Latest / DISGRACELAND / The New York Dolls: Born to Lose, Lipstick Killers, and R&B in Four-inch Heels

Transcript

The New York Dolls: Born to Lose, Lipstick Killers, and R&B in Four-inch Heels · DISGRACELAND

0:00
Speaker 1: Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis.
0:14
Speaker 2: The stories about the New York Dolls are insane. They
0:18
Speaker 2: came to life when their hometown of New York City
0:20
Speaker 2: was coming apart the seams, in the midst of rising murder, rape,
0:24
Speaker 2: and burglary rates. The Dolls dressed like women, fucked with men,
0:28
Speaker 2: and made the antics of the Rolling Stones look like
0:31
Speaker 2: innocent schoolboys Shenanigans. Their drummer drowned, their bassis was nearly murdered,
0:37
Speaker 2: their guitar players despised their singer, and the only thing
0:39
Speaker 2: that their singer loved more than Archie Bell was himself. This,
0:44
Speaker 2: of course was all part of the act and the
0:46
Speaker 2: self destruction, the violence that intra band squabbling, But it
0:50
Speaker 2: was of course also a part of the band's reality,
0:53
Speaker 2: a reality that an early seventies New York in that
0:56
Speaker 2: weird moment between downtown avant garde music and the coming
0:59
Speaker 2: part explosion between the Velvets and the Ramones, a transitional
1:04
Speaker 2: New York City reality that the New York Dolls embodied.
1:08
Speaker 2: They were a band that, at the time, just like
1:10
Speaker 2: the city they were from, seemed born to lose. There
1:14
Speaker 2: were also a band that made great music. Unlike that
1:17
Speaker 2: music I played for you at the top of the show,
1:19
Speaker 2: and that wasn't great music. That was a preset loop
1:22
Speaker 2: from my mellotron called Kansas City Flapjack MK two. I
1:28
Speaker 2: played you that loop because I can't afford the rights
1:30
Speaker 2: to Family Affair by Sly and the Family Stone. And
1:34
Speaker 2: why would I play.
1:35
Speaker 1: You that specific slice of Thicker than the Mud funk?
1:38
Speaker 1: Could I afford it?
1:40
Speaker 2: Because that was the number one song in America on
1:43
Speaker 2: Christmas Eve nineteen seventy one, and that was the day
1:47
Speaker 2: the New York Dolls played their first show and forever
1:50
Speaker 2: changed the.
1:50
Speaker 1: Trajectory of rock and roll.
1:53
Speaker 2: On this episode, Lipstick Killers a city in transition in
1:58
Speaker 2: the New York Dolls, I'm Jake Brennan, and this disgraced
2:32
Speaker 2: the Bandido lived a life that was envied, separate and
2:36
Speaker 2: apart from the daily life of his fellow Colombians, who
2:39
Speaker 2: struggled under the constant threat of violence from political unrest
2:43
Speaker 2: or alternately, under the thumb of political oppression via the
2:46
Speaker 2: National Front. The Bandido was immune to such social stressors.
2:50
Speaker 2: He took what he wanted when he wanted, and if
2:52
Speaker 2: you couldn't get with that, then he wouldn't.
2:54
Speaker 1: Live to see the next Bogata sunset.
2:57
Speaker 2: This particular outlaw, with his skin tight American jeans, cowboy boots,
3:02
Speaker 2: two tight cowboy shirt snug around his bulging belly, a
3:05
Speaker 2: belly that everyone knew was just bound to send those
3:08
Speaker 2: mother of pearl snaps bursting open one day, had a
3:11
Speaker 2: particular type of confidence, a no good type of confidence
3:15
Speaker 2: that was plain as the black on his stetson. His
3:18
Speaker 2: confidence sprung from the fierceness he knew and everyone else
3:22
Speaker 2: knew he was capable of the violence He'd demonstrated time
3:26
Speaker 2: and time again when faced with any conflict. When it
3:31
Speaker 2: came to his trade, smuggling tax free goods from America
3:34
Speaker 2: into Colombia and increasingly marijuana from the Sierra Nevada de
3:38
Speaker 2: Santa Monte Mountains to America, the bandido was savage in
3:42
Speaker 2: protecting his livelihood and reputation. Across him once and you'd
3:46
Speaker 2: be lucky to get a warning. Twice, and he'd deploy
3:49
Speaker 2: his favorite form of justice, the Colombian necktie, a neat
3:53
Speaker 2: little trick where he'd slit you ear to ear under
3:55
Speaker 2: your jaw with his switchblade and then yank your tongue
3:58
Speaker 2: through the fresh hole in you, and if you really
4:01
Speaker 2: upset them before killing you, he detail all the horrible
4:05
Speaker 2: ways he was going to rape and murder your surviving
4:07
Speaker 2: family members. Savage bandito in Colombia, even in the late
4:20
Speaker 2: fifties early sixties, it was widely known that the bandido
4:24
Speaker 2: as a loose group of smugglers, were not to be crossed,
4:27
Speaker 2: especially in Bogata, where the drug trade was just beginning
4:31
Speaker 2: to take shape and centralize power. If you found yourself
4:35
Speaker 2: in opposition to the banditos, it meant one thing, certain
4:39
Speaker 2: violent death. It didn't matter if you were a fellow smuggler,
4:43
Speaker 2: a government official, a member of a parliamentary group, some
4:46
Speaker 2: high ranking rival crime syndicate associator, even a lowly ice
4:50
Speaker 2: skating rink owner like mister Mercia, crossed the bandidos, and you, my.
4:54
Speaker 1: Friend, were dead.
