• About

intuneandintime

~ It's Always About The Music

intuneandintime

Category Archives: New York Dolls

The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre of 1974 with THE LIPSTICK KILLERS

14 Thursday Feb 2019

Posted by MICHAEL C. HODGKISS in #JohnnyThunders, #WhiteBoyBlues, Academy of Music,NYC, Broadway, Fillmore East, Indie records, Kevin Patrick, Long John Baldry, Madison Square Garden, New York Dolls, PALLADIUM,NYC, Rock music, Rod Stewart, THE MOTHERS of INVENTION, Ticket Stubs, Vinyl Records, Zappa

≈ Leave a comment

TICKETS TORN IN HALF: The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre of 1974 with THE LIPSTICK KILLERS

Who are the mystery girls? Androgynous,what the hell is that? Are they boys?Girls?Neither? Both? See through silk blouses, high heels, strange hats, a bass player about nine feet tall wearing a New York Rangers jersey with tights and red knee high boots.Teased hair, pink drums, whew, this band will be a treat.

All this leads up to an event on February 15, 1974 known as the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre held at the notorious Academy of Music. New York City at that time was a dirt hole, a freakin’ sewer. Subway cars smelled of urine,their walls, doors, and windows covered with graffiti, all this decoration/distraction making for a great ride at 3 o’clock in the morning. The streets surrounding 14the Street, the demarcation between the hip south siders and the snobby uptowners, were filled with bums, drunks, hookers, and drug addicts. Nobody was using cocaine as their drug of choice, it was too expensive and passe, here it was heroin. This descent into hell started ages before but culminated musically, socially, when five guys put together a band known asTHE NEW YORK DOLLS. David, Johnny, Billy, Arthur,and Sylvain, collectively these five guys could be found playing everywhere in Manhatten. Every Thursday morning searching the Village Voice one could immediately find an ad for that band and plan a night out, all for about five bucks.

At that time 1971/72 there were not many places that allowed an original band to perform “their” music. In the Village you could find the jazz clubs, a folk club, and some small venues that would employ “recording artists”. The Fillmore East closed so the bigger acts, those that refused to play Madison Square Garden needed to find another venue.That’s when THE ACADEMY booked bands on a regular basis.

Some bands had a history with small New York City theaters. In the mid/late sixties THE MOTHERS OF INVENTION played every Wednesday at the Garrick Theater on Bleecker St. The FUGS played seven nights a week at the Players Theater on MacDougal Street and by 71 THE VELVET UNDERGROUND played twice a night, five days a week at Max’s Kansas City.

Things changed around the time THE COCKETTES/ SYLVESTER and HIS HOT BAND were booked for a five week gig Halloween of 1971 at the old Anderson Theatre on Second Avenue. To the uninitiated this was a big event in the art/ theater environment known as New York City, a must see show for the A-listers.The COCKETTES were a San Francisco drag-queen troupe of aging LSD hippies. NYC was a buzz, tickets sold out in hours, and a few lucky college radio folks like me grabbed some complimentary tixs. One just needs to check out Sylvester and His Hot Band and/or The Cockettes on youtube.com to see how the hippie world of the Woodstock generation was dying off. It was a “new dawn”

(Wiki)“News of the 47 Cockettes boarding the flight was covered by local television and the group took over the plane in full drag. Once in New York they were housed in a dingy hotel where heroin was easily scored but spent most of their time as celebrated guests at dozens of parties where they could eat and drink for free, running a tab at a local diner and getting free taxicab rides”.The Cockettes were still transitioning from being “a happening” to actually doing structured performances.The group had one week to prepare but they had few resources and little energy after all the parties. They were however the talk of town and their show was the hot ticket”. The Anderson Theater in New York City had no sound or lighting systems and needed a curtain. The stage was also twice the size of the Cockettess’ usual one so all the sets had to be rebuilt from scratch in six days.They opened with “Tinsel Tarts In a Hot Coma”, a send-up of films about Broadway in the 1930s.What had seemed so fabulous in San Francisco did not translate well in New York City. For most New Yorkers, it was “You’ve got to be kidding!,” and the celebrities the Cockettes had so wanted to impress were not impressed.Later, the Cockettes tried to explain their New York failure by commenting “the New York audiences did not understand us,” (although it appeared perhaps New York had understood them). After a week of disastrous “Tinsel Tarts…” playing to empty houses, they performed their original musical “Pearls Over Shanghai” for the remaining 2 weeks of their contract, and the Village Voice gave it a rave. But it was too little too late.Sylvester and his band was the lone exception but he disassociated himself after several nights on advice from his business friends.

