New York Dolls 1st US Press Super Rare Vinyl LP shrinkwrapped w/Inner + Postcard

	£		23
	$		30

Seattle_Junkie_Queen Reviews The Dolls 1st May 16 2008

This is pretty much the quintessential and most influential glam-rock album in existence, so calling it essential is an understatement! Actually, if you're a fan of rock and roll, straight-up balls to the walls, extremely inspired rock and roll doesn't get more adrenaline rushing than this.
I have been surrounded by people who have praised the hell out of this thing for the past couple of years, and I haven't decided to even give it a listen until now. Why is this? I really don't know. Maybe I glanced at a picture of the band and was immediately turned off. Maybe I was afraid I would like this more than Stooges, who I completely adored at the time, and any deviation from them would be treated as evil, and heretical. Whatever the reason was, I eventually decided to give this a listen, and here is what I thought of it:
"Too insane for human measure."
That's right. These proto-punk bands are really the heart and soul of rock and roll. Before a specific movement was actually established for them to conform to, these bands were just putting every ounce of energy they had into their music without a care in the world - or a care about what people thought of it. The New York Dolls were really a melting pot of a band though, which also adds to the "too insane for human measure" conclusion I've come up to with this band. Every style of music that had been established up until this point were pretty much tossed in the trash can; aka: the New York Dolls. From girl-group pop, to a huge stones influence, and even the band's streetwalker-esque image that would directly or indirectly influence countless hair metal bands of the 80s, this band had loads of influences from every corner.
Musically speaking, this is also just too insane. The production makes this record just seem really, really loud. As soon as the album starts, the first thing I really notice is Johnny Thunder's guitar playing, which does its best to connect different fragments of the songs, from vocals to horns, but in the end the songs still fall apart into a boiling mess of adrenaline and sleazy rock and roll energy. David Johansen's Jagger-vocals drive the gnarly, nasty nature of these songs. I think I went into this album with a slightly closed-mind though. I kept looking for a reason to dock this album down a few points, just because I had a predisposition to hate these guys for some other unknown reason, but eventually I decided to let it go, and switch my mind into "Rocker Mode." That is when I have the most fun! :) Waves of adrenaline took me out to sea, rocked my cock, left me on the deck floor sweating, not knowing where to go, and then dove back down into the depths of the ocean where it would eventually resurface with the next song to repeat the same process. Talk about the definition of rock and roll. Inspired stuff!
However, the only reason I would dock this album down, is because behind all of that adrenaline, there's not much songwriting to back it up. It isn't until you actually step yourself out of "Rocker Mode" and think about it where you actually tell that most of these songs really aren't all that good. But that's what makes this album so effective, is that they can take so-so songwriting, and load it with craziness, and nobody is able to tell the difference.
This album does definitely have its share of great songs though. The album opener is one of the greatest on a rock album you'll ever lay your ears upon. The next song "Looking for a Kiss" hardly lets up, and rocks accordingly. My absolute favorite track on here is either "Frankenstein" or "Trash". "Frankenstein" is the longest song on the album, and it's because of this droning of the same line virtually over and over again that makes the song so great. "Trash" is more of a classic punk sound (that wouldn't really be invented until a few years later). David even does a bit of vocal "swallowing" on that track, something that would be made so famous by Joey Ramone himself.
As for being called the first punk album, I'm not really buying that. Sure, I can call them a proto-punk band, since there's really no limits to what is considered proto-punk, but first punk album ever? Nah. No way in Hell really... The only song that shares musical similiarity to The Clash or Ramones is probably "Trash". As for the rest, it's mostly just sleazy glam-rock throughout. I also don't see how this can be considered any more "punk rock" then, let's say...The Stooges' Fun House for example, which came 3 years before. Fun House wipes the floor with New York Dolls in terms of punk attitude, and pure nihilistic, primal energy. It has The Stooges' debut beat in that sentiment, but Fun House and Raw Power? No. (I actually like this album more than Raw Power though, but we are talking "punk" here, right?) Just a sleazy glam-rock album in the line of proto-punk bands.