindexter and playing jump blues, traditional pop and swing. Johansen also began a fairly lucrative acting career, starring alongside Bill Murray as the Ghost of Christmas Past in the 1988 film Scrooged. Johansen fully delved into blues with a new band called the Harry Smiths. After a longstanding career in the entertainment business that spanned multiple decades and several industries, Johansen was diagnosed with stage four cancer and a brain tumor in 2020, which ended his musical career. Johansen died from cancer on February 28, 2025, marking the official end of New York Dolls’ most classic lineup.

Following the reunion concert in 2004, New York Dolls was briefly revived in the 2000s, living on through recruited musicians that toured and recorded with what was left of the band. New York Dolls released three more albums; One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This in 2006, Cause I Sez So in 2009 and Dancing Backward in High Heels in 2011. Following a British tour with rock icon in 2011, New York Dolls disbanded for the final time.

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New York Dolls reunion concert, June 16, 2004

Now over five decades since New York Dolls debuted, the band has since earned widespread recognition and amassed a cult following. Once condemned, New York Dolls is now celebrated for their highly influential role in shaping the early days of punk and contributions to glam rock. Considered commercial failures at the time, New York Dolls’s first two albums are now considered to be classics among music enthusiasts and have since received glowing reviews from critics. The legacy of New York Dolls has served as great influence for the seminal bands of today, from Sex Pistols to The Clash, continuing to inspire generations of punk and glam rock bands to this day.

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