4:55
Speaker 2: As Disco, except Disco hadn't happened yet yet, not by
5:01
Speaker 2: the time mister Mercia and his family arrived in Queens,
5:03
Speaker 2: New York from Bogata to start their new life free
5:06
Speaker 2: of antito hostility. Disco would come much later, but its
5:10
Speaker 2: celebration of blended gender identity and hedonism would be made
5:14
Speaker 2: possible in part by one of the youngest merciasts, Billy,
5:18
Speaker 2: who didn't know it then upon arriving as an immigrant
5:21
Speaker 2: in Jamaica, queens that he would one day go on
5:23
Speaker 2: to massively influence American culture with his future band, the
5:27
Speaker 2: New York Dolls. Nineteen seventy New York City crime grime, unrest.
5:37
Speaker 2: The city was fast becoming a startling example of urban decay.
5:41
Speaker 2: A decade prior of social upheaval, cuts and law enforcement
5:45
Speaker 2: disappearing blue collar job opportunities had led to a new
5:49
Speaker 2: wave of rampant crime. One hundred percent increase in arrests,
5:53
Speaker 2: a tripling of the rape and burglary rates, and a
5:56
Speaker 2: murder rate that was quickly skyrocketing from six hundred and
5:59
Speaker 2: eighty one a year in nineteen sixty nine to one thousand,
6:03
Speaker 2: six hundred and ninety murders by nineteen seventy four. That's
6:07
Speaker 2: more than one thousand more murders per year. Middle class
6:11
Speaker 2: residents fled to the suburbs, landlords torched their apartment buildings
6:15
Speaker 2: for insurance dollars, and the desperate did what they had
6:18
Speaker 2: to do to survive. And the criminal mind had thrived.
6:23
Speaker 2: The New York City Subway became known as the Muggers Express.
6:27
Speaker 2: Times Square, once the crown jewel of Manhattan, with its
6:30
Speaker 2: Landmark theaters and Golden cinemas, became overrun by peep show joints, pimps,
6:35
Speaker 2: street walkers, prostitution parlors, and skin flick movie houses, a
6:40
Speaker 2: seedy symbol of the city's decline. Downtown, the Bowery was
6:44
Speaker 2: overrun with homeless. The West Side Piers served as the
6:50
Speaker 2: city's unofficial gay hookup spot, a darkened bachnal filled with
6:54
Speaker 2: not only men desperate to connect in a thoroughly repressed society,
6:58
Speaker 2: but also with gay back uhs, wallet snatchers, and rough
7:01
Speaker 2: trade slashers. He approached the peers in the seventies with
7:05
Speaker 2: the thrill of your life in your chest, but also
7:07
Speaker 2: by taking your life in your hands. These and many
7:10
Speaker 2: other factors all combined to give nineteen seventies New York
7:14
Speaker 2: City a new moniker fear city. It was in this
7:19
Speaker 2: city the Colombian export Billy Mercia and his Egyptian immigrant
7:23
Speaker 2: power from Jamaica, Queen SYLVAMZRAII, fed their twin obsessions, fashion and.
7:28
Speaker 1: Rock and roll.
7:30
Speaker 2: They played drums and guitar, respectively, and started their own
7:33
Speaker 2: fashion label, Truth and Soul, and they applied their immigrant
7:37
Speaker 2: grit and sense of entrepreneurship to create their own opportunity
7:40
Speaker 2: in a city that was fast approaching at ten percent
7:43
Speaker 2: on employment rate. Billy's mom, Mercedes, imported a master loomer
7:47
Speaker 2: from Columbia, and the clothes they created garnered to write
7:50
Speaker 2: up in the influential Women's Wear Daily, and Truth in
7:53
Speaker 2: Soul quickly sold their inspired designs to a bigger company,
7:57
Speaker 2: the results of which were a windfall of cash for
8:00
Speaker 2: young Billy Mercia and his friend Sylvain, and they quickly
8:06
Speaker 2: get the fuck out of Heerce City headed to Europe,
8:08
Speaker 2: and they went their separate ways party, drank, chased, euro
8:11
Speaker 2: skirt sniffed, glue brawl, took in some new fashion ideas,
8:15
Speaker 2: and eventually linked back up in London to fill their
8:17
Speaker 2: travel chests with Ludwig drums, Marshall amplifiers, and dozens of
8:21
Speaker 2: hard to find Mickey Mouse ringer teas.
8:24
Speaker 1: They shipped it all.
8:25
Speaker 2: Home, along with the new Jaguar they'd purchased, and when
8:28
Speaker 2: they themselves finally made their way back to Manhattan, they
8:31
Speaker 2: discovered their future roaming the streets of New York City
8:34
Speaker 2: right under their glue sniffing noses, right alongside the pimps
8:39
Speaker 2: and the pros, the hustlers cruising Christopher Street, and the
8:42
Speaker 2: bums and the Bowery. He was only five foot seven,
8:45
Speaker 2: but still he cut an impressive figure. You'd think it
8:49
Speaker 2: was the four inch platform shoes he was wearing a
8:51
Speaker 2: La Ti rex Is Mark Bolan, or the impressive Italian
8:54
Speaker 2: tailored suits he was rocking while still just a teenager.
8:58
Speaker 2: But it was so much more than that. It was
9:00
Speaker 2: the way he carried himself like a motherfucker, with the
9:07
Speaker 2: rock star's confidence and outlaws, confidence even at such a
9:11
Speaker 2: tender age. He learned from getting up close and personal
9:15
Speaker 2: with rock and roll's most infamous bandido at the time,
9:18
Speaker 2: Keith Richards. He'd heard about this bar on Fifth around
9:21
Speaker 2: Thirteenth Street. Supposedly John Lennon hung out there members of
9:25
Speaker 2: the MC five too, so of course he began frequenting
9:29
Speaker 2: the bar, and sure enough, one night he found Keith
9:32
Speaker 2: Richards sitting by his lonesome just drinking and smoking. He
9:36
Speaker 2: and his friends joined Keith, who was more than happy
9:39
Speaker 2: to share his smokes with these fast talking American street kids.
