Something must have happened over Manhattan
Who can expound all the children this time
Could they ever, could they ever
Expect such a Frankenstein

To go on stage dressed like a quintet of slutty transvestites (as depicted on the cover of this, their 1973 debut album) must have taken a lot of balls, but the New York Dolls had plenty to spare. By taking the excess of the glam movement and giving it a healthy dose of rock and roll, the Dolls showed similar American bands just where to direct their ambitions. Indeed, the lead track's chorus, "Personality crisis/You got it while it was hot," were not lost on up-and-coming acts like Kiss. Along the way, the Dolls also indirectly provided a blueprint for punk rock.

In the early '70s, the band was a success on the Manhattan club scene, which eventually led to a contract with Mercury Records. Power pop wunderkind Todd Rundgren was hired to produce the Dolls' debut album, and though his meticulous attention to detail appeared to contrast with the group's rough and tumble knock-offs, the result is a glorious, campy slice of decadence.

New York Dolls simply kicks butt. The songs are played as if the future of rock and roll is at stake. "Personality Crisis," "Frankenstein," and "Jet Boy" practically burst out of the speakers, thanks to Johnny Thunders and Sylvain Sylvain's ferocious twin guitar attack, Arthur "Killer" Kane's steady bass lines, and Jerry Nolan's explosive drums. David Johansen sings like a younger, hungrier Mick Jagger, overflowing with sexual bravado and self-confidence. And the group's androgynous swagger gives one the feeling that they would be willing to make it with anyone from Frankenstein to the Jet Boy to the Bad Girls riding on the "Subway Train."

Everything about the New York Dolls appears to be a contradiction. In "Lookin' for a Kiss," Johansen proclaims that his sole interest lies in the song's title and can't understand a crowd where "everyone goes to your house/They shoot up in your room/Most of them are beautiful/But so obsessed with gloom." Yet in "Bad Girl" he uses the doom and gloom of a nuclear threat to plead his case with the title character, who by song's end has given him a severe case of blue balls.

But what separates the New York Dolls from most of their contemporaries is their knowledge of and respect for the music they grew up on. Whether referencing early singles from The Shangri-las and Mickey and Sylvia in their songs, or covering an obscure Bo Diddley number ("Pills"), the group relishes the exuberance of early rock and soul while updating it to the harder-rocking 70's, like the "oo-ooo" background vocals on "Trash."

And lest one think they were all about having good times, they could also sing about topical and controversial subjects, like the mother with the "Vietnamese Baby" on her mind, or slow things down as on the sensitive "Lonely Planet Boy." Only one song, "Private World," sounds like filler, though as filler goes, it's not bad.

Though it didn't happen in the group's lifetime, the album New York Dolls eventually became recognized as the masterpiece it is and an inspiration to New York bands from The Ramones to The Strokes.

Recommended: Yes