Customer Reviews

Trash! The Complete New York Dolls

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

 

 

Nina Antonia's book on Johnny Thunders is excellent, she had first hand access to him, he recognized her as his only biographer. Anyone who has to put her book down to recommend another one makes this book - Trash - seem highly suspect to me by association. You do no honor to the excellent memory of Arthur Kane either. No one took the time to write biographies of Johnny or the Dolls for years but Antonia, and your remarks are catty and embarrassing.

Nevertheless, this book is recommended by all fans also with the warning that it contains inaccuracies, and lacks the emotion and affection for its subject that Nina Antonia's books have.

This is a dense and thorough yet very readable history of the group. It is more substatial than Nina Antonia's also excellent book "Too Much Too Soon." If you have the time and the desire to learn about the history of the NYD, "Trash" is probably the better choice.

Of course, why should any of us care about the history of the New York Dolls? My answer to this retorical question has to do with my "adult" 46 year old recognition that New York was a fascinating place to be growing up in in the 1970s. Reading either of these histories will almost bring you back to the days when Times Square was not a safe place to visit and there was no sense that anything was going to get better. While risking a knifing to walk from the subway to CBGBs at Bleeker and Bowery had it's downside, remembering the Dolls and the other bands that defined the New York Scene in the 1970s gives me a warm feeling inside. Enjoy the book.

For anyone who has read Nina Antonia's bios on The New York Dolls and Johnny Thunders, and felt there was alot MISSING, do yourself a favour and pick up this book;you WON'T be disappointed. The author has really done his homework here, and the result is a far more balanced, authoritative and ACCURATE history of the band.

Unlike previous bios I'd read, this one goes to a more COMPREHENSIVE array of RELIABLE sources, a primary ingredient sorely lacking in previous bios I'd read on the band. One of the BEST sources it taps into-which other bios almost completely IGNORE-is RICK RIVETS. As one of the band's original founders(the other being my late friend Arthur "Killer" Kane)it has always mystified me as to why other writers did not attempt to draw more deeply from RICK'S vast and wholly reliable source of info on this band. As a friend of both Arthur's and Rick's, I can assure you that without THEIR FULL stories you will(at best)get an ABRIDGED version of this important band's history.

This "abridged" effect can be seen in all it's "glory" in Antonia's much lauded book. For folks who actually KNOW any of the principal characters, this is very discouraging(at it's best)to DAMN AGGRAVATING(at it's worse)! The discrepancies in HER bio on the band are indeed so RIFE that one hardly knows where to START(everything from Arthur's ethnic heritage, personality interplays between band members, the REAL reason Rivets left the band, etc.).

In sharp contrast, THIS bio comes the closest to telling it like it REALLY was. It DOES NOT smack of a half-effort written by a FAN, but rather by a keen-eyed journalist who has spared no effort to go to every available source that is TRULY reliable, leaving no stone unturned to get at the heart of a fascinating story that-until now-was only HALF told.

On a scale of 1 to 5 stars, I give this a resounding FIVE!

EXCELLENT investigative journalism. Well done, Kris!

Great overview and accurate account of this great band. Highly recommended for the Dolls fanatic or novice. Greg Prevost/Outasite

This book provides a good overall account of the story of The Dolls. Post Dolls-wise, there is more of an emphasis on Johnny Thunders later career than the other members, although their exploits are covered as well. My only complaint is that it did not have pre-Dolls photos. Reading about their pre-Dolls exploits made me wonder how they looked like during their mod-teenage years. Some early childhood photos would have been interesting as well. Otherwise, you can't go wrong with this account if you have never previously read a book about this legendary band.

This book isn't terrible, and reads ok, but it is littered with factual errors and opinionated vernacular from the authors. It isn't really an improvement over the Nina Antonia books. While those may be viewed as amateurish, they make up for it with spirit and as another reviewer adeptly points out: actual first hand information. (and better pics)

"Trash!" is also very anglo-centric, and as a result I feel lacks an appropriate social context. This affects the Antonia books a bit as well. For 10 minutes or so, the Dolls WERE New York City. Can't a New York writer tackle this subject? In the same way Jon Savage was able to present the context of London and the Pistols in "England's Dreaming"?

If you are a fan, but this book and read it; you probably won't be disappointed. I just feel the Dolls impact and legacy deserve a more serious treatment.

Exclusive interviews with the New York Dolls accompanies a saga of a flamboyant group which set the agenda and sound of 1970s rock. Their gender-bending quintet changed the rock world, fostered punk, and flaunted outrageous extremes. Interviews with the New York Dolls are accompanied by firsthand reminiscences by guitarists and those who knew them well.

Diane C. Donovan

California Bookwatch

BY FAR THE BEST BOOK ON SYLVAIN SYLVAIN AND CREW.A GREAT LOOK UP THE DRESS OF THE DOLLS.