9:43
Speaker 2: He couldn't believe it he was in love with the Stones.
9:46
Speaker 2: He made sure he was right up front near the
9:48
Speaker 2: stage when they played Madison Square Garden in sixty nine,
9:51
Speaker 2: and there he was sure enough and the Maser Brothers
9:54
Speaker 2: gimme shelter. Documentary on the Rolling Stones. He can be
9:57
Speaker 2: seen four or five rows back opposite Mick Jack, looking
10:00
Speaker 2: so cool in the audience that you wonder why he's
10:03
Speaker 2: not on stage with the band, John Gonzale the Queens,
10:06
Speaker 2: New York.
10:07
Speaker 1: He'd later give himself the rock and roll name Johnny Thunders.
10:10
Speaker 2: It was part DC comic hero reference, part homage to
10:14
Speaker 2: the Kinks, and part Harbinger of Doom, a nod to
10:17
Speaker 2: the born to lose attitude he would bring to his
10:20
Speaker 2: band that was destined to do just that. But before
10:25
Speaker 2: burning out, he needed to get his start, and that
10:28
Speaker 2: start happened with Billy Mercia and Sylvain Mazrahi, who is
10:31
Speaker 2: now calling himself Sylvain and Sylvain. They joined forces and
10:35
Speaker 2: were now in need of a bass player and another
10:37
Speaker 2: guitar player for the new band they were putting together,
10:40
Speaker 2: and Johnny kept his head on his swivel, not knowing
10:42
Speaker 2: where in New York you might find opportunity. It came
10:45
Speaker 2: to a one night on Bleaker Street. While holding up
10:48
Speaker 2: a lamppost with the lean of his effortless cool Johnny
10:53
Speaker 2: nonchalantly took in the action, which at the moment meant
10:56
Speaker 2: two dudes, one short, one massively tall, t to steal
11:00
Speaker 2: a motorcycle. They'd secured it and were now comically trying
11:04
Speaker 2: to lift the massive bike into the back of their van.
11:07
Speaker 1: Johnny watched, and they noticed. They did not look happy.
11:11
Speaker 2: They abandoned their new bike mid theft and walked straight
11:14
Speaker 2: toward Johnny. Johnny saw them coming, but was helpless. Running
11:18
Speaker 2: away in forage platform boots wasn't an option. He resigned
11:21
Speaker 2: to look tough get into it on his terms if
11:24
Speaker 2: he had to it all there or at the lamppost.
11:27
Speaker 2: When the two got up on him, he noticed their
11:29
Speaker 2: threads inspired rock and roll, not as bespoke as his,
11:33
Speaker 2: but cool nonetheless, and their faces betrayed their intentions not
11:37
Speaker 2: to whoop his ass, but to instead gather intel. The
11:41
Speaker 2: tall one fucking long haired rock and roll Frankenstein that
11:44
Speaker 2: he was spoke up. Aren't you the guy who plays
11:46
Speaker 2: guitar or something from that Stones movie? Johnny nodded, and
11:50
Speaker 2: they played too. Their names were Arthur Killer Kane and
11:54
Speaker 2: Rick Rivets rock and roll as Fuck. A jam session
11:59
Speaker 2: was planned with Billions sil Van as well.
12:01
Speaker 1: At All jibed.
12:02
Speaker 2: Now they only needed a singer. Billy knew about this guy,
12:07
Speaker 2: who dated a chick from the Warhol scene. She was
12:10
Speaker 2: much older than a model, so that was cool. Supposedly
12:13
Speaker 2: he was some sort of poet who vibed on Cuban music,
12:16
Speaker 2: could shout like Otis Redding, tightened up like Archie Bell,
12:19
Speaker 2: and looked like a more masculine version of Mick Jagger,
12:22
Speaker 2: and that all sounded great to Billy and the rest
12:24
Speaker 2: of the band.
12:25
Speaker 1: Like Billy Mercy.
12:26
Speaker 2: This guy's given name was so cool that he didn't
12:28
Speaker 2: need a stage name to join as their singer. David
12:31
Speaker 2: Johanson hooked on after one rehearsal, and the.
12:34
Speaker 1: New York Dolls were born.
12:39
Speaker 2: Their first show was a beggars banquet for welfare recipients
12:42
Speaker 2: at Manhattan's Endicott Hotel, a rat trap on eighty first Street,
12:46
Speaker 2: where four women were mysteriously slain in the early seventies.
12:50
Speaker 1: And they were billed as a dance band. No one danced.
12:54
Speaker 2: One of their next shows was in Brooklyn at Man's Country,
12:57
Speaker 2: a gay bathhouse that advertised with the following, just a
13:00
Speaker 2: fifteen minute ride on the Iron Horse puts you in
13:02
Speaker 2: our corral.
13:03
Speaker 1: No one cared about the band.
13:05
Speaker 2: Those who were there were more interested in the sex
13:07
Speaker 2: being had in the bathhouse, changing cubicles.
13:11
Speaker 1: But the indifference didn't matter. It was now.
13:14
Speaker 2: Nineteen seventy two, Lou Reed had long split, the velvet underground,
13:18
Speaker 2: and the torch of downtown cool was about to be
13:21
Speaker 2: formerly passed to the New York Dolls. The New York
13:49
Speaker 2: Dolls were officially a thing in New York City. The
13:52
Speaker 2: grimy crimester in city that spawned them. You'd best believe
13:55
Speaker 2: was in love luv. There's no way the band could
14:00
Speaker 2: have just been called the Dolls. They were one hundred
14:03
Speaker 2: percent New York all the way through to someone from
14:07
Speaker 2: anywhere else. Conceptually, they made little sense. The New York
14:11
Speaker 2: Dolls played sacred R and B music spawned from the
14:15
Speaker 2: South and Midwest, jumped up blues and soul written by
14:18
Speaker 2: Black American master traditionalists like Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley,
14:22
Speaker 2: men and artists who were larger than life. But the
14:26
Speaker 2: New York Dolls were five skinny white kids from the
14:28
Speaker 2: outer boroughs like the city they came from. They were
14:32
Speaker 2: a meld of diverse ethnic backgrounds, Colombian and Egyptian immigrants,
14:36
Speaker 2: the second generation Italian American, a Norwegian Irish kid from
14:40
Speaker 2: Staten Island, and an Irish American kid from the Bronx.
