New York Dolls: self-titled [MERCURY]

Why you'll love it

This 180g EU pressing comes with a download voucher for the MP3s. Todd Rundgren produced it, and "Personality Crisis" and "Jet Boy" became blueprints for the punk bands that followed.

This edition

• 180g vinyl
• Download card included
• Pressed in the EU

About the album

The band took its name from the New York Doll Hospital, a toy repair shop across the street from the boutique where Sylvain Sylvain worked. The rest of the look came from the drag shop: high heels, satin, spandex and a great deal of lipstick, worn by five rough-and-ready rock and rollers from the city's clubs. Mercury's A&R man Paul Nelson signed them in 1972, a few months after drummer Billy Murcia died on their first English tour, and Jerry Nolan took over the sticks.

Todd Rundgren produced the sessions, and David Johansen, Johnny Thunders, Sylvain, Arthur Kane and Nolan play them loud and slightly unhinged, like the best bar band in Manhattan. "Personality Crisis" opens with a shout and never sits down, "Looking for a Kiss" swaggers, "Trash" is pure girl-group bubblegum played at punk speed, and "Frankenstein" stretches out into something properly menacing. Bo Diddley's "Pills" gets a sweaty makeover, and "Jet Boy" closes it all at full tilt.

The Sex Pistols, Morrissey, Kiss, Guns N' Roses, The Replacements and The Libertines all took notes, and Malcolm McLaren managed the Dolls before he took on the Pistols. Not bad for a band named after a place that fixed broken toys; they've been fixing broken Saturday nights ever since.

Also at Kops: more New York Dolls on vinyl · browse Punk

Tracklist

Listen

On Mercury / UMe, a reissue of the 1973 album.