So here we are at the precipice of change, the “new dawn”,moving from the long-haired, tie-dye T-shirt, patch jeans, and work boots of the LSD 60s, to the tight jeans , satin shirts, platform shoes teased hair of the heroin 70s.

THE NEW YORK DOLLS opened for Long John Baldry (June 72) at My Father’s Place in Roslyn, to less than favorable reviews from my friends who attended. “They suck”…but they also mentioned laughingly that I might like them, as I am the “musical snob who hates MOUNTAIN”. So this outing will be a test. It’s Tuesday night in August 1972, hotter than hell in NYC,smoking a Marlboro Red while standing in the crowd outside the Mercer Arts Center, just north of Bleecker Street at the end of Washington Square. All are anticipating what can only be best described as a true NY happening.The “I’ll see you next week” crowd is there, dressed as provocatively as one might expect of the band.The New York Dolls had a standing Tuesday night gig in the Oscar Wilde Room of the said Mercer Arts Center. This engagement started in early June and had been regularly reported in the local newspapers, television, and a few magazines. The only problem for a local tunnel boy like me would be that the show starts at 10 PM and one had endure two bands before “THE DOLLS” came on. I had work at 7AM Wednesday morning.
One could find THE DOLLS everywhere in NYC. They would be at The Palm Room of The Hotel Diplomat, then doing five nights at Max’s Kansas City, Tuesday’s back at Mercer Arts Center, mostly with The Magic Tramps in tow.

THE NEW YORK DOLLS were everything one could imagine, and to some, nothing. They were five guys who hit the stage, entertaining a crowd which adored them or hated them. They were offensive, brash, bold, and wonderful. You either walked out or you begged for more. Some night they were the best band in the world and other nights the worst (Voted BEST and WORST BAND by the readers of Creem Magazine 1973)

September 72, the band agrees to open for LOU REED, five nights in England. However, after their first sound check, for whatever reason, either being too good or too bad, Lou declines to allow them to play. Stuck in England,they soldiered on, even recorded a few tunes as demos. Then, the premier gig, they opened up for THE FACES at an outdoor festival.Some say they stole the show. A few days later Billy Murcia, the drummer, dies. New York City’s most popular unsigned rock’n roll band is without their drummer.

Returning back to New York the band calls on Jerry Nolan,a known entity, pink drums and all. The second incarnation of The New York Dolls plays on December 22 at the old Fillmore East in a series known as “Bands of the 1970’s” with The Magic Tramps and Teenage Lust. New Year’s Eve they are back to the Mercer Arts Center with The Magic Tramps (another unsung band of NY music), Queen Elizabeth(w/Wayne County), The Modern Lovers, Ruby and The Rednecks, in what is to be called “the endless party of 1973” a show starting at 11 PM and ending when the sun came up, maybe.

The Dolls played in various clubs; Kenny’s Castaway up on 84th St. Street and Third, opened up for Captain Beefheart at Town Hall (February 24) and then on St. Patrick’s Day of 1973, they perform on a bill with Larry Coryell, along with The Mahavishnu Orchestra at the State University of New York in New Paltz. My brother, Kevin Patrick, a student there, called me the next day, he being a huge fan of The Mahavishnu Orchestra, stated… “who the fuck were those guys, how could you possibly like them”. Two days later the New York Dolls sign a two album record contract with Mercury Records for $25,000. July 27th 1973 THE NEW YORK DOLLS (debut) is released.

