Knowing Brian's love of all things Doll related I asked him if he would like to write a few words  about the Dolls and their impact and he's done us proud here and  gives another side to the story I present on the main page particularly the Dolls influence on the Pistols. Take it away Brian ............

Why were the Dolls so goddam special? Weeeell…as someone much wiser than me once quipped – if ya gotta ask then y’ll never know..!!. You either get it or you don’t!

Rewind… I guess ya hadda be there too!  Way back in the early 70’s the oft mentioned (and now forgotten – as todays teens are boringly middle aged at 15) generation gap was REAL maan.. Marc Bolan had single handedly kickstarted our very own golden age of rock n roll with a handful of shimmering, killer diller 45’s…. Glam inspired fierce loyalties and had the kinda influence on just EVERYTHING that you couldn’t imagine today.. It was awesome to see a whole nation of bootboys (and bootgirls) sporting ear rings and spiky Bowie cuts...and the music was noisy, glitzy, sexy and wildly intoxicating and got weirder and just more fucking amazing by the day! Remember this was the era when MOR bastion BBC Radio One played ‘Walk On The Wild Side’ to death – a song obviously celebrating junkies, trannies blow jobs and all round general decadence....sure wouldn’t happen today bub!

And then just when ya thunk nuthin’ could go any further or be more shocking…yup! Taadaa! Up stepped our hapless heroes in the shape of the faaaabulous New York Dolls….and the whole world shifted on it’s axis…and we’re still feeling the shock waves almost 30 years later..

See, then (as ever!) image was everything…I remember buying a Melody Maker in July ’72 ‘cos Marc Bolan was on the front pluggin’ his newie the sublime ‘Slider’ (his best LP too in my humble opinion)...and tucked away near the back was a scrappy half page article about this band called the ‘New York Dolls’ who were just starting to make waves. I loved the name - always a good sign! - and one look at the picture and I was hooked. It was that simple. You either got it..and embraced and worshipped The Dolls wholeheartedly – or ya hated, despised and condemned ‘em. No middle ground.  I devoured the music press for anything and everything on ‘em...and pre ordered the records at a local record shop. The more I read the more I knew I’d hit paydirt...Every story was wilder than the last – every stunt more outrageous, every anecdote more improbable! Try this fer size! Johansen had starred in porn flicks..(‘Bike Boys Go Ape’ anyone?) Thunders threw up everywhere...they all fucked anything that moved...(and anything that didn’t!) and they insulted and outraged everyone they came across…and gobbled up enough drugs to keep Columbia’s economy buoyant for years! Whatta contrast with the dull ‘I’m a serious artist’ whinin’and rock operas on ice that the music biz drooled over at the time!  These guys were different and dangerous and you  KNEW they weren’t faking it!  The ads and reviews of the first LP whetted my appetite and by the time the Dolls were booked to appear on the OGWT I was pissing myself with excitement.!  And so (like many many others!) I sat in front of the TV with a crappy cassette recorder and hand held mic just waiting for the Dolls to appear.

Now,as always, the OGWT was a dull, tedious smug bore of a show. Wanky hippy shit with the mealy mouthed baldy beardy Bob Harris fawning pompously over every burned out left over reject from the late 60s..I hated it! He was like the older guys at the youth clubs we went to who sneered at our T.Rex 45s and tried to put on Yes LPs instead…(which we always forcibly removed I’m eternally proud to confess!) …and then on stumbled the Dolls - careering brilliantly through Lookin For A Kiss and Jetboy….I was stunned...gobsmacked and just plain fuckin’ blown away! I’d thunk I was hep with my Bowie, reed and Iggy  LPs..but this was sumthin’ much much wilder!

More eloquent folks (Hi Nina!) have called it an epiphany.! I’ll not argue with that!

It really was a life changing event!

See..with the Dolls the music was only half the story..to see ‘em in action – even on TV - was a whole different ballgame.. One look at these sleazy semi transvestite fag hag frankensteins and you knew this was it! Sure one mighta looked like Jagger - if he was still pretty - and one looked like Bolan - before the puppy fat - but what was that  huge birds nest on Johnny Thunders’ head? And just what galaxy (never mind planet) was the bassist from..? And even with all the satin and tat they just looked so goddam RIGHTEOUS...so goddam COOL!  They just didn’t give a fuck and went totally apeshit ..and their music was so goddammed rauchy, sexy and thrilling!

I was totally mesmerised!  Even better Bob Harris loathed ‘em - whispering feeble asides about ‘em being ‘mock rock’ and being ‘to the Stones what the Monkees were to the Beatles’ - what a smug cunt! First time I’d ever heard him snub a band...and the final seal of approval for me!!  And I wasn’t the only one! That one TV appearance changed history !!  Remember, back then there were 3 TV channels and not a lot else to do…so most everyone , young and old, watched TV...and so MILLIONS of folks got to see the Dolls stumble begraggedly right into their living room…

Natch most folks hated ‘em...but to the rest of us..well nuthin’ was ever the same since…and STILL after all these years I meet people who remember sitting down to watch that show and whose lives were totally turned inside out…

For me the Dolls real impact was in their attitude…Disappointingly even most of the glam bands had wanted to be taken seriously. Many of ‘em were sixties throwbacks and were almost ashamed of their success.. The Dolls were young blood – a new generation who wanted everything and wanted it NOW! They were OURS! And nobody came close - and inspired so many people in so many ways!