14:43
Speaker 1: It all came together in a way.
14:44
Speaker 2: That was distinctly American in America that generations of immigrants
14:49
Speaker 2: from New York Celus Island put their stamp on. Their
14:54
Speaker 2: attitude on and off stage exuded a pronounced outer Borrow
14:58
Speaker 2: masculinity of what you're talking to me toughness, Yet their
15:03
Speaker 2: fashion sense was the total opposite.
15:05
Speaker 1: Straight up.
15:06
Speaker 2: In nineteen seventy two, just three years after Stonewall, five
15:10
Speaker 2: years before Harvey Milk, forty three years before the Supreme
15:13
Speaker 2: Court made marriage equality the law of the land, and
15:16
Speaker 2: a fucking eternity before mainstream America even began to consider
15:20
Speaker 2: equality for trans, non binary and gender fluid sexuality, the
15:25
Speaker 2: five dudes in the New York Dolls dressed on stage
15:29
Speaker 2: in all seriousness as chicks. In no way does this
15:35
Speaker 2: sound today as revolutionary as it was in nineteen seventy two,
15:39
Speaker 2: but it was completely groundbreaking at the time. The key
15:43
Speaker 2: was that what the dolls were doing was in drag.
15:45
Speaker 1: They wore a.
15:46
Speaker 2: Platform heels, skin tight pants, and tutus, heavy eye makeup
15:50
Speaker 2: and lipstick, but the overall effect was not to transform
15:53
Speaker 2: them into quote unquote fags, as they were often referred
15:56
Speaker 2: to by jealous, less enlightened Seasters. New York Dolls were
16:00
Speaker 2: far from it. They dressed as women, but they played hard,
16:07
Speaker 2: crunched up power chord shrieking solos and fetamine jungle beats,
16:11
Speaker 2: driving rhythms, scorched overtly sexual vocals in a higher than
16:15
Speaker 2: the Empire state building too fucked up to care type energy.
16:20
Speaker 2: When the New York Dolls applied this approach to three
16:22
Speaker 2: minute R and B songs, they were inadvertently building the
16:25
Speaker 2: foundation for punk rock, years before Johnny Ramone or Johnny
16:29
Speaker 2: Rotten wouldever even enter a recording studio. It was utterly confounding,
16:34
Speaker 2: and to make things more confusing, despite the way they
16:38
Speaker 2: dressed like women, or perhaps because of it, women hot.
16:41
Speaker 1: Women wanted to fuck them.
16:44
Speaker 2: Men were afraid of them, of course, but that all
16:46
Speaker 2: went out the window as soon as beautiful girls started
16:49
Speaker 2: flocking to see the dolls, Because wherever hot women go
16:52
Speaker 2: men follow. The band was gorgeous and fun and totally
16:56
Speaker 2: unique and of course.
16:57
Speaker 1: A little bit dangerous. Actually, scratch, they were a lot dangerous.
17:02
Speaker 2: They continued their pension for playing shows wherever the hell
17:05
Speaker 2: they could and set up shop at a decaying Mercer
17:08
Speaker 2: Arts Center at six seventy three Broadway, and there was
17:11
Speaker 2: no real stage. The band played basically in the middle
17:14
Speaker 2: of the audience and thrashed around in their makeup and
17:17
Speaker 2: four inch heels. The crowd was wild models, rock kids, artists,
17:23
Speaker 2: drag queens, bikers, thugs, horrors, stars in the making who
17:25
Speaker 2: would steal and refine the Dolls Act. Gene Simmons and
17:28
Speaker 2: Paul Stanley of Kiss, and even bona fide rock stars
17:32
Speaker 2: like Elton John and David Bowie.
17:33
Speaker 1: Came through to see what was up.
17:35
Speaker 2: Attendees didn't know if they were going to get maimed
17:37
Speaker 2: by a guitar, head stabbed in the bathroom, were cast
17:40
Speaker 2: in Andy's new film, or impregnated by the band. Early
17:45
Speaker 2: New York Dollars shows had the down home danger and
17:47
Speaker 2: violence of the Chitlin circuit and the high arc glamour
17:51
Speaker 2: and sex appeal of the Warhol Factory. Their Mercer Center
17:54
Speaker 2: shows are legendary. Nearly every quote I can find from
17:58
Speaker 2: anyone who is there is roughly some version of the
18:01
Speaker 2: same thing, put best by rock photographer Bob Groon, who
18:05
Speaker 2: said that seeing the New York Dolls at the Mercer
18:07
Speaker 2: Center was quote just the most exciting thing I had ever.
18:10
Speaker 1: Seen in my life. En Groon wasn't the only one
18:14
Speaker 1: who thought this way.
18:16
Speaker 2: The band quickly became the toast of the town, rubbing
18:18
Speaker 2: elbows with Bette Midler and Mick Jagger and attending parties
18:21
Speaker 2: uptown with the likes of Gloria Vanderbilt. It was low
18:25
Speaker 2: arm meets high society. After conquering their hometown, London, beckoned
18:32
Speaker 2: and in London it was more of the same. Paul
18:35
Speaker 2: McCartney came snooping around one of their early shows. Members
18:39
Speaker 2: of The Who, as well with their managers Kit Lambert
18:41
Speaker 2: and Chris Stamp, the lead dogs in the race to
18:44
Speaker 2: sign the New York Dolls to a record deal.
18:46
Speaker 1: Mick Jagger came.
