40 Year Itch : The Dean's List

                           
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The  Deans' Lists 1973

Despite his hometown bias, New York rock critic Robert Christgau's list of favorite albums always offers music fans some esoteric treats along with some-- but never all --of  the year's universally acclaimed records.
No Dark Side of the Moon here, kiddies.

But among the albums on this list I'm really glad I've finally heard are Elliot Murphy's Aquashow, Esther Phillips's Black Eyed Blues, Meet "Mississippi Charles" Bevel and Coulson, Dean, McGuinness, Flint's  Lo and Behold. 

Albums with orange numbers were reviewed in this blog.

 A+

 1. Al Green - Call Me
 2. New York Dolls 
  
 A 

 3. The Harder They Come
 4. Wilson Pickett’s Greatest Hits 
 5. Lynyrd Skynyrd - Pronounced Leh-nerd Skeh-nerd 
 6. John Prine - Sweet Revenge
7. Sly and the Family Stone - Fresh 
 8. Africa Dances

 9. Janis Joplin’s Greatest Hits
 10. Al Green - Livin’ for You
 11. Steely Dan - Countdown to Ecstasy 
 12. Stevie Wonder - Innervisions 
 13. Neil Young - Time Fades Away 

 A- 
 14. Asleep at the Wheel - Comin’ Right at Ya

 15. Bruce Springsteen - The Wild the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle
 16. Bill Withers Live at Carnegie Hall
 17. Slade - Slayed?
 18. Mahavishnu Orchestra - Birds of Fire
 19. The Move - Split Ends
 20. Coulson, Dean, McGuinness, Flint - Lo and Behold
 21. Bonnie Raitt - Takin’ My Time
 22. Led Zeppelin - Houses of the Holy 
23. Tom T. Hall - The Rhymer and Other Five and Dimers
 24. Spinners
 25. Roy Brown - Hard Times

26. The Who - Quadrophenia
 27. The Great Lost Kinks Album
 28. Mott the Hoople - Mott
 29. The Best of Laura Lee

 30. James Brown - Soul Classics Volume II
 31. Marvin Gaye - Let’s Get It On
 32. The Hollies’ Greatest Hits
 33. The Allman Brothers Band - Brothers and Sisters
 34. Manfred Mann’s Earth Band - Get Your Rocks Off
 35. Elliott Murphy - Aquashow
 36. Frederic Rzewski - Coming Together; Attica; Moutons de Panurge

 37. Roy Wood - Boulders
 38. Howlin’ Wolf - The Back Door Wolf
 39. Meet "Mississippi Charles" Bevel
 40. Marlo Thomas - Free to Be…You and Me

 41. Derek and the Dominos - In Concert
 42. Miles Davis in Concert
 43. Loudon Wainwright III - Attempted Mustache
 44. Mike Seeger - The Second Annual Farewell Reunion

 
 45. Esther Phillips - Black Eyed Blues
 46. Swamp Dogg - Gag a Maggott
 47. Taj Mahal - Ooh So Good ‘n Blues
                                           

40 Year Itch: Frustration And Heartache

[Purchase for $5.44]

Ahhhhhhh Woooooo! Yeah Yeah Yeah! No no no no no no no no no!

-opening lines of New York Dolls

The New York Dolls won "Best New Group of the Year" in the Creem Magazine Readers Poll . They also won "Worst New Group of the Year". Mercury Records found some  middle ground in their Billboard Magazine ad: 

             "A band you're gonna like, whether you like it or not".

The New York Dolls combined Jagger's swagger with Bowie's omni-sexual wardrobes; 1950's doo-wop with 1960's garage rock; the Velvet Underground's New York City street poetry with the Stooges deliberate amateurism. No wonder only the critics got them when their debut came out in the Summer of 1973. Too bad nobody else did.

Made up of musicians from various New York City boroughs, The New York Dolls took their name from The New York Doll Hospital, which was across the street from the boutique where guitarist Sylvain Sylvain worked. They played at the Mercer Arts Center in Lower Manhattan where they attracted a local glam scene.

   Critic Robert Christgau says singer David Johansen's trashy clothes was a big part of the band's appeal:

The man was a thrift shop genius. So ( bassist) Arthur ( Kane), who was tall and ungainly even without his platform shoes, would squeeze his torso into a child's dress or put on a crotch-length hockey jersey over white tights; David would wear a shorty nightgown instead of a shirt, with fishnet stockings showing through the rips in his jeans; Syl would turn into Liza Minelli doing a Charlie Chaplin impression

  Rod Stewart hired the band to open his London concert in 1972. Drummer Billy Murcia died after an accidental overdose and was replaced with Jerry Nolan just after the Dolls received a $25,000 two record deal with Mercury Records.

  To much of the band's consternation Todd Rundgren was hired to produce the first album.

  "Get the glitter out of your asses and play!" Todd  would bark from behind the sound board. Johansen later called Rundgren an "expert on second rate rock 'n ' roll". Still, Rundgren did his best to capture the band's live sound and the result is a street-wise rock n romp classic highlighted by "Personality Crisis", "Looking for a Kiss" and "Trash".

   40 years later the New York Dolls debut is hailed as one of the most influential albums of all time: "one of the building blocks of the late 70's punk movement"; #213 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list; and Morrissey's all time favorite album.

But will they ever have to answer for Poison?