New York Dolls
(Sony/BMG)
It may not be the most legitimate reunion in the world. But when the music feels this right, who cares how many members of the current lineup were around to tart things up back when the Dolls were carving out their footnote as the missing link between the Stooges' brand of Detroit punk and what went down at CBGB's? It's not as though they could have staged a more legitimate reunion, what with all the other members being dead.
So if the last two Dolls left standing - David Johansen and Sylvain Sylvain - can deliver the goods with a band full of ringers, I say bring it on. And after all, they did outrock, outclass and otherwise outshine the Stooges' 10-times-more legitimate reunion disc with One Day It Will Please Us To Remember Even This.
This 10-song live recording - captured last December at the Fillmore East - goes light on One Day It Will Please Us, cherry-picking two songs born to hold their own against the classics, "Rainbow Store" and "Dance Like A Monkey." The rest is a raucous revival of glam-era classics as timeless as "Babylon," "Trash," "Personality Crisis" and "Pills," each infused with the reckless abandon of youth and an air of professionalism the real Dolls would have been hard pressed to muster. And Johansen brings the swagger like he hasn't aged a bit (just don't look at the pictures). There's even a tribute to fallen guitarist Johnny Thunders, a heartfelt rendition of Thunders' "You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory" that effortlessly segues into "Lonely Planet Boy."
Standout tracks: "Babylon," "Trash" A. WATT
