The timeline for Ziggy and the Dolls' influence seems wrong.
Could well be, I don't know too much about Bowie's timeline. I take the year 1972 as when he saw a lot of the Dolls from other people's accounts, who were there at the time. Could have been earlier, could have been later, but the change in his music has been attributed to the influence of the Dolls by people much smarter and more in-the-know than I am.
It's been suggested both the Dolls and Bowie got the drag queen stuff from the Theatre of the Ridiculous.
That could be too, but I think Johansen got it from
just being that way. There are early interviews where he talks about how he's going to get implants because he wants to be "the first male rock star with tits." I'm paraphrasing, but I think that image was more than a pose to him.
The timeline of rock music in general in those days is very interesting. I was only 11 years old when the New York Dolls started playing, and I lived about as far away from New York - psychically - as possible, so I don't have any first hand knowledge. But when I listen to records from the time that first Dolls album was released, I hear no one else doing what they did. And the same can certainly be said for the first two Stooges albums, which must have really sounded insane to anyone who bought them when they were released. Not to mention the aural assault that was
Raw Power a couple years later. There's not a record from any era that sounds like that thing. Or the other James Williamson-era Stooges recordings.
What I say in the podcast is just more of what I'm always saying anyway, and I always figure people will take it or leave it. But if you read interviews with 70s musicians, many of them cite the Stooges/Dolls as inspirations. You know, now, in retrospect. It's like they said about the Velvet Underground, hardly anyone bought the record, but everyone who did buy it started a band. I really think you could say that about the Dolls and the Stooges as well.
And I certainly could have gone into where Bowie picked up his later influences too, but I picked the Dolls because they're more up my alley. And it's more of a general point about the guy than finger pointing about the Dolls in particular. I also could have talked more about the Bowie/Iggy relationship, because it was very interesting, as far as how they wrote and recorded songs.
how the fuck did I have the guts to buy a magazine like this?
That's funny, because it's true. I think the cover of the first Dolls album killed it, because too many kids who would have liked to buy it didn't, because they didn't want to answer all the questions bringing that thing home would have caused.
