I doubt that anyone who witnessed the excesses of the New York Dolls in the early 70's would have put much money on David Johansen still being around in the year 2000 far less releasing an album of raw Blues songs.
The first of two albums inspired by the release of The Anthology of American Folk Music a compilation of 1920's and 30's songs assembled by the musicologist Harry Smith hence the band name.
In the interim he had a number of jazz and lounge albums under the name of Buster Poindexter
From this
New York Dolls - Who Are The Mystery Girls?
To this
David Johansen & the Harry Smiths - Somebody Buy Me a Drink
The sound of a man getting old gracefully or should that be disgracefully?
The French are back! But in smaller numbers
ReplyDeleteI liked Johansen's two Harry Smiths albums, wasn't so struck on his Buster Poindexter guise though.
ReplyDeleteIn 2011 I took my son to see the reformed NY Dolls in Hollywood, having been too young to catch them in NYC their first go-round. (I did see an unforgettable show in the city where Johansen and Sylvain joined Thunders and Nolan and the Heartbreakers one night, but that's as close as I came.) Johansen was an absolutely fantastic front man al those years later. Easy to imagine I was back at Mercer Street, waiting for the collapse, before heading to the back room at Max'x Kansas City to score some smack. New Yorkers have a soft spot for Johansen, who never tries to hide his thick Staten Island accent, and I love all his incarnations, including Buster P.
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