THE DOLLS were now all over New York. They played the Gaslight Au Go Go, Coventry in Queens, Memorial Day weekend at The (formerly Electric) Circus with Barnaby Bye. August 3 while opening for MOTT THE HOOPLE at The FELT FORUM of Madison Square Garden, the Mercer Arts Center collapses to the ground.Its been reported that the unauthorized renovations of 1969 took out some weight bearing walls. Many in THE DOLLS camp looked at this as a bad omen,losing your home base. For the rest of August The Dolls head over to Max’s Kansas City for a residency. In late September they leave on the West Coast tour where they performed on TV show “The Midnight Special.” It would back with Mott The Hoople traveling through Canada for most of October and returning home for the notorious “Homecoming Halloween Bash” at the Waldorf Astoria’s ballroom. The press coverage alone for this event was unbelievable, decadence to be sure, and tickets for fans virtually impossible to obtain.

It’s a “Costume Party” at $7.50 a ticket featuring THE NEW YORK DOLLS. Over 2000 nut jobs arrive early. First problem is the venue as opulent as it is ,with all its prestige, only holds about 1000,legally. And some/most of that 1000 would be A-listers. The band is scheduled to perform after the “costume contest”, a contest of costumes one can only imagine.Doors were to open at 11PM but don’t until 1AM.The band is drunk/high/in poor spirits/hate each other/whatever.

“Oh my God, the Waldorf-Astoria regrets that gig! Hundreds of FREAKS strolling around the entire lobby area, blowing minds. The Dolls made us wait like an extra 90 minutes and then were hilariously drunk. They were totally awful, but, looked great. It made sense somehow.” stated Blinky Phillips, guitarist for THE PLANETS.

To promote the album they embark on an ill fated European Fall Tour. There the press straight out hated them, labeling the band as “mock rock” and a poor imitation of the ROLLING STONES.

With their tails between their legs they are back home to the safe environment know as NEW YORK CITY, February 15, 1974, on a show advertised as “The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre”, at the Academy of Music with Elliott Murphy, tickets sell out in minutes. The stage is readied for THE DOLLS, the lights dim, and a newsreel montage of Hitler invading France is played.WTF? Next a film “The Lipstick Killers” is shown, hey, that’s THE DOLLS…
Film ends…”Puss N Boots” kicks it off. THE DOLLS are on, not just on… but ON. “Bad Girl”,”Looking For A Kiss”, “Who Are The Mystery Girls?”, “Trash”, “Stranded In The Jungle” “Great Big Kiss”, “Chatterbox”, “Personality Crisis”, “Babylon” “It’s Too Late”, “Pills”, and “Human Being”…applause… “you want more?… “Jet Boy”, “I’m Your Hootchie Coochie Man”, “Back In The USA”.The universe is back in balance. The guys can do it, they can be stars.

Two months later, April 14,1974 the band performs at My Father’s Place in Roslyn, with The Miamis opening. “Babylon”, “Puss n Boots”,“Looking For A Kiss”,“Trash”, Stranded In The Jungle”, “Personality Crisis”, “Bad Girl”, “Pills”, “Hoochie Koochie Dolls”, “It’s Too Late”, “Chatterbox”, and the show closer “Human Being” all broadcast by WBAB-FM.

May 10,1974 “IN TOO MUCH TOO SOON” is released. It bombs and Mercury drops them almost immediately. THE NEW YORK DOLLS virtually disappear.

The band tours for a few months with Johnny Thunders and Jerry Nolan in a true heroin dependency while Arthur “Killer” Kane is an out and out drunk.

I didn’t see much in the press or hear much of The Dolls after their release, I do know they played the “Little Hippodrome” the small place between Second and Third Avenue, dressed in red leather. My friend said it was terrible. The band was falling apart, the spirit and the camaraderie that once existed between the performers and the audience was gone.Now, you didn’t know if Arthur was going to show up sober, didn’t know if Jerry was going to stand up,or if Johnny was going to throw up. David and Syl we are trying to keep the band together. However, in that short period of time THE NEW YORK DOLLS go from the sweethearts of New York City, to playing on a bill with THE FACES in Europe, on tour with MOTT THE HOOPLE, now relegated to playing shitty little holes with nobody, I mean nobody, nobody there.