18:47
Speaker 2: Round again to see them plan his home turf, but
18:50
Speaker 2: officially passed on signing the band to the newly formed
18:53
Speaker 2: Rolling Stones Records, and Stone's guitarist Mick Taylor quipped to
18:56
Speaker 2: the press that the Dolls were the worst high school
18:59
Speaker 2: band I ever saw.
19:01
Speaker 1: David Johansson quickly shot back, no, We're the best high
19:04
Speaker 1: school band you ever saw, Buddy, the kids will love us,
19:07
Speaker 1: so awesome, so New York. But the rejection didn't matter.
19:12
Speaker 2: The Dolls were a sensation in London, and, as was
19:15
Speaker 2: the custom of most young male rockers throughout the history
19:18
Speaker 2: of time, they party their faces off. Boos, sex, drugs,
19:22
Speaker 2: more boos, more sex, and more drugs were everywhere for them,
19:26
Speaker 2: and on November sixth, nineteen seventy two, it proved dark
19:30
Speaker 2: for the young band with the bright future. Billy Mercia
19:37
Speaker 2: was the life of the party. The Cromwell Road flat
19:40
Speaker 2: was stacked with second generation Chelsea set actors, fashion designers
19:45
Speaker 2: and international call girls, a scene if there ever was one,
19:49
Speaker 2: and all of them in the throes of the American
19:51
Speaker 2: rock and roller, keeping them entertained with his undeniable New
19:55
Speaker 2: York miss sharp, funny, handsome Billy Mercia lived up to
19:59
Speaker 2: his band his height, A band who had recently blown
20:02
Speaker 2: the locals away with their opening set at Webley Pool
20:05
Speaker 2: in support of Rod Stewart. Billy knew no one really, Indeed,
20:10
Speaker 2: he ended up there by mistake, but it didn't matter.
20:13
Speaker 2: A good time is a good time. So champagne was
20:16
Speaker 2: guzzled and coludes were ingested, and sooner or later someone noticed,
20:20
Speaker 2: possibly fashion designer Malcolm Rains, that Billy Mercia wasn't moving.
20:25
Speaker 2: He was passed out, unresponsive. One of the more experienced
20:31
Speaker 2: revelers called it immediately o d Most everyone split, and
20:37
Speaker 2: the few who didn't, rather than call an ambulance and
20:39
Speaker 2: risk getting busted by authorities, put what limited experience they
20:43
Speaker 2: had towards solving the problem. They called out his name,
20:47
Speaker 2: he didn't respond. They slapped his face, he didn't respond.
20:50
Speaker 2: They ran a cold bath, dumped dice in it, and
20:53
Speaker 2: then dumped Billy's prone body into it, and he didn't
20:55
Speaker 2: respond to that either. They pulled his head up and
20:58
Speaker 2: poured hot black coffee down his throat, and this likely
21:01
Speaker 2: did more harm than good. And they slapped him some
21:03
Speaker 2: more and nothing. They pressed ice cubes to his cold flesh.
21:06
Speaker 2: Again nothing. And they drug him out of the tub
21:09
Speaker 2: and tried walking him around the flat, his wet shoes
21:11
Speaker 2: dragging all over the plush carpet.
21:13
Speaker 1: No response.
21:15
Speaker 2: Eventually, they put him back in the tub, where he drowned.
21:21
Speaker 2: By the time authorities are on the scene, there was
21:23
Speaker 2: nothing they could do. The coroner, who just two years
21:26
Speaker 2: earlier had overseen the inquest into the death of Jimmie Hendricks,
21:30
Speaker 2: said that by far the best thing to have done
21:32
Speaker 2: would have been to get an ambulance straight away, and
21:34
Speaker 2: certainly not put a person in a bath of water.
21:37
Speaker 2: Billy Mercia, drummer of the New York Dolls, was dead
21:41
Speaker 2: at the age of twenty one, and his band was
21:43
Speaker 2: on the fast track to self destruction, the only track
21:46
Speaker 2: available to a true rock and roll band.
21:52
Speaker 1: We'll be right back after this word word word. After
21:58
Speaker 1: Billy Mercy's death, the band returned to the States to regroup,
22:02
Speaker 1: unsure of their future. Eventually, the band was brought back
22:05
Speaker 1: to life by Billy's replacement on drums, Jerry Nolan. Again intact,
22:10
Speaker 1: there was only one thing for the band to do,
22:12
Speaker 1: hit the road. The New York Dolls first US tour
22:16
Speaker 1: was a waiting whirlwind that almost never started. Disaster struck
22:20
Speaker 1: before the band even.
22:21
Speaker 2: Left New York, and it came in the form of Connie.
22:27
Speaker 2: Connie all six foot ten inches on her or whatever
22:30
Speaker 2: her actual height was, she was huge In Amazon like
22:32
Speaker 2: most of the women who got with New York Dolls
22:34
Speaker 2: bass player Arthur Kane, she had a body straight out
22:37
Speaker 2: in our curm comic. Arthur himself stood over six feet
22:41
Speaker 2: tall and liked his women big. Where exactly he found them,
22:44
Speaker 2: his bandmates didn't really know, but they.
22:47
Speaker 1: Were pretty sure.
22:47
Speaker 2: He found Connie wandering Times Square at night, either looking
22:51
Speaker 2: for a john or dodging or pimp with her blade
22:54
Speaker 2: in her boot for protection. Arthur was a sucker from
22:57
Speaker 2: the first time he laid eyes on her. He was hot,
23:00
Speaker 2: but hot temper too, and on this night her mercury
23:04
Speaker 2: was way up the two.
23:06
Speaker 1: Connie was furious that Arthur was.
23:07
Speaker 2: Going to La without her to begin the Dolls tour
23:10
Speaker 2: in Los Angeles. There was nothing he could do about it,
23:13
Speaker 2: he explained. The band was broke, true, and girlfriends therefore
23:16
Speaker 2: weren't able to accompany them on the road because there simply.
