David Johansen

But then, uh, a lot of people, a lot of people move up from New York for, you know, these days, a lot more people who are in the punk scene have, you know, ended up moving up there.

And Bowie was there, not that we ever saw him, and David Johansen, and members of the Psychedelic Furs.

And so it's a wide array of, uh, of people there.

But, uh, the shops in Woodstock still sell tie-dye shirts, and, um-

There's, it's really no point.

Well, when we last left the New York Dolls, the year was 1972, and their Tuesday night residency at the Mercer Arts Center had made David Johansen, Johnny Thunders, Syl Sylvain, Billy Murcia, and Arthur Kane some of the hippest underground musicians in New York City.

The Dolls were therefore getting a deluge of good press, so you'd think that getting them signed would be a no-brainer.

Now, as far as the Dolls were concerned, they were already rock stars, so the next logical step towards finally getting out of Max's Kansas City and the Mercer Arts Center, it's a record contract.

Nope.

While Aerosmith was seemingly on a set trajectory to stardom, the New York Dolls were not enjoying the same breaks.

They didn't have Clive Davis there kissing David Johansen on the lips and saying, "You're gonna be a star, baby, a star." While Aerosmith did wear a little makeup to keep up with the times, they were nowhere near as outrageous as their New York brethren.

At times, Aerosmith seemed even a little sheepish about appearing too feminine, despite Steven Tyler's later affinity for scarves.

And, you know, there's other things that could be referenced in that movie.

But that one, you know, and I think recently you and I, we were talking about the documentary about David Johanson.

That's right.

And I think we were both upset that they didn't get too much into his film career.

David Joh.

David J- David Joh, David Johansen.

Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

And he, uh, [laughs] in one of the interviews, and I thought it was interesting, someone asked him, uh, I think it was Norwell who asked him, uh, "Is it true that you sent your pubes to a, your psychiatrist?"

[laughs]

And [laughs] David Johansen immediately, like, responds with, like, "Not my psychiatrist."

[laughs]

"Someone else's psychiatrist."

I didn't feel like, you know, walk over that territory a couple of times.

And but but also he did that, you know, the hot, hot, hot version, Buster Poindexter.

That was really interesting.

So he would have been a nice he would have been a good subject.

... narrated by, uh, yeah.

No, Buster Poindexter.

[laughs]

Yes.

That's why anytime there's some type of dance at a wedding, Covino actually leaves because you never want to look like...

As soon as I hear Buster Poindexter, hot, hot, hot, I go into the bathroom and hide.

I'm not getting in the conga line.

But

And furthermore, the music contained in this record was certainly rock and roll, but it was also campy and it was also feminine.

All this put together coded this band's debut as gay to a lot of radio DJs, who were also probably a little freaked out by their own sexual reaction to the luscious lips of lead singer David Johansen.

That's right.

In our, uh, our own generation, we had a similar thing, uh, not dressed in drag, but a lot of people thought the members of Hanson were girls.

It shows promise, and because Johnny Thunders obviously wasn't a strong singer just yet, as you just heard, he decided to focus on guitar.

So the Dolls went searching for a real singer, and through a former tenant at the Mercia House, they found a guy who had moved to Manhattan from our final borough of the evening, Staten Island.

This guy's name was David Johansen, and once Johansen joined as one of the greatest front men of the 1970s, the song you just heard, that's Poison, it became the classic New York Dolls track, Subway Train.

I can't ever understand.