The New York Dolls: Too Much Too Soon

Rating:
Summary: Too much too soon
Review: Not knowimg too much about the New York Dolls, except that they were the first `sick boys` of rock n`roll, I found this book does state the facts quite well, but doesn`t investigate them fully. The author jumps from one event to another, providing lots of information, but with little substance. I also felt that the author had a somewhat bias attidude against David Johansen, Malcolm Maclaren, the Sex Pistols, and anyone else who isn`t Johnny Thunders. Its strange that a women would be in such admiration of a man that regularly beat the crap out of his girlfriend; even if drugs were to blame for his behaviour. Johnny Thunders, in spite of this, was still pretty cool, and a great inspiration for the next generation of rock star wanna-be`s. Although it is debatable exactly how much influence New York actually had on the London punk scene, The New York Doll`s were certainly the `first`. This book does do the job, but there must be better ones out there.

Rating:
Summary: Too much too soon
Review: Not knowimg too much about the New York Dolls, except that they were the first `sick boys` of rock n`roll, I found this book does state the facts quite well, but doesn`t investigate them fully. The author jumps from one event to another, providing lots of information, but with little substance. I also felt that the author had a somewhat bias attidude against David Johansen, Malcolm Maclaren, the Sex Pistols, and anyone else who isn`t Johnny Thunders. Its strange that a women would be in such admiration of a man that regularly beat the crap out of his girlfriend; even if drugs were to blame for his behaviour. Johnny Thunders, in spite of this, was still pretty cool, and a great inspiration for the next generation of rock star wanna-be`s. Although it is debatable exactly how much influence New York actually had on the London punk scene, The New York Doll`s were certainly the `first`. This book does do the job, but there must be better ones out there.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent rock and roll book
Review: ok maybe their music wasnt perfect or their playing abilities werent the best but they were way ahead of their time. This book has everything, addictions, lovers, music and sad endings for some. A great tribute to the most forgotten band. They never got the respect they deserved for the style they started which is so copied now.

Rating:
Summary: A great book about a great band
Review: ok maybe their music wasnt perfect or their playing abilities werent the best but they were way ahead of their time. This book has everything, addictions, lovers, music and sad endings for some. A great tribute to the most forgotten band. They never got the respect they deserved for the style they started which is so copied now.

Rating:
Summary: it's what rock and roll is all about!
Review: the Dolls paved the way for punk,alt/grunge and the Marilyn Manson era.Nina's book is brilliant,and for more of the same, check out "High On Rebellion;Inside the Underground at Max's Kansas City" by Yvonne Sewell Ruskin, loaded with Dolls, Thunders, Psychotic Frogs, Jayne County, etc.

Rating:
Summary: Exposes the tragedy of the endless party that was the Dolls
Review: This is a both an important rock&roll cultural document and a passionately written piece of adulating prose. Nina Antonia uncovers the blacklisting of the New York Dolls, captures the fireball intensity of their decadent ascent and equally tragic demise, and properly positions them in their rightful place as one of the most influential innovators of modern rock&roll.

Unfortunately "Too Much Too Soon" is a posthumous work as three of the band's most important members were devoured by its own tragic spectacle.The book is written in the same sensibility@of uncompromising passion and fun as the group's excessively rock'n'roll attitude. It is also as chock full of the hard facts, never before seen photos, as it is of the regret and loss the Doll's members had to deal with. It is high time that the history of rock by revised to included this essential band in its legend. And this is just the book to do it.

Rating:
Summary: Exposes the tragedy of the endless party that was the Dolls
Review: This is a both an important rock&roll cultural document and a passionately written piece of adulating prose. Nina Antonia uncovers the blacklisting of the New York Dolls, captures the fireball intensity of their decadent ascent and equally tragic demise, and properly positions them in their rightful place as one of the most influential innovators of modern rock&roll.

Unfortunately "Too Much Too Soon" is a posthumous work as three of the band's most important members were devoured by its own tragic spectacle.The book is written in the same sensibility@of uncompromising passion and fun as the group's excessively rock'n'roll attitude. It is also as chock full of the hard facts, never before seen photos, as it is of the regret and loss the Doll's members had to deal with. It is high time that the history of rock by revised to included this essential band in its legend. And this is just the book to do it.

