New York Dolls - "A Hard Night's Day" (Norton)

 

"A Hard Night's Day" is my favorite New York Dolls album.  The first two official Dolls albums issued by Mercury Records are excellent, but these series of demos they did in 1973, are essential listening experience.  Their mixture of classic rock n' roll, 60's girl groups, and blues, with incredible and insightful lyrics, is a combination that never fails me. 

At the time of their recording these demos, they did every song that they knew at that point. They are just important as the Velvet Underground, in that they tied in many important communities into one package.  The demos are beautifully recorded, and the performances are lively, precise (in that Dolls' manner of preciseness), and inspirational.  

Johnny Thunders - "So Alone" Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, 1978/2014 (Drastic Plastic Records)

It's hard to separate the image of Johnny Thunders, the very model of him, and his music.  When I listen to a Thunders recording, whatever it's a Heartbreakers or New York Dolls, the image of the Junkie is very well defined in our world.  Which is a shame, because it hides the fact that Thunders is an outstanding songwriter.  One should never bury their vices, but when it becomes the only subject matter when it comes to Johnny Thunders, you're losing the full motion picture and sound.

"So Alone" is the first 'solo' album from Thunders, and he's backed from Steve Jones and Paul Cook from the Sex Pistols, and more interestingly Peter Perrett and Mike Kellie from the band The Only Ones.  Another semi-tragic songwriter of sorts, Perrett is a perfect mirror image of the Thunders angst and pleasure.  The root of Thunders is, of course, The New York Dolls, which is a band that is about the history of rock n' roll, Rhythm n' blues, and various girl groups from the 1960s.  And of course a touch of The Kinks circa 1964/1965.   Thunders don't move from this core on his solo recording, because this is the music that he breaths in and out throughout his life. "So Alone" is a fantastic album, because, at the time, it cuts all of his interest on one disc.  

The album is co-produced by Steve Lillywhite, who worked with a lot of great British artists in the post-rock years of the late 1970s such as Peter Gabriel, XTC, early Ultravox, Siouxsie & the Banshees, and of course U2.   Lillywhite captures the Thunders magic, by not doing anything slick or mechanical and frames the Johnny aesthetic as if it was a retrospective than just an album.  The music covers NY Dolls, Heartbreakers, and choice covers to give a portrait of Johnny, at his most muscular stance to honoring not only his songwriting but the aesthetic that goes with his territory.  The first two New York Dolls, and the early Heartbreakers, and then "So Alone" is an excellent package to get. A vital artist who stated not only the image of rock n' roll but also the poetic almost dandified stance that goes with that (Thunders') world. 

Suede - "Coming Up" Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, 2014/1996 (Demon Records)

For two decades I had a mental block regarding the British band Suede.   I liked bits and pieces of their songs, but for some odd reason, I had a problem with their image.  All of it seemed borrowed from better sources.  Musically it had traces of Bowie/Bolan glam, but with Roxy Music imagery, due that they used the same visual people as Ferry & company, and when one is approached by this post-modern aspect of Suede, is it important?   On the plus side, I do like Brett Anderson's mannerist vocals as well as Bernard Butler's (and of course Richard Oakes') guitar sound.  Over time, I always found a song here and there, for instance, "Trash."   Again, when I hear that title I immediately think of the New York Dolls' "Trash," which of course within a few years later, Roxy Music came out with their song "Trash."  It's a good title, but surely Suede could have come up with a more original title?  Then again, I don't think Suede is really about originality.   That is actually their charm.

Suede's "Trash" is a fantastic chorus.  As I sit here writing this sentence, I want to get a lighter and wave it above my head.   It's a manifesto set to a melody, and that is something that Suede can do very well.  "Filmstar" is the ultimate glam beat, with again a glorious chorus.  In fact, their third album (and first with guitarist Oakes, as co-songwriter as well) is extremely catchy.  It took me 20 years, but I now appreciate Suede.   Anderson struck me as a writer focusing on the darker aspect of British living, and a guy who read too much JG Ballard, but that's me just being overly critical.  He's actually a very good observer type of lyricist.  An incredibly handsome man, with a good-looking band behind him, Suede is in its essence, a classic pop band that looks behind them as the past's projection, but also re-wiring the Bowie/T-Rex catalog for perhaps their generation.  

