Eric Emerson

If you've ever been, uh, to the Village, this is across the street from that park that sits right in the middle of it, just north of Houston.

Eric Emerson and the Magic Tramps were actually rehearsing at the Mercer during the collapse and just managed to grab their instruments on the way out when it became obvious that the building was coming down, while the people who ran the Mercer had to quickly crawl in the dark out to the fire escape to save their own lives.

Hmm.

When the rubble was finally cleared, it was discovered that four people who were in the welfare hotel were killed when it collapsed onto the Mercer.

Mm-hmm

... was Eric Emerson.

Hmm.

Eric, uh, really liked what he heard, and he invited the New York Dolls to come and play and open for his band sometime.

We- we'll get to bit, to that in a minute, but first, Eric Emerson, right? We talked about him during our Velvet Underground series-

Yeah

... because he was part of the exploding plastic inev- inevitable shows that the Velvet Underground would put on with music, lights, bubbles, while they played their songs.

And their friends, like Eric Emerson, would dance and put on a show with whips and bondage and, uh, everything.