TICKETS TORN IN HALF: After The Springfield- Three Nights with CSN&Y

07 Monday Jan 2019

Posted by MICHAEL C. HODGKISS in #WhiteBoyBlues, CSNY, Fillmore East, FillmoreEast,BillGraham, Jones Beach, Neil Young, New York Dolls, POCO, Rock music, rock music trivia, The Byrds, The Hollies, The radio, Ticket Stubs, Uncategorized, Vinyl Records, Woodstock

≈ Leave a comment

After Buffalo Springfield:CSN&Y

Winter was slowly turning into Spring of1967, while me as a 15 year old spent some afternoons watching “WHERE THE ACTION IS” with its usual cast of characters featuring the likes of PAUL REVERE and THE RAIDERS,DON and THE GOODTIMES,when the show’s host Dick Clark introduces a new group, BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD.Two night later the same band is on THE SMOTHERS BROTHERS COMEDY HOUR. A few weeks hence, same guys (or so I thought at the time-see bass player arrested) wearing cowboy hats and fringed leather jackets were on HOLLYWOOD PALACE (verified by angelfire.com).Who are these guys? More importantly, Where do I get their music?

In short order I have their 45, “For What It’s Worth” b/w “Do I Have To Come Right Out And Say It?”. Not enough, I needed more. So I hop on the bus to the neighboring TSS store which had a great record department. There I pick up a mono copy of the band’s first album but while at the register the guy behind the counter informed me this collection in hand did NOT have the “For What It’s Worth” single on it.He suggested I pick up the newer copies, the ones with “Newest Hit Single Included” sticker on it, to which I did.Looking back, as I vinyl record collector I wish I would have purchased the original copy, worth a few bucks today. Anyway,I digress, this is where my Neil Young, and in many parts Stills and Furay, story begins…I loved listening to the Buffalo Springfield, however short their time in the limelight was.

POST SPRINGFIELD:

SEPTEMBER 20,1969: CROSBY, STILLS, NASH and YOUNG/ LONNIE MACK @ FILLMORE EAST

During the Summer of 1969 I purchased 2 tickets to see CROSBY, STILLS and NASH who would be headlining a bill with COUNTRY JOE for the weekend of July 25/26 (3 weeks BEFORE Woodstock)at FILLMORE EAST.Great seats arrived. Their debut album was on heavy rotation on my turntable and needless to say I was excited to see them live.But as fate would have it, they cancelled.Then mid-August, a FILLMORE EAST ad in THE VILLAGE VOICE announced shows for September and October. BINGO, Crosby Stills and Nash were advertised but it included Neil Young a part of the group???“Seriously”, I thought, “no way they added NEIL YOUNG”!!! Oh, I must go. Great seats, fourth row center arrived.

Now, its’s a month after Woodstock and here they are, CSN&YOUNG. Ahhhhh… The opening act, Lonnie Mack was playing his legendary Flying V Gibson offering a very tasty, short and sweet set. Along with 2600 others I waited patiently as the crew prepared the equipment for the next act. A Hammond B-3, huge drum riser, plenty of different models and types of amps, racks of beautiful guitars, and more microphones then I ever saw graced the stage.Bill Graham did the intro and the band (CSN) seated on strolls, playing acoustic guitars kicked off with the album’s opening track, Suite:JudyBlue Eyes. After a few more tunes a bass player and drummer join in as did NEIL YOUNG. What was already a great show, a 10 out of 10, but once Neil Young plugged in he pushed the band into the stratosphere. The highlights of the night for me were Broken Arrow, Wooden Ships and the closer, Down By The River.

Set List:

SUITE: JUDY BLUE EYES

BLACKBIRD (Beatles cover)

HELPLESSLY HOPING

GUINNEVERE

LADY OF THE ISLAND

GO BACK HOME

4+20

ON THE WAY HOME

BROKEN ARROW

I’VE LOVED HER SO LONG

YOU DON’T HAVE TO CRY

Second Set:

PRE-ROAD DOWNS

LONG TIME GONE

BLUEBIRD REVISITED

SEA OF MADNESS

WOODEN SHIPS

DOWN BY THE RIVER
Nine months later, a life time for an 18 year old in 1970: JUNE 7: CROSBY, STILLS, NASH and YOUNG

Earlier that spring Bill Graham announced the listing of shows booked for the remainder of the season. He also told the crowd that a new FILLMORE EAST sound system would be installed over the summer, as if this place needed a new one, already having the best system around.  One of the announced shows was a six night engagement featuring Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, no opening act, one show per night at 9PM. These tickets sold out in an unprecedented time. My SASE returned without tickets, a true first for me. I was disappointed but hey, I saw them once.