23:19
Speaker 1: Wasn't enough money. Kind of true.
23:21
Speaker 2: Connie waited until Arthur fell asleep in their apartment. He
23:24
Speaker 2: was exhausted. The Dolls had just finished a ten show
23:28
Speaker 2: run in Max's Kansas City, and he was crashing trying
23:31
Speaker 2: to grab some rest before departing for the West.
23:33
Speaker 1: Coast in two days.
23:35
Speaker 2: He slept face down on his stomach and awoke to
23:38
Speaker 2: Waite bearing on her. Connie, with her massive body naked, straddling.
23:42
Speaker 1: And holding him down.
23:44
Speaker 2: Was she trying to kill him? Worse, she was trying
23:46
Speaker 2: to saw his fingers off with the knife so he
23:48
Speaker 2: could no longer play bass. Can't bring me to LA
23:51
Speaker 2: with your fucking band, you fucking dickhead. Fuck the fuck
23:54
Speaker 2: you try playing bass without a thumb. Arthur threw her off,
23:58
Speaker 2: and in the process she got his hands good with
24:00
Speaker 2: the knife.
24:01
Speaker 1: Blood gushed.
24:02
Speaker 2: Arthur stood Connie, naked mad for the window in order
24:04
Speaker 2: to hit the fire escape.
24:06
Speaker 1: Arthur tried going after, but quickly fell on his face.
24:09
Speaker 2: Connie had tied his shoes together, and now she was gone,
24:11
Speaker 2: with no clothes on into the New York City night.
24:18
Speaker 2: Arthur's wound was bad enough that bass playing was out
24:21
Speaker 2: of the question for at least two months. He was
24:23
Speaker 2: so depressed the band ended up taking him on tour
24:26
Speaker 2: anyway to ensure that he didn't commit suicide. While they
24:28
Speaker 2: were gone, They enlisted their friend Peter Jordan to fill in.
24:33
Speaker 2: When they hit La, La flipped out. It was groopy
24:37
Speaker 2: Mania and Johnny lasted all of five minutes before infamous
24:40
Speaker 2: kid Groupy Sable Star scooped him up. She was fifteen,
24:44
Speaker 2: and Johnny was smitten. Immediately he was calling home telling
24:48
Speaker 2: his family he was going to marry this girl. Her age,
24:51
Speaker 2: it seemed didn't matter, nothing mattered. It was gross, as
24:54
Speaker 2: was the behavior of most rock stars who made their
24:56
Speaker 2: way through the LA groupie scene in the seventies, but
24:59
Speaker 2: it didn't start a lot of them, and it didn't
25:01
Speaker 2: stop Johnny Thunders and the New York Dolls, who were
25:03
Speaker 2: in constant motion play Shock, Fuck, Repeat. They slayed during
25:09
Speaker 2: their five show run at the Whiskey a Go Go.
25:11
Speaker 2: By the time they left LA, fourteen year old boys
25:13
Speaker 2: were walking down sunset strip and lipstick.
25:16
Speaker 1: Which was exactly what authorities feared.
25:22
Speaker 2: The tour rolled on to Memphis, home of the King
25:24
Speaker 2: of rock and roll, Elvis Presley, who by nineteen seventy
25:28
Speaker 2: three was starting to look more like a Kung Fu
25:30
Speaker 2: Liberachi with his Vegas rhinestones and hip hockers and his
25:34
Speaker 2: former heteronormative rock and roll avatar sell The fact that
25:37
Speaker 2: Elvis may have somehow owed some of his newfound glam
25:40
Speaker 2: fashion to a movement the Dolls at birth was lost
25:43
Speaker 2: in the King's hometown, police, who were chomping at the
25:46
Speaker 2: bit to bust the Dolls Memphis Biness, got their chance
25:50
Speaker 2: on September twenty first, nineteen seventy three, when the band
25:54
Speaker 2: hit the stage at Ellis Auditorium in Memphis, Tennessee. Prior
25:58
Speaker 2: to their show, words spread of the band's cross dressing,
26:01
Speaker 2: debauchery and general challenges to authority. Local papers covered the
26:05
Speaker 2: out of town exploits of the band in great detail
26:07
Speaker 2: prior to their arrival.
26:09
Speaker 1: As a result, tickets to their show sold out in
26:12
Speaker 1: a matter of minutes.
26:14
Speaker 2: With the big crowd came a heavy, good old boy
26:16
Speaker 2: police presence to keep everybody, especially the New York Dolls,
26:20
Speaker 2: in line. Iggy Pop opened up. No one cared, but
26:24
Speaker 2: when the infamous New York Dolls took the stage and
26:26
Speaker 2: kids started to bop around to get into it, that
26:29
Speaker 2: was all the cops needed for an excuse. Out came
26:32
Speaker 2: the billy clubs. The pigs swung them mercilessly. One kid
26:36
Speaker 2: busted through the crowd and after he left up onto
26:38
Speaker 2: the stage, charged singer David Johansson and planted a big, fat,
26:41
Speaker 2: wet kiss on his lips. That's when the cops really
26:44
Speaker 2: lost it. The beating commenced, a.
26:47
Speaker 1: Full scale riot was in effect.
26:49
Speaker 2: The band kept playing, David cracked wise into the mic, hey,
26:52
Speaker 2: how do you know he's not the mayor's son? You're
26:54
Speaker 2: beaten on and the melee continued until one cop grabbed
26:57
Speaker 2: David and pulled him off stage, and they quickly cuffed it,
27:00
Speaker 2: yanked him out of the venue and stuck him in
27:01
Speaker 2: the back of the cruiser, and they arrested him for
27:04
Speaker 2: lude behavior because he dressed in women's clothing, and for
27:07
Speaker 2: inciting a riot because well, he kind of did, but
27:10
Speaker 2: not before the cops kicked it off. David Johansson spent
27:18
Speaker 2: the night in an open cell with three other prisoners
27:21
Speaker 2: in norma kamellly pants and women shoes. He made bail
27:24
Speaker 2: in the morning and remarkably made it out of jail
27:27
Speaker 2: without further notice. But violence and destruction when it came
27:31
Speaker 2: to the New York Dolls was just a kiss away.
