David Johansen dies, the last survivor of the New York Dolls and Voice of Glam and the Protopunk

Johansen died on Friday at age 75 at his home in New York, he reports Rolling Stone citing a family spokesman. The New York Dolls were the precursors of the punk and their style – troubled, women’s clothing and a lot of makeup – inspired the movement glam which was installed in Heavy Metal a decade later in groups such as Faster Pussycat and Mötley Crue.

“When you are an artist, the main thing you want to do is inspire people, so if you get it, it is very rewarding,” Johansen said The Knoxville News-Sentinel In 2011. The magazine Rolling Stone He called the Dolls in his day “The mutant girls of the era of hydrogen” y Vogue He described them as “spoiled girls in the style of the city center, rude arranged with boas and heels.”

“The New York Dolls were more than musicians: they were a phenomenon. They were inspired by the old rock and roll, the blues of the big cities, the melodies of the shows, the Rolling Stones and the groups of girls, and that was only the beginning, “Bill Bentley wrote in the book Smithsonian Rock and Roll: Live and Unseen.

The group never reached commercial success and was torn by internal struggles and drug addictions, so it dissolved after two albums. In 2004, Morrisseyformer leader of the Smiths and admirer of the Dolls, convinced Johansen and the other surviving members to regroup at the Meltdown Festival of England, which gave rise to three more study albums.

Johansen also appeared in films such as Candy Mountain, Let It Ride y Married to the Mob And he had a memorable role in Bill Murray’s movie Ghosts attack the boss.