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Glam was essentially dispensable fun; it was vacant and directionless. All
image and no substance. Ok maybe sexually subversive but not a lot more. The New
York Dolls suffered too from this and more. Yeah they were rock'n'roll in spades,
short snappy songs to react against the boring farce music had become and yeah
their lyrics had attitude but hell they were too ugly to be pin ups, too
wasted to be effective, controversial yes but hell barbarians at the gate nahhh.
More like the cast of Prisoner in Cell Block H and ultimately disposable.
Unlike the UK the media and general public in the USA weren't shocked...they
never had a manager like Malcy boy pulling the strings and when they did they never understood
the reasoning . You can't argue with their influence tho..... from the American
punks to the the first
wave of British punk they were the reference point.
More than that, the link with Malcolm McClaren is obvious as their
manager for a short but undistinguished period of time. The Dolls were the first
band that met his expectations of rebel rock. His first attempt to
dress such a band was not a qualified success not helped by them being on their
last legs with drug wastage. After
first unsuccessfully attempting to get Sylvan then Richard Hell to come to the UK and form
a band , he instead took some of the sartorial ideas of the latter
and the guitar of the former - the famous white Gibson
Les Paul - ended up in Steve Jones's hands . Steve idolized Thunders and
aped and copied his moves. CLOSENESS IN music ??? some parallels but not
a lot. The Pistols never covered any Dolls songs...if they had been
that big an influence surely something would be there. Both bands combined
outrageous behavior with outrageous clothes but God the Pistols just looked so
cool...hell you could start a revolution just with the clothes alone. We wanted
to look like them not Lily Savage !!!!
However what sets them apart is quite simply Johnny Rotten, Forget the current
view of the Pistols as heavy metal pub rock. Rotten created the lyrics
to counterpoint the greatest muthaf***in racket ever, where lyrics and sledgehammer
riffs and fashion are focused to laser beam accuracy...There is nothing that
comes close to God Save The Queen for lyrics riff and potency and real danger. Sure the Dolls
were rock'n'roll but the Pistols were in the words of Eddie Cochran ....Something
Else. Comparisons are futile. UK punk certainly owes something to the Dolls but
as we have seen it owes something to a lot of things. The point is it added
something else to make it its own. Would the Pistols have existed without the
Dolls
...quite probably...and then again ....you decide...we're lucky to have them both.
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Quotes
'The Sex Pistols were
identical to the New York Dolls...and they were identical in terms of
their actions' Macolm McLaren.
'Please Kill Me'
'And I just got into that
fucking album of theirs! I thought it was great, just the rawness of it.
And y'know Thunders guitar was what I really dug at the time' Steve
Jones Spiral Scratch Aug 1990
Musicians Wanted 'Decadent
3rd generation rock'n'roll image essential. New York Dolls Style.' Melody
Maker Advert. Mick Jones/Tony James London SS
Wanted' Whizz kid
guitarist Not older than 20 Not worse looking than Johnny
Thunders' Sex Pistols Melody Maker ad 1976
'Steve used to copy all
Johnny Thunders moves ..he used to practise them.' Glen Matlock
Punk77 interview 2001
'I was trying to do with
the Sex Pistols what I had failed with the New York Dolls' Malcolm
McLaren 'Please Kill Me'
Syl
Sylvain..'Malcolm...he
always wanted me to come over and start a group called the Sex Pistols'
Search
& Destroy #8
'It was a stupid idea of
mine...no way Hell or Syl would have fit in with the Pistols. Hell and
Syl had years on the Pistols...the Pistols were incredibly naieve.' Malcolm
McLaren 'Please Kill Me'
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