27:51
Speaker 2: Real rock and roll bands, real rock stars don't last.
27:56
Speaker 2: They exist for brief moments of time and either die
27:59
Speaker 2: or break up. It is impossible for a rock band,
28:02
Speaker 2: a rock star, for real rock stars to make it
28:05
Speaker 2: in any long lasting sort of way, because time corrupts,
28:09
Speaker 2: either through the natural process of aging rock and roll is,
28:12
Speaker 2: after all, the young person's game, or through the corruption
28:15
Speaker 2: of the music industry that demands some sort of mainstream
28:18
Speaker 2: compromise in order to survive, or because the pressures and
28:22
Speaker 2: distractions of stardom cause them to take their eyes at
28:25
Speaker 2: the creative ball. Whatever the reason, it happens, real rock
28:29
Speaker 2: stars don't last. This is not an opinion, this is fact.
28:32
Speaker 2: How many truly great, long lasting bands or musical artists
28:36
Speaker 2: have zero bad records. I can think of only one,
28:39
Speaker 2: the Beatles.
28:40
Speaker 1: The key phrase here being long lasting.
28:43
Speaker 2: Plenty of short lived artists put out only great music
28:45
Speaker 2: artists who never lasted long enough to misstep creatively. The
28:49
Speaker 2: sex Pistols and Nirvana immediately come to mind. But believe me,
28:52
Speaker 2: after a Utero, given the pressure the band was under,
28:54
Speaker 2: Nirvana was due for a dud. And there's no way
28:56
Speaker 2: in hell that the sex Pistols had they survived their
28:59
Speaker 2: first and normally US tour, We're going to go into
29:01
Speaker 2: the studio and play nice and focus and create a
29:04
Speaker 2: great second Sex Pistols record. Maybe I'm wrong, but I
29:07
Speaker 2: doubt it. Eventually, one way or another, an artist's success
29:10
Speaker 2: will open the door to some sort of compromise or distraction,
29:14
Speaker 2: and before you know it, we the fans are given
29:16
Speaker 2: crap like Dirty Work by the Rolling Stones, or Saint
29:19
Speaker 2: Anger by Metallica, or Saved by Bob Dylan. All of
29:22
Speaker 2: these artists recovered from their many missteps. Most do because
29:26
Speaker 2: most artists, the good ones anyway, are survivalists, self preservationists.
29:31
Speaker 2: The New York Dolls were anything. But they were not
29:34
Speaker 2: merely good. They were great, and they were not survivalists.
29:38
Speaker 2: They were born to lose, born to lose because they
29:45
Speaker 2: were one of the purest expressions of rock and roll
29:47
Speaker 2: anyone had ever seen. The New York Dolls, like many
29:50
Speaker 2: bands of the time or at any time, really lived
29:53
Speaker 2: as excessively off stage as they played on stage, with
29:57
Speaker 2: wild abandon without caring about anything that was either fun,
30:00
Speaker 2: the exciting, cool, or some combination of the three. The drugs, coke, speed,
30:05
Speaker 2: lsd pills, heroin, the sex with groupies, models, social lites,
30:08
Speaker 2: and wanted by women and now men alike.
30:10
Speaker 1: It was textbook rock and roll hedonism, I'm sure.
30:13
Speaker 2: But what separated the Dolls from any other artist before
30:16
Speaker 2: was the subversiveness they brought to the music industry, namely
30:20
Speaker 2: in the way they presented themselves as women, but not
30:23
Speaker 2: in the Jack lemon Tony Curtis comic away with fake
30:26
Speaker 2: breasts and dresses, but instead and tied off silk blouses
30:30
Speaker 2: that showed off their hairy chest and skin tight spandex
30:33
Speaker 2: that showed off their cocks. The makeup, the hair, the skin,
30:36
Speaker 2: glamour from the gutter. It was literally unlike anything that
30:39
Speaker 2: had been seen in pop music before, and it was
30:42
Speaker 2: all on display on the cover of their Todd Rungren
30:45
Speaker 2: produced debut on Mercury Records. The rumors that all of
30:52
Speaker 2: the members of the band were gay were there from
30:54
Speaker 2: the start, but the album cover only reinforced those rumors,
30:58
Speaker 2: something that the band Bomper did, never missing an opportunity
31:01
Speaker 2: to play up the rumored homosexuality.
31:03
Speaker 1: In public for shock value.
31:05
Speaker 2: David Johansson claimed he was try sexual, explaining that he'd
31:09
Speaker 2: try anything. It was all silly. It was all a
31:11
Speaker 2: way to stand out, a way to grab a laugh.
31:13
Speaker 2: From the band's perspective, the way they dressed or what
31:16
Speaker 2: they did with their dicks was all secondary, because when
31:18
Speaker 2: it came down to it, they could bring it on
31:21
Speaker 2: stage like no one else, and ultimately that's all this
31:24
Speaker 2: should have mattered. That's not how the game is played.
31:29
Speaker 2: What should matter has nothing to do with it. What
31:31
Speaker 2: does matter matters most, And what mattered in terms of
31:34
Speaker 2: making it in the music business in nineteen seventy three
31:37
Speaker 2: was what influential radio programmers in promo men thought. These
31:41
Speaker 2: were the men who held the success of artists in
31:43
Speaker 2: the palms of their thick, greasy little hands. They decided
31:46
Speaker 2: which artist records got spawned on the radio, and thus
31:49
Speaker 2: which artists sold and advanced their careers.
