New York Dolls

Few records influenced Punk as deeply as this mean and sleazy milestone. With David Johansen's utterly unhinged vocals and Johnny Thunders' Chuck Berry + Keith Richards + death wish = rock 'n' roll guitar equation, the Dolls laid waste to the fat, lazy sound of the time and revived the stumbling ideals of rock and roll.

The album cover hits with a stark black and white photo, title scrawled in lipstick red aross
the top. The boys appear on a white satin couch with a strange combination of high
pop-star drag and ruthless street arrogance. There's lipstick, eyeshadow and platform
boots, but there's also some sinister slipstream flowing here. Remember the earliest
Stones's publicity photos? What was scruffy and outrageous then looks so comm... More >

At least half the white kids who grow up in Manhattan are well off and moderately arty, like Carly Simon and John Paul Hammond. It takes brats from the outer boroughs to capture the oppressive excitement Manhattan holds for a half-formed human being the way these guys do. The careening screech of their music was first heard in the Cooper Union station of the Lexington IRT, and they don't stop there. Mixing early-'60s popsong savvy with late-'60s fast-metal anarchy, they seek love l-u-v from trash and bad girls. They go looking for a kiss among the personality crises. And they wonder whether you could make it with Frankenstein. (Grade - A+)