Blur and Pulp are the superior bands as album makers and songwriters, still, Suede has a strong presence between those two bands.  Both Pulp/Blur flirt with electronica and glam, but Suede brings a sense of glamour to the over-all British package.    It's like making a map and making sure all the routes are in place, and Suede very much needs to be on that map.  I'm not sure if they are a great band, but their love of the decadent imagery of the glam era, but done in their own fashion, is an important aesthetic.  There is a tad touch of The Smiths, with respect to their attention to the seedy-eyed imagery of the 1970s, but filtered through the 1990s Soho or East London world.  I'm very much interested in reading Anderson's memoir, that just came out in the U.K.  I suspect that it's a good read.  So now, Suede didn't change, but I changed.  I'm happy to be in their world. 

New York Dolls - "A Hard Night's Day" CD, Album, 2000 (Norton Records)

Perfection.  Paul Nelson when he signed the New York Dolls to Mercury he brought the band to a studio, and in one night recorded 21 songs as demos, to be picked upon by producer Todd Rundgren, at a later date.  These recordings are the best representation of the Dolls.  The band is sloppy in parts, but it is also part of their genius in that they had amazing songs, and their covers they did at the time, represented their trashy aesthetic and love for vintage rock n' roll.  It's interesting to note that the Dolls must have liked British Invasion bands like early Who or The Kinks, yet all their covers are American, based on the blues, or Atlantic Records-era rock recordings, or Chuck Berry.  So in a nutshell, the ultimate American rock band.

When I first heard the Dolls, which was their first Mercury album, I thought to myself, 'yes.'  At the time, The Stones were creatively spent, and there was a need for a younger band with great songs.  The Dolls were it.  On the other hand, the commercial music world disagreed with me.  Still, history will show that The Dolls were very much part of their decade, and the songs they wrote "Trash," "Personality Crisis," "Frankenstein" and others, were rooted in their social lives at the time.  It's a great snapshot of New York City subculture at work.  And "A Hard Night's Day" is very much that photograph or series of photos conveying the energy, sound, and genius of that time.

The Dolls wrote songs that were observational.  In that sense, they resemble Ray Davies of The Kinks.  Or even early Bowie.  David Johansen is a brilliant lyricist and through his solo career one can see that he is also a great music historian, but the same can be said for Johnny Thunders and Sylvain Sylvain as well.   And the rhythm section of Jerry Nolan (great drummer) and Arthur Kane were extremely important to their overall sound.  So to me, a perfectly balanced band.  

Paul Nelson captured the excitement much better than the official two studio Mercury albums.  This album is an important document but beyond that journalistic/studying approach, this is music to celebrate an independence that was greatly needed at the time.  

Johnny Thunders "Hurt Me" (10" vinyl album) Munster Records

Johnny Thunders all by himself.  Him and his guitar.  Recorded in 1983 and in the city of Paris.  Mostly acoustic guitar, with a touch of electric guitar here and there.  Ibe sure that there is an interesting tale about the making of this album, but alas, I don't know any.  Here he covers some New York Dolls songs "Lonely Planet Boy" and "Too Much Too Soon," as well as The Heartbreakers.  Also, a cover of my fave Stones song "I'd Rather Be With The Boys."  Very low-fi in sound and spirit, it's an interesting document of a superb and very much underrated songwriter.   Thunders is known for his love of narcotics and the look - but I think he is much better than all of that.  For one, his songs have a real heart.  He's the essence of a true rock n' roll mind.  Hearing him doing these songs - and most I do not even know off hand (by him), they're amazingly well-crafted, yet I suspect each one has ties to the pop history of the 20th century.   I can imagine him and David Johansen being Brill Building era writers, but alas, they missed the decade, yet they have honored it throughout their and Thunders (short) career.    An album for those who collect Dolls material, but more than that, it's a beautiful snapshot of Thunders spending that October and November 1983, in a studio, in a world of his own making.