Rating:
Summary: C'mon, gimme some lip...
Review: When the New York Dolls rang in New Year's 1974 from the stage of the Michigan Palace, I'd only had my driver's license for a few short months and didn't have the guts to drive down to the old barn on Bagley in the heart of downtown Detroit (now the site of a parking lot), not that my old man would have given me the keys to his 1967 Galaxie 500 anyway. So, like an idiot, and despite the fact that I could have stayed home, warm and dry, and listened to a simulcast of the show on WABX, I hopped on my Huffy 10-speed and began pedaling, making my way straight down Michigan Avenue into the madhouse that was the Motor City (all apologies to Ted Nugent) back in those menacing years following the 1967 riots which changed this city forever, a 10-mile trek one way from my house in lily-white Dearborn. How bad was it back then? Every night, prior to its eleven o'clock newscast, one of the local TV stations here would announce "It's eleven o'clock. Do you know where your children are?" At least on that night, I'm sure my parents looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders.

Nina Antonia seems to have cornered the market on New York Dolls books. As far as I can tell, "Too Much Too Soon" is the only one on the market and unless Syl Sylvain, David Johansen, or Arthur Kane decide to pick up a pen or sit down at a keyboard (it's much too late for Billy Murcia, Johnny Thunders, and Jerry Nolan - they've all given up the oxygen habit), it's probably the only one you'll ever need. It's a cogent look through a haze of dope smoke and pills at a band spinning their wheels in search of the muse, clearly way ahead of any marketer's business plan, as well as that of their own management team. Despite the best efforts of Marty Thau and less-than-best efforts of Steve Leber and David Krebs, the Dolls sort of just escaped, ran around, and did a lot of drugs, in the process creating a highly influential milieu it seems the world is still trying to get a handle on 30 years later.

In my mind, there's nothing more boring in a band bio than reading about the hardscrabble lives of the members' parents or grandparents, so to Antonia's credit she gets in and gets out. By the end of the first chapter, the original lineup is in place and lookin' for a kiss, if not a gig, manager, and comfortable pair of heels. Although I've always considered myself a huge fan, Antonia recounts many interesting aspects of the band's history I'd never heard before, to wit (Spoiler Alert!):

* As a teenager, Thunders (nee Genzale) was scouted by the Philadelphia Phillies.

* As the band was forming, founding member Sylvain nipped off to London briefly, leaving the guitar duties to Rick Rivets and Kane, with street rat Thunders on bass. A short time later, Thunders took over the lead chores and prior to Johansen coming on board, also handled the vocals.

* The Dolls were seriously courted by Who manager and Track Records (whom the Heartbreakers later signed with) boss Kit Lambert during their first trip to London for a series of gigs, including one wedged between the Pink Fairies and The Faces at Wembley Pool.

* When Nolan signed on to replace the overdosed Murcia, he received three drumkits and a couch as part of the deal.

* Before Todd Rundgren was selected to produce the first album, the band also kicked around the names of Phil Spector, David Bowie, and Roy Wood.

* Thunders received his first fix from Iggy Pop.

* In Missouri, the band were supported by, and found kindred spirits in (are you sitting down?), Lynyrd Skynyrd, getting, in the words of Peter Jordan, "stoned drunk" together.

* The Dolls were filmed for an aborted Ralph Bakshi film called "Hey Good Looking," with animation to be fit in around them at a later date.

* Jimmy Page thought so highly of Thunders, believing him to be the "next special guitar player," that whenever Led Zeppelin appeared in New York, Page would send a limo around to pick him up.

If it's not already obvious, Antonia has really done her homework (despite a dearth of Dolls-related information and factoids out there) and must have busted her ass tracking down the surviving members of the band as well as uber-groupies Sabel Starr and Cyrinda Foxe-Tyler, roadies, hangers-on, and all of the ex-managers for their input. Yet for all of the critical glory they forged together, the New York Dolls' careers sadly went right down the toilet pretty fast, laid to waste by the now cliche combination of dope, mismanagement, and downright shameful album sales. And as for that New Year's Eve show I went to back in 1973? Definitely in my top ten of all time, due in no small part to a set of disheveled, sleazy gutter rock from the Dolls (for which Sylvain relates to Antonia they were paid $14,000 - God love her!) and the fact that I found a ride home with Pootzer, who let me throw my bike in the trunk of his car.