Customer Reviews

Red Patent Leather: Live in NYC 1975

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Since there was no official 3rd Dolls album this is the next best thing, as the first 7 songs were intended for the 3rd release, and this is the only known recording of them. The sound quality is'nt THAT bad, by bootleg standards anyway, and is certainly listenable. The rest of tracks are useless as better versions exist elsewhere, but definately worth getting for the first 7. The awesome cover photo alone is almost worth the price! Casual listeners be warned though, this one's for fans only.

I would dearly love to recommend this album, having searched for it for ages as a kid--on vinyl, yet--but having obtained the CD version, I have to warn all Dolls fans the world over not to be terribly impressed with this one.

The performance sounds worthy--ditto for the new tracks--but the sound quality is atrocious. Usually I can take a spotty recording, especially depending on who the artist is. But posterity notwithstanding, even the five songs they recorded on Don Kirschner's 'Rock Concert' (Stranded..., Trash, Chatterbox, Don't Start Me Talkin', Personality Crisis) would have been better than this one.

Listening to this disk will make any Dolls fan frustrated! This is the only known recording of several songs that would've made up the 3rd Dolls album (and did show up later on their solo LPs). The new songs are all awesome--but you cannot hear Johnny Thunders at all (this is a soundboard tape done in a small club, which means the vocals, drums and Syl's keyboards dominate the mix--the guitars blasted out thru the amps, meaning not on the recording). Yet another reason to hate Heroin, as Johnny and Jerry both walked out because they were being deprived of it while on tour before the band could record these gems. (Gawd, and I taught English at the very company that invented it, a hundred years after the fact, back in 1898... a year after they invented aspirin)(!))

The sound quality is lacking but the spirit of the music is fantastic rock and roll. If you can put up with Husker Du's "Land Speed Record," this should be a breeze. Sloppy but magnificent.

It's the New York Dolls Live, what vcan I say. you're probably dead bored of hearing about the sound quality but it clears up a bit on Something Else. The only problems throughout the record his the guitars are buried by the rest of the band and everytime they do a "doo-doo dodoo" it's fuzzy louder than everything else.
Closest we'll ever get to a third album. i definately recommend this.

Hey a bit o trivia I think it was around '00/'01 when a record company offered Sylvain Sylvain 1 million dollars to do a New York Dolls reunion, his reply was "Hey I agreed to do one back in '84. The only one who won't do it is David."

If you like the Dolls, you have to buy this one. This is the last performance ever recorded by the New York Dollsback in 75' when they broke up. The sound is a little funky, but it's an awesome concert.