The Friday night of the CSNY run I attended my girlfriend’s senior prom. There at the table, the 8 of us, four couples, vowed to attend the next night’s show. Even if we did not get tickets we would stay outside listening to the music. Arriving early in hopes of scoring tickets we wandered around the famed venue in our attempt to get tickets. But to no avail. Our lady friends took it upon themselves to wait on line for “stand by” tickets. The show was scheduled for 9PM, and the box office usually released the “stand by” tickets about an hour before show time.  However, tonight was different as the woman in the ticket booth, after listening to our girl’s tale of woe took pity on them. The girls bought two tickets each, totaling eight tickets, all seated together in the fourth row center.

The CSNY show was recorded each night and the best performances from that week were compiled and released a few months later as FOUR WAY STREET. Our show started with solo sets from each performer doing a few of the classic tunes they were known for. KING MIDAS IN REVERSE, a HOLLIES classic was done by Nash. Stephen Stills did manic solo piano work on 49 BYE BYES, Crosby scored with TRIAD. But for me the highlight was acoustic Neil Young. Geez, what a great start to a show. And the band didn’t even do their collective electric set yet. It only got better.

Acoustic Set:

Suite:Judy Blues Eyes

Blackbird

On the Way Home

Teach Your Children

Tell Me Why

Triad

Guinnevere

Another Sleep Song

Man in the Mirror

Don’t Let It Bring You Down

The Loner

Cinnamon Girl

Down By The River

Black Queen

49 Bye-Byes

America’s Children

Love the One You’re With

Electric Set:

Pre-Road Downs

Long Time Gone

Helplessly Hoping

Southern Man

As I Come of Age

Ohio

Carry On

Encore:

Woodstock

Find the Cost of Freedom

36 Years Later:

I lost interest in CSN and/or CSNY as a collective unit early on, probably about the time I first saw the NEW YORK DOLLS. Somehow, guys sitting on a stool playing acoustic guitars made little sense to my rock n roll mind. Don’t get me wrong, I would go see Neil Young at the drop of a hat and did many times. Stills, once solo at a good show in Tramps, and Crosby once recently at City Winery NY, he still has the pipes. Nash showed up at the Steve Earle benefit last year, and well, best left unsaid. But 1970-2006 I had zero enthusiasm for the band(s)CSN/CSNY recorded or live. Then, my buddy’s wife bought a bank of 20 tickets expecting my bride and I would join the gang.

August 22, 2006: CSNY Freedom of Speech Tour @ Jones Beach

My notes are limited so I leave it to a review from VARIETY:

For the half of the 3½ hour show in which Young took the spotlight, you could believe that music may have the power to change events. He and a band that includes longtime Young collaborators Spooner Oldham and Ben Keith performed songs with a raggedy intensity that perfectly suits the material’s broadside emotions.

He opened the show with “Flags of Freedom,” a compassionate account of a family sending their son to fight in Iraq; they ended the second set with “Find the Cost of Freedom,” accompanied by thumbnail photos of the war’s 2,576 fatalities. He’s especially offended by the fact that President Bush has yet to attend a funeral of a fallen soldier (a fact twice mentioned on the “Living With War” news reports that run during his songs). With CSN adding their harmonies in place of the 100-voice choir on “War,” the new songs bristle with a righteous anger.

The other three never left their late ’60s/early ’70s comfort zone. You could argue that Nash’s “Military Madness” has some relevance today, but it’s hard to make that case for Crosby’s “Almost Cut My Hair” or Nash’s “Chicago” — for most people nowadays, the image of someone “bound and gagged” and “chained to a chair” does not bring up memories of Mayor Daley and the ’68 Democratic Convention. And closing the first set with “Deja Vu” only served to remind people that, yes, we all have heard this all before.

