There are now two ways about it: David Johansen is a freak. And a circus freak at that. The New York Dolls lead singer could double as a pre-op transsexual Glenda Jackson impersonator. Or, depending on hard you look at him and I warn you he’s as viscerally compelling as watching a car crash, like a post-op Mick Jagger look-alike. His head is totally disproportionate in size to the rest of his body. He’s Rocky from Mask, the craniodiaphyseal dysplasia sufferer, following cosmetic surgery.

Not that you could describe the other Dolls’ appearance as in any way conventional. In their case, though, it was mainly down to what they were wearing. The Wikipedia entry describe drummer Jerry Nolan, guitarist Sylvain Sylvain, fellow guitar player Johnny Thunders, bass player Arthur Kane, and the aforementioned Johansen as looking "like a Halloween party gang of transvestites who had broken into the Rolling Stones' and Marc Bolan’s wardrobe trunks and made it even more androgynously exaggerated."

In the early-to-mid-70s Johansen and the (lady) boys released two seminal albums: New York Dolls and Too Much Too Soon. They were punk rockers before punk rock even existed. The Dolls’ albums sold badly but they nevertheless spawned a host of copycat bands, the likes of the Sex Pistols, the Ramones, and, even, Blondie.

Around the same time as the New York Dolls were beginning to make a name for themselves, Bob Gruen and his wife Nadya bought a portable video recorder. In a period of three years, they shot more than 40 hours of New York Dolls footage. The result is this feature-length documentary, chronicling the band from their early performances in New York in clubs such as Kenny’s Castaways and Max’s Kansas City, inter cut with revealing interviews, entertaining backstage babble and live versions of classic tracks.

It certainly is one hell of a show. There are songs of the calibre of ‘Personality Crisis’ and ‘Human Being’, which have more than stood the test of time. In another very different way, it’s also one hell of a show. Just look closely at David Johansen. Now enjoy the freak show.
(3½/5)

Release Date: 30 January 2006

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All Dolled Up