After a long wait, it's finally the night of the living Dolls

The glam-punk band from the '70s is back with some new tunes.
By JON BREAM
MINNEAPOLIS STAR-TRIBUNE
He has played Buster Poindexter, a pompadoured lounge lizard, and the Ghost of Christmas Past, a wisecracking spirit in the movie "Scrooged." But David Johansen's most famous role was lead singer of the New York Dolls, the highly influential rock band that hardly anyone ever saw live.
"Buster Poindexter wasn't an act," said Johansen, who has revived the Dolls, rock's ultimate cult band, after a 30-year hiatus. "Neither is this."
Once again he's donning his "stretchy pants, Lucha Goro shoes and a George Ballachine-like top," probably some bracelets and maybe a little eyeliner and, at age 56, becoming the iconic frontman of the Dolls. Like the Velvet Underground and the Replacements, this glam-punk quintet from the early '70s inspired countless oddball kids to start a rock band.
One of them was England's Steven Morrissey, who became the singer of 1980s mope-rock kings, the Smiths. Once president of the Dolls' British fan club, he's responsible for the current rebirth of the Dolls.
In 2004, he invited Johansen to reunite the Dolls for a British rock festival that he was curating. In Johansen's typical wisenheimer way, he responded by asking if Morrissey would reunite the Smiths?
"He said: 'Absolutely not,"' Johansen recalled. "But, for me, it wasn't like we're going to get back together and be married. It's like 'we're gonna do a gig.' If I knew then what I know now, I would have gotten neurotic about it."
New music
That festival led to another concert and then a bunch of European festivals. About a year ago, the Dolls decided it was getting monotonous playing the same old songs, so they vowed to write new stuff and, in July, released their first studio album in 32 years, "One Day It Will Please Us To Remember Even This."
Johansen and guitarist Sylvain Sylvain are the only long-term members. (Four musicians died over the years, including bassist Arthur Kane shortly after the Morrissey reunion.). So, with this new lineup, what makes this band the New York Dolls?
"The logo," joked Johansen, who looks like a tall, femme Mick Jagger. "Because we live in a branded, consumer culture."
The decadence of the rock 'n' roll lifestyle did in the Dolls. While their two studio albums -- the 1973 self-titled debut and 1974's aptly titled 'Too Much Too Soon' -- became cult classics, there was not much money in it. Johansen's biggest Dolls paycheck came when Guns 'N Roses covered one of their songs ("Human Being") in 1993.
While the Dolls were pioneers in do-it-yourself glam, Johansen felt the punk ethos was wrongly attributed to his group.
"The Dolls are more about metaphysical things than just whining," he said. "The whole idea is 'think for yourself and use your imagination.' If I can get people to say that 'Life isn't about just getting and spending and dying. There's other things to life.' Like dancing."
For Johansen, life is about being an artist. As a teenager, he fell in with the Ridiculous Theatre company, doing everything from running lights to acting. After the Dolls disintegrated in the mid-'70s, he had a solo rock career. In the 1980s, he created Poindexter, a suave lounge singer who cut several albums, scored the party hit "Hot Hot Hot" and performed in the house band on "Saturday Night Live." In 2000, he made an album of mostly traditional folk-blues as David Johansen and the Harry Smiths. He hosts a weekly music program on Sirius Satellite Radio.