Their attitude turned protest into nothing more than a pose; it’s as if they believe that by replicating the sounds of ’60s protest, they’ll be able to ignite a similar movement today. Like one of the peace signs on their backdrop, the band is looking a little worse for wear. Nash’s voice is often strained, while Stills’ is ravaged. When he takes the lead, the results are sad to hear; unlike other singers whose voices have aged badly, he doesn’t seem to have figured out ways to get around it. On “Wounded World” and “Treetop Flyer,” he veers into Bob Dylan territory. Crosby, on the other hand, ignores all medical science, retaining his voice against all odds.

For all its faults, a show like CSNY’s brings up some intriguing questions about what protest music in the 21st century should sound like. In our more corporate time, in which record labels and radio stations tread lightly on controversial topics, perhaps only a band such as Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, which no longer cares about radio airplay and has a loyal cadre of fans, can get away with calling for the president’s impeachment and project the lyrics of Young’s indictment onto giant video screens. They may be preaching to the choir, but it’s still good to hear.

Band: David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash, Neil Young, Spooner Oldham, Chad Cromwell, Rick Rosas, Ben Keith, Tom Bray. Reviewed July 31, 2006.

ME: Needless to say, the bill should have read NEIL YOUNG with…

Flags of Freedom

Carry On

Wooden Ships

Long Time Gone

Military Madness

After the Garden

Living With War

The Restless Consumer

Shock and Awe

Wounded World

Almost Cut My Hair

Immigration Man

Families

Déjà Vu

SET 2

Helplessly Hoping

Our House

Only Love Can Break Your Heart

Guinnevere

Milky Way Tonight

Treetop Flyer

Roger and Out

Southbound Train

Ole Man Trouble

Carry Me

Southern Cross

Find the Cost of Freedom

ENCORE

Let’s Impeach the President

For What It’s Worth

Chicago

Ohio

What Are Their Names

Rockin’ in the Free World

ENCORE

Teach Your Children

 

CSNY sept 69
IMG_0962
CSNY 70

 

TICKETS TORN IN HALF: January 5, 1980-ROBERT GORDON @The Silver Dollar Music Saloon, BAYSHORE,NY

05 Saturday Jan 2019

Posted by MICHAEL C. HODGKISS in #WhiteBoyBlues, Kevin Patrick, New York Dolls, R&B, Robert Gordon, Rock music, Rockabilly, Talking Heads, The Beatles on Sullivan, The radio, Ticket Stubs, Uncategorized, Vinyl Records, Woodstock, Woody Herman

≈ Leave a comment

robt gordon
Ribert Gordon

TICKETS TORN IN HALF: January 5, 1980-ROBERT GORDON @The Silver Dollar Music Saloon, BAYSHORE,NY

I grew up on all kinds of music; my dad’s big band collection, some Johnny Cash, the radio hits of the 1950’s and early 1960’s which included street corner doo-wop bands, girl groups, a little folk music, some matinee idols, a few Broadway tunes tossed in, and then… February of 1964 changed everything with The BEATLES appearance on Ed Sullivan. After that it was a hop, skip, and jump to WOODSTOCK.  I along with everyone else my age experimented by listening to every type of music that was thrown my way. Late night free form FM radio influenced my listening habits and of course my purchasing habits. As the Woodstock Nation scattered away from the meadows of muddy joy and celebration, we moved on to college or gainful employment, and with that our tastes in music changed again. The Beatles broke up and corporate/ arena rock took over. Fortunately, for those of us living in New York City we had the rise of small clubs, where occasionally you could see an up-and-coming band before they hit the big time. Unfortunately, many times bands in these small clubs were expected to play the hits of the day. It was about this time in one of those small clubs that we first heard the uniqueness of The New York Dolls. That moment for me my friends changed everything. At some later date I’ll give you my meandering thoughts on what occurred with the band and of course how the band influenced others. But for now I’ll throw it out there on how the Dolls playing in clubs like Max’s Kansas City and later others in CBGB’s changed the course of music moving away from the drabness and into a new light. The Dolls even though their aspirations were to become huge, while disappointed by the lack of enthusiasm across middle America. However, they soldiered on and in doing so inspired others to form bands. This “newer wave” (sorry) of bands were diametrically opposed to the progressive rock sounds of corporate music. Mostly labeled “garage” bands, these combos consisted of drums, a bass player,a guitar player or two ,and a singer. Sometimes the label of “singer” was a stretch.

