New York Dolls

Since 1971 · United States

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New York Dolls (1973)

Glam sleaze and Stones-derived swagger played sloppy and loud, with Johnny Thunders' guitar sound becoming a direct blueprint for punk guitarists who came after. Produced by Todd Rundgren, the record sounds gloriously unfinished, as if the band might collapse mid-song at any moment. 'Personality Crisis' piles on piano, cowbell, and a sneering David Johansen vocal until it nearly collapses under its own excess. It sold poorly on release and shaped an entire generation of punk and glam bands regardless.

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New York Dolls

New York Dolls · 1973

The New York Dolls formed in 1971 around David Johansen, Johnny Thunders, Sylvain Sylvain, and Arthur Kane, playing sloppy, Stones-derived rock'n'roll in drag and platform boots on the Lower East Side. They were too chaotic for the mainstream and too glam for the emerging punk scene that would soon claim them as an ancestor — a band whose actual music was often secondary to the sheer confrontation of five men in makeup and heels playing as loud and as badly as they could get away with.

Their self-titled 1973 debut, produced by Todd Rundgren, sold poorly and drew hostile reviews, but its influence on the CBGB scene that followed was immediate and direct. Too Much Too Soon (1974) couldn't reverse the band's commercial fortunes, and drug problems and Billy Murcia's early death compounded the chaos; Thunders and drummer Jerry Nolan left to form the Heartbreakers, and Malcolm McLaren's brief, disastrous stint managing the Dolls became a dry run for what he'd later do with the Sex Pistols. Guns N' Roses, the Ramones, and two generations of glam-punk bands all trace back to a group that made two albums and burned out almost immediately.