Only In America

Jesse Walker | January 31, 2005

New documentary I most want to see: New York Doll, the story of how the late Arthur "Killer" Kane, bassist for the New York Dolls, became a Mormon.

If we're lucky, it'll also explain how David Johansen became Buster Poindexter.

Comments

|1.31.05 @ 11:20AM|#

How you feelin'?

Old old old!

How you feelin'?

Poor poor poor!

Oooohhhhhhhh, Looooooorrrdddd!

|1.31.05 @ 11:36AM|#

Well, Joe Smith "found" the "Book of Mormon" IN New York...upstate, though.

|1.31.05 @ 12:13PM|#

I found it strange that this very recent article doesn't mention that Kane is dead (last July). Even quotes from the filmmaker speak of Kane in the present tense.

I DO want to see the movie, but I'm dubious about the NYD/Mormon balance when the moviemaker says "If anybody knew rock and roll people, it would have been me -- and I didn't even know the New York Dolls."

Ted Barlow|1.31.05 @ 12:24PM|#

I hear the same filmmakers will finally tell the story of how the kid from The Wonder Years grew up to be Marilyn Manson....

(kidding)

sage|1.31.05 @ 12:35PM|#

It's not on topic, but every time I hear "only in America," I think of this video.

|1.31.05 @ 3:34PM|#

Maybe he was having a personality crisis.

|1.31.05 @ 3:58PM|#

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4206764

David Johansen tells the story of how he became Buster on freshair on 12-7-2004

if the link doesn't work, go to NPR.ORG and search his name and it should come up.

Joseph

|1.31.05 @ 4:16PM|#

mccleary -- That quote jumped out at me too. Picturing this out-of-touch doofus reminded me of Montgomery Burns: "Ah yes, the Beatles... I seem to recall their caterwauling on the Ed Sullivan Show".

And the Buster Poindexter transformation was indeed a tragedy.

Jesse Walker|1.31.05 @ 4:31PM|#

Oh, I like the Buster Poindexter stuff. It wasn't vital music like "Trash" or "Personality Crisis," but it was more listenable than many other aging rock stars' mid-career turns.

These days, by the way, Johansen has re-reinvented himself as a folksinger.

|1.31.05 @ 4:49PM|#

"These days, by the way, Johansen has re-reinvented himself as a folksinger."

As someone who hasn't much use for post-70s Johansen, I welcome this change, at least in comparison to funky-but-chic solo guy, latin lounge singer or Dolls reuniter. Apart from death and Mormonism (which are pretty close in my book), there is no better way to keep off my radar then to become a folk singer.

|2.1.05 @ 5:50AM|#

I happen to have a particularly vital piece of Johnny Thunders' vomit from one of the last Dolls gigs, which I am willing to part with for the right price.

If you look at it close, it kind of looks like a razor blade, believe it or not.