Live In NYC - 1975 Red Patent Leather Review

07/13/2005 5:34 AM, AMG


This disc contains tunes from one of the last shows to have featured the Johnny Thunders (guitar) and Jerry Nolan (drums) incarnation of the New York Dolls. By the spring of 1975 they had undergone several personnel changes and released a pair of concurrently underappreciated long-players. Making matters worse were the shock-rock promotional techniques incorporated by manager Malcolm McLaren, who would refine his tactics when launching the Sex Pistols the following year. Although this recording is righteously lo-fi, it reveals a band that is driven, passionate, and undeniably inebriated. Their ragged but right attack blazes through a set that is surprisingly light on originals. Although the opening "Red Patent Leather" and "On Fire" never made it onto an official studio album, the Dolls plough through them as if they were live performance standards. They give Eddie Cochran's teen anthem "Something Else" the same nonconformist assault that the Sex Pistols would deliver on their version. The mod approach given to "Daddy Rolling Stone" recalls the Who's early reworking of the Otis Blackwell composition. The unusual coupling of Clarence "Frogman" Henry's "I Ain't Got No Home" and Larry Williams' "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" reveals the band's obvious affinity for early rock and R&B sides as well as the sonic correlation between the rebellious sounds of the '50s and the revival in the mid-'70s that was duly dubbed punk rock. "Girls" would become better known as a solo David Johansen (vocals/mouth harp) tune. The reading featured here is a bluesy and Quaalude-driven rendering that makes the studio version sound like it was played in double time. Also included are the seemingly obligatory versions of Bo Diddley's "Pills," Thunders' "Pirate Love," Sylvain Sylvain's (guitar) "Teenage News" -- which Johansen calls "an anthem for a generation" -- and the medley of "Personality Crisis" and "Looking for a Kiss." As a bonus, this CD also contains three performances from a 1973 French concert -- "Trash," "Chatterbox" and "Puss 'n Boots." The sound quality is on the verge of appalling, yet the power and majesty of this early and eager incarnation of the Dolls make them a worthwhile inclusion. ~ Lindsay Planer, All Music Guide