31:51
Speaker 1: And to most of these.
31:52
Speaker 2: Men, many of whom were from the Midwest or from
31:54
Speaker 2: a previous generation with less relaxed views on gender, a
31:58
Speaker 2: band that looked like this and that openly flaunted cross
32:01
Speaker 2: dressing and homosexuality was out of the question, So no
32:05
Speaker 2: radio play, and so the New York Dolls debut album,
32:09
Speaker 2: despite being a rave up classic of proto punk post
32:12
Speaker 2: rock and roll glory Day greatness, was dead on arrival.
32:16
Speaker 1: There was only one thing to do, shoot their way
32:19
Speaker 1: out of the business.
32:27
Speaker 2: When mafia families used to go to war in New
32:30
Speaker 2: York City, they called it going to the mattresses. Small
32:33
Speaker 2: crews of mob soldiers while at war, would disrupt their
32:36
Speaker 2: normal living routines, rent out tiny Manhattan apartments, stuff them
32:40
Speaker 2: with ten or so mattresses to scatter on the floor
32:42
Speaker 2: and sleep on in a group for protection, away from
32:46
Speaker 2: their families, to protect them as well. Should anything happen,
32:49
Speaker 2: and they'd all be together, they'd all go down together.
32:53
Speaker 1: The New York Dolls were going down, but not without
32:56
Speaker 1: going to war. First.
32:58
Speaker 2: They were at war with the music business. They didn't
33:01
Speaker 2: know it, but it was award they could not win.
33:06
Speaker 2: Valentine's Day nineteen seventy four East Fourteenth Street a holiday massacre,
33:11
Speaker 2: not unlike the Halloween hit on Albert Anastasia back in
33:14
Speaker 2: fifty seven. The Lord High Executioner Murder Incorporated, leader of
33:19
Speaker 2: one of the deadliest crews of gangland contract killers ever assembled.
33:23
Speaker 2: But there was now a deadlier crew of assassins on
33:26
Speaker 2: the block, and Anastasia saw his end in Share number
33:29
Speaker 2: four of the Sheridan Hotel Lobby barbershop. Rival mob boss
33:33
Speaker 2: Feudo Genaviz gave the order. Crazy Joe Gallo organized the hit,
33:37
Speaker 2: pushed Anastasia's button with ten bullets fired in front of
33:40
Speaker 2: eleven witnesses. No one saw a thing. Only in New York.
33:46
Speaker 2: But now nineteen seventy four, another crew of killers, lipstick Killers.
33:54
Speaker 3: Dick chose a loud in Metro Manorhouse the Lay alias
34:03
Speaker 3: the Dancer known to be a tough custom pretty boy
34:09
Speaker 3: Moa alias Gofi Giovanni, Jindal alias Johnny Cup, Rocky Joe
34:19
Speaker 3: Head Buttons, duck Killer, King.
34:25
Speaker 1: Alien under Hurld came June. There was no telling who
34:35
Speaker 1: the Lipstick Killers are going to strike again.
34:38
Speaker 2: But even when he was on Boss the big man
34:41
Speaker 2: with the pinky ring on his stick, greasy little hand.
34:44
Speaker 2: The hit was planned for the Academy of Music, Billy
34:47
Speaker 2: Fox's old movie Palace. Lipstick Killers sped up their German
34:50
Speaker 2: gangster sleds slid into the spot in front of the
34:53
Speaker 2: Marquee Trust to kill three piece suits, pinstripes for Doora's
34:57
Speaker 2: wide not ties, carnations, bat leather shoe, their guns by
35:01
Speaker 2: their sides, They raced in, blazing down the aisles of
35:04
Speaker 2: the theater, firing off rounds from their hardware.
35:06
Speaker 1: Indiscriminately. Messi ass was their style.
35:09
Speaker 2: Just looking for one bullet to kiss the Boss, pierce
35:12
Speaker 2: his greasy skin, shoot him down, but the shots backfired.
35:17
Speaker 2: The plan was a bust. The Lipstick Killers had run
35:20
Speaker 2: out of track. They were now on stage in the theater,
35:23
Speaker 2: playing a cool, nonchalant and they picked up the band's instruments,
35:28
Speaker 2: shed their pinstripes, donned their spandex.
35:30
Speaker 1: And did what came natural.
35:32
Speaker 2: Roped the house in a way that only the New
35:35
Speaker 2: York Dolls could unbridled, unhinged, impassioned, inspired, rough, real, raw, sexy, chic,
35:41
Speaker 2: pure rock and roll, and they kept it up as
35:44
Speaker 2: long as they could after the show. Through the promotion
35:47
Speaker 2: of their glorious second album, Too Much, Too Soon, they
35:50
Speaker 2: continued to scorch audiences with their unique pre punk brand
35:54
Speaker 2: of rock and roll. They drank, fucked, dressed outrageously, challenged
35:58
Speaker 2: any and all doubters, killed like the ki as they were,
36:01
Speaker 2: until it came time to compromise to grow up to
36:04
Speaker 2: play nice, and they went the opposite direction. Drank more,
36:13
Speaker 2: fucked more drug moore nearly killed themselves in the process
36:16
Speaker 2: until breaking up a few years later. They had scars,
36:20
Speaker 2: just like the city they spawned from, but the Boss
36:22
Speaker 2: went unscathed. The Boss always wins, and the New York
36:26
Speaker 2: Dolls were always born to.
36:28
Speaker 1: Lose a disgrace, you'd be the judge. I'm Jake Brennan
36:35
Speaker 1: and this is Disgraceland.
36:53
Speaker 2: Disgraceland was created by Yours Truly and is produced in
36:56
Speaker 2: partnership with Double Elvis. Credits for this episode can be
36:59
Speaker 2: found out of the show notes page at disgracelampod dot com.
37:03
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37:09
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