The year of the Bicentennial 1976 was a true turning point in music, especially music found in the clubs of New York City and music played on the radio. THE RAMONES first album was released and poor TOM PETTY was labeled “punk rock”, a phrase he hated all because he wore a leather jacket on the cover. The point is everything was changing, quickly. Every Tom, Dick, and Joey Ramone, all we’re looking for that moment in the sun but were looking for it in their own unique way. Bands popped up all over the place. There were duos like Suicide, trios like early Talking Heads, strange acts like the Contortionists and who can forget Wendy Williams and the Plasmatics. Life was grand. On any given night you would go out knowing you would be thoroughly entertained.Patrons of those NYC clubs were rarely if ever shocked.

All this jibber jabber is just a way for me to introduce the TUFF DARTS a band I saw a few times at CBGB’S and their short term lead singer Robert Gordon who broke away from them to concentrate on a rockabilly revival career.Shortly after the split from TUFF DARTS I met Robert Gordon in the New York City club, Hurrah, while we will both there separately to see my friends band, The Werewolves. Robert had a new look with a slicked back, high piled pompadour. He was accompanied by a gentleman in sunglasses a few years older then us whom he introduced to me. I immediately recognized the name, Link Wray, as a guitarist of some renown to say the least. Robert briefly informed me that he was working on a solo album and Link would be playing guitar. A few months later the album was released and gigs announced. For whatever reason our paths did not cross, I missed his performances with Link,and again a few years later with Chris Spedding but did get to see the January 5, 1980 performance with another guitarist of some note Danny Gatton,”the world’s best unknown guitarist”. Robert Gordon and his band did not disappoint. The sparse audience, mostly “dolls and cats” as he called them, followed him from gig to gig, dressed to the nines with men in white shirts with thin bolo ties,dolls in poodle skirts, all wearing mostly anything from the ROCKABILLY era. The show sometimes is the show, meaning the audience is ACT 1.Needless to say, it was a blast.  So ROCKABILLY was just one of the niches carved out in the mid seventies and ROBERT GORDON was one of it’s shining stars.

NYT:April 23,1978-Rob’t Palmer

During the late 50’s, the rockabillies ran into trouble. Jerry Lee Lewis was hounded out of England by the press when it was discovered that his wife was only 13 and his cousin. Carl Perkins was disabled by an automobile accident at a critical juncture his career, and never found a suitable follow‐up to “Blue Suede Shoes.” The second‐string wild men—Sonny Burgess, Billy Lee Riley—never really found a mass audience outside the South and Midwest. Elvis Presley, whose early records started it all, fell increasingly under the sway of Nashville and Hollywood. An army of bland young men, the’ Fabians and Frankie Avalons, launched a counter‐attack on cleaned‐up teen television shows like Dick Clark’s “American Bandstand.” By 1960, the rockabilly era was definitely over.

But popular fashion runs in cycles, and rockabilly is back. The smooth, mass‐produced blandness of 70’s pop made a raw, uninhibited new wave inevitable, and when it came along, in the person of the punks, rockabilly came with it. In some cases, the rockabilly influence in punk rock is minimal, a question of dyed hair, black leather jackets, or an occasional song or vocal mannerism. But one prominent new:wave rocker, Robert Gordon, has based his entire repertory and performing persona on rockabilly:. Two of his most popular numbers are Billy Lee Riley evergreens.

TICKETS TORN IN HALF July 10,1988: BUSTER POINDEXTER @ Westbury

10 Tuesday Jul 2018

Posted by MICHAEL C. HODGKISS in New York Dolls, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

TICKETS TORN IN HALF July 10,1988: BUSTER POINDEXTER @ Westbury This was a corny but very entertaining evening featuring David Johansen as Buster Poindexter ,a way too funny lounge singer. Overall it was a great evening, like I imagine a Vegas lounge act to be.

Follow intuneandintime on WordPress.com

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • intuneandintime
    • Join 37 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • intuneandintime
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...