Song wise they were unbeatable...three minute three chord footstompin’ classics – slapping together the sheer panache and spunk of the wildest early 50’s rockers (many of whom who were not exactly averse to lipstick powder and paint!) along with the bittersweet melody of the Noo Yoik girl groups and raw street corner gang bang doo wop and rollickin’ R+B the Dolls came up with their very own unique sound…single handedly dragging rock n roll kicking and screaming into the 70s! Like all true greats and innovators the Dolls not only had their own sound but also their very own look and style..sado sluts on smack mebbe – but look at them the wrong way and there’d be trouble…

Some prats claim the Dolls couldn’t play..WRONG.. They were fuckin musical geniuses! Many have tried to copy em since – and ALL have failed miserably..It’s that simple!

Other equally vapid scholars have claimed that their only significance lay in the fact that they were the first band to show that anyone could do it – which has an element of truth - but which I personally find condescending and insulting. Why Da Dolls inspired folks wasn’t because they were sloppy or that it was somehow easy to sound like them (which it so patently wasn’t and isn’t!..) but ‘cos they DID remind everyone that true rock’n’roll was sexy, sassy and in your face and FUN! (remember that!…)

A glorious two fingers to the whole world - if ya don’t like it...then fuck off! What an attitude ..irresistible!  And hey! Who wouldn’t wanna go out and start a band like that!

Also the fact remains...They just looked and sounded like the greatest band to ever walk the earth.. The chemistry was there in spades – sumthin ya can’t fake! I mean fer chrissakes folks even all had their fave Doll…!  Also they were young dumb hungry and angry and just didn’t give a shit..and you can’t fake that either (though McClaren tried time and time again).. They never set out to change the world...(but did!) They just wanted to party party and then party…and in the dismal 70s with strikes three day weeks and all sorts of shit (especially here in wunnerful Belfast..) they were a blinding ray of hope amidst the darkness..  Compare their  seven day weekend with lashing of sex drugs an rock n roll and any other debauchery ya ever dreamed of with your shitty dead end existence in a dead end town...I mean who wouldn’t wanna follow in their footsteps!

Don’t get me wrong though...back then people DIDN’T wanna clone the Dolls…that woulda been silly.. Sure I worshipped at the altar of Thunders but I never wanted to have fucking long hair – perish the though! Or EVER wear lame ass platforms…That whole idea of copying bands is dumb, lazy and very 80’s/90’s.. Mind you Thunders’ black leather jacket with the skull an bones on the back was ultra neat - and his guitar playing was truly incendiary!  Listening to Johnny made me wanna play...but I never copied him slavishly... Same for the junkie schtick.. that always fuckin’ sickened me - and JT was the best advert I ever saw for staying off drugs. ( I know some folks probably fell for that angle – but wasted junkie chic woulda been a pile of pretentious wank for a 13 year old teenager in Belfast…)

The impact the Dolls had was HUGE…Likin’ em was a sure sign of good taste.. I carried their LPs round school with pride..gladdened and vindicated when folks laffed at em ...cos I knew I was cool and they weren’t! (..and face it wasn’t I right!)

It was like a forbidden religion or secret society  - only ya you wanted to go out and convert everyone in the world to the cause!  Battle lines were drawn – if someone liked the Dolls they were generally good people with wit, intelligence and snappy taste - and you had a pal for life. If they hated the Dolls they were probably lunkheads with lousy taste and no brains and you ignored ‘em..  Back then people who liked the Dolls tended to be creative and imaginative and one step ahead of the pack..

For example...Back in 75/76 I saw an ad in the NME where a guy in Manchester was hopin’ to set up a Dolls fan club.. Turned out to be Steven Morrissey and though the club never took off we swapped long passionate letters about the Dolls for years! And like so many folks who dug the Dolls ethos we both went out and started bands...(though his ventures were somewhat more successful in the long term! ) Factor that throughout towns and cities throughout the land and lo and behold you have ..PUNK ROCK! (yawn!)

See it’s as simple as this - without the Dolls there woulda been no PUNK ROCK!!  Most every band in the early days played a Dolls song...or at least one ‘influenced’ by our heroes…!  RUDI’s first self penned song ‘Alcohol’ started with the riff from ‘It’s Too Late’  (the full title was ‘Fill Your Balls With Alcohol’ – which kinda explains why commercial success was not around the corner..)  The Undertones swiped the same riff to kick off ‘Get over You’...and there are many many other such examples.. Similarly the number of rats nest Thunders cuts (once he got rid of the flowing locks) was alarming (OK I do gotta own up to that!)....

There are even stronger direct links to McClaren. , whose erstwhile protégés copped every riff and pose straight from the Dolls...and they were so guilty about it they hadda deny it in their lumpen ditty ‘New York’ – methinks they doth protest too much! (Thunders put ‘em in their box with ‘London Boys’ even roping in two ex Pistols to play on it…did I say DUMB or what!) And it was no accident that the Heartbreakers were treated as conquering heroes when they hit theses shore for the Anarchy Tour…Whilst talcy Malcy was quick to try and pull the punters by adding  ‘ex New York Dolls’ to the posters I’m sure he was dismayed that when they did finally get to play Thunders crew wiped the floor with their UK counterparts..! Ironic huh!

Still...it’s a new millennium and it’s been fun to watch another two or three generations flip their wigs over New York’s finest.. Not so much fun to watch the watered down rip off merchants get fat and rich whilst the original Dolls were snubbed, reviled and shafted metaphorically, financially and any other way ya can think of....No happy endings here either as Billy, Johnny and Jerry died long before their time...Art left for dead and Syl (the most under rated and quite possibly the most talented Doll!) flat broke and busted...(down but not out...check out his recent work!) and only Davey Jo finally retaining his cool and still showing the rest of us how it should be done..

Still unlike so many of their contemporaries the New York Dolls still stand the test of time…and always will! I’m just glad I was there first time round! …

’When I say I’m in love you’d best believe I’m in love...LUV!’   

Brian Young. 8.11.2001.