Fifty years ago, the most important American underground rock band of its generation was dying. The New York Dolls, the androgynous-but-tough band who mixed the Rolling Stones, girl groups and garage rock, were imploding under the weight of their own addictions and failures. You wouldn’t say they split, per se – there was still a version of the band led by David Johansen in existence until the end of 1976. But 1975 was the end for Johnny Thunders, Arthur Kane and Jerry Nolan, and the Dolls stopped being the Lower East Side’s rock’n’roll street gang.
They only made two albums, and barely played outside New York. But the band laid the foundations for punk, and taught a generation of outsiders and refuseniks they could be something different, as those whose lives were changed by them recall.
