Rock N Roll [Import]

New York Dolls | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 18, 1994)
• Original Release Date: October 18, 1994
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Ume Imports
• ASIN: B000001E4F
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #127,990 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Courageous Cat Theme

2. Trash

3. Personality Crisis

4. Babylon

5. Looking For A Kiss

6. Lone Star Queen

7. Vietnamese Baby

8. Lonely Planet Boy

9. Frankenstein

10. Private World

11. Chatterbox

12. Bad Girl

13. Don't Mess With Cupid

14. Subway Train

15. Who Are The Mystery Girls?

16. Stranded In The Jungle

17. It's Too Late

18. Puss ' N' Boots

19. Jet Boy

20. Human Being

See all 21 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great unreleased tracks, but a middling compilation, September 19, 2003

By 

Philip P. Obbard "pobbard" (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rock N Roll (Audio CD)

For a band with only two studio albums, the only reason to buy a compilation like this is for otherwise-unavailable material. Fittingly, when this compilation was first announced, it was supposed to have five previously unreleased tracks. But when ROCK & ROLL finally appeared that number had been whittled down to three. It's a shame, because all of the bonus tracks are good, particularly "Lone Star Queen", which is arguably as great as anything else the Dolls ever wrote or recorded.

(Still missing-in-action is the outtake of "Great Big Kiss" recorded during the TOO MUCH TOO SOON sessions that appeared on the 1985 compilation NIGHT OF THE LIVING DOLLS, which has never re-appeared anywhere since).

The bonus tracks are really the only thing this compilation has going for it (and a slightly longer version of "Stranded in the Jungle", with a few extra bars added at the very beginning, something not noted in the liner notes). The two Dolls studio albums were produced *very* differently, with the debut having a dense, murky mix and TOO MUCH TOO SOON having a bright, treble-y mix. This seemed to stump the compilers of ROCK & ROLL, who barely make any effort to mix up tracks from the two albums. Instead, they essentially took both records, dropped almost all of the cover material, and put them on a single CD in a running order almost identical to the original LPs with a few bonus tracks thrown in. First, uniformly dropping the covers really does an injustice to the Dolls ability to "own" a cover, with "Pills" probably being the best example - a track who performance is superior to many of the Dolls' own compositions. Second, if this compilation is basically just 80% of each studio album, for the average fan it makes more sense to simply buy both original albums on CD, especially as they tend to be priced at "budget" prices. A Dolls collection without "Pills", "Showdown", or "Bad Detective" definitely isn't complete, while only serious fans probably need the bonus material found here.

If the compilers of ROCK & ROLL had really wanted to dedicate a compilation to the Dolls, they would have been better off with a two CD set that included remastered versions of both original studio albums with any bonus material appended to the end of each disc. That's something I could give 5 stars to.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Urban Squawkers Amongst the Squalor, April 12, 2001

By 

David L. Mccabe "[e-mail]" (El Cerrito, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rock N Roll (Audio CD)

This album is both an excellent introduction and retrospective, since they only had two actual albums, from this noisy, garish quintet of smart-alecks. There is the added bonus of some previously unreleased cuts. I'm a huge fan, so I had to have all three. Emerging from the glittery Manhattan sixties hangover, they were the court jesters of the sleaziest sections of N.Y.C. Their fashion faux pas went into some uncharted territory beyond transvestitism and looked as if they shopped in the most disreputable thrift stores. They accesorized with hand bags, glad rags, and trash bags. Apart from this, and a large part of their appeal over many later punk/metal outfits, was that they were bi-: half contemptuous sneer, half goofy smirk. They immediately became a love `em or hate `em band and managed to simultaneously win both "Best New Band of the Year", and "Worst New Band of the Year" in Creem Magazine's Reader Poll. Some denigrated them as a grotesque garage band parody of the Rolling Stones, but if the originals were more and more becoming boring professional millionaires, well than why not? Supposedly they weren't musicians, couldn't play, but if they lacked a certain, shall we say finesse, they made up for it tenfold in brute power, raw exuberance, and unbridled passion, which many at the time were forgetting that's what rock `n' roll is all about. Guitarist Johnny Thunders high speed whiplash playing may have slid past the notes and chords, but he landed in the general vicinity, so why quibble? Besides there was always so much distortion, who could ever tell anyway? (Thunders later went on to a successful career as a professional corpse imitator). Other guitarist Sylvain Sylvain provided both bridge and anchor to the rhythm section for Thunder's thunder. Meanwhile, guy with the microphone, David Johansen, snarled, yelled, bitched, and generally preened and posed. Beneath all the bluster and blurry noise, they were true to their roots and influences: sixties soul "Don't Mess With Cupid", kitsch, the Cadet's "Stranded In The Jungle", and great girl group harmonies in "Trash" (well sorta' harmonies. General vicinity, general vicinity). Oh yeah, and cartoons, "Courageous Cat Theme". The Dolls made (endless) party music for the latter 20th Century's accelerated, fractured, and fragmented world. In "Frankenstein" they tell you how they know they're bits and pieces thrown together from the cultural trash heap, and they're none to pleased about it: "Oww, these shoes are too big! Oww, this jacket's too small!" In their classic "Personality Crisis" they are even sympathetic. Play it for your best burned out neurotic friends, it will cheer `em up. But what of this bizarre sartorial statement, what really was their sexual orientation? "I'm trisexual, I'll try anything", quipped Johansen. Naw, beneath all the mascara and pancake, they were just your average horny males, out on the prowl, "Looking For A Kiss" as the song stated, or perhaps a "Bad Girl". After all there was nothing else to do. In the end ("Human Being"), both the last song on this album and the last song of their second album, they justify their outlandish obstreperous behavior. They may all have looked like Frankenstein's monster, but if they were acting like kings, or wanted too many things, they knew they had to dream, and if it got a bit obscene ("whoopee!"), it's just `cause they were human beings.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars AN INCREDIBLE INTRODUCTION TO AN INCREDIBLE BAND!!!!!, July 6, 1998

By 

[e-mail] or Phillip Kaufman (Oklahoma) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rock N Roll (Audio CD)

Now every fan knows that the best way to expieriance the Dolls music is through their two ( and only two) studio albums. Yet, for an introduction to the band, this album works. Seventeen tracks off those two records are included on this baby, along with three previously unreleased songs (which are terrific). The unreleased material and digitally remastered sound make it a must for all of the fans. And since it features most of the stellar work of the first two albums, it's a great jumping on point. There really aren't any standout songs as they are all eclectic and great in their own way. Buy it now!!!! It'll take you back to when music was actually good.