It's fair to say that
I, Doll: Life & Death with the New York Dolls
would probably not have been published had the New York Dolls not returned so triumphantly in 2004. The subsequent, and sudden, passing of its author, one Arthur 'Killer' Kane and the release of the excellent
New York Doll
documentary have further increased the undeniable goodwill that has been extended to the luckless bassist.
Arthur Kane was working on what is believed to have been a series of memoirs, of which
I, Doll is the first (and will now remain the only) installment. Covering the 18 months from forming the New York Dolls, Arthur charts the band's early rise to prominence on the New York scene centred around Max's Kansas City as the band take an 'all-for-one-and-one-for-all' approach to mere survival, through to their disastrous UK tour, where the camaderie starts to erode and inner factions develop, and ultimately culminating in the death of Billy Murcia. Arthur clearly carries some guilt over Billy's death, noting that if they'd been back in NYC he would never have been left alone like that. The second half of the book sees Barbara Kane take on Arthur's story to its conclusion in 2004.
The book is written in a truly Arthur-esque way (if you've seen
New York Doll then you will have no trouble imagining Arthur speaking what's on the page), comparable in that respect to Julian Cope's
Head On/Repossessed
and Tommy Lee's contributions in
The Dirt
. Unlikely to win any literary awards, it's refreshing that, bar a number of corrections by the editor at the end of the book (itself not exhaustive), the publishers appear to have remained faithful to the manuscript.
Any casual fan reading this book would be left thinking that Johnny Thunders was the band's singer right up until the early Mercer Street Arts Center shows. Such is Arthur's disdain for David Johansen he doesn't even mention when he joined the band and it's only on page 60 when Arthur refers to their 'singer' (and a couple more pages before he's mentioned by name). Johansen though gets off lightly compared to the Leber/Krebs management team, but the three of them are very much held responsible for the failure of the Dolls and Arthur's subsequent descent into a life of a struggling musician, as detailed in wife Barbara's section of the book that picks up where Arthur's writing ended.
As in the
New York Doll documentary, Barbara Kane's tale revolves on her 'unique' life as a 'rock star's wife without any money' and reveals that within the genteel man that most would have seen Arthur had a temper that would come to the fore when drunk. This was seemingly also driven at least in part by his refusal to accept that the Dolls were over completely, coupled with his frustration at seeing nemesis David Johansen carve out a career in both music and film. Indeed Arthur lays claim to the stage name Buster Poindexter, and quotes that Johansen's own ex-wife has observed that the 'singer' took various ideas and lyrics from Arthur and passed them off as his own.
On balance, a good book which although lacking somewhat in detail (his later devotion to the Church Of The Latter Day Saints may have contributed a reluctance to go into some of the more seedier details) the afore-mentioned goodwill and a dearth of other available texts makes this a must-read.
Older posts:
New York Dolls - Royal Festival Hall 18/06/04 Nina Antonia - The New York Dolls: Too Much Too SoonJohnny Thunders - So Alone The New York Dolls - Cause I Sez So Motorcycle Boy - Popsicle
in 1996. I only recently picked it up and read it in two installments either side of Arthur Kane's I, Doll. Funnily enough the New York apartment that the book's lead character, Billy Mud, lives (or rather exists) in bears a certain resemblence to one of Kane's former hovels, described as it is with a bath tub in the middle of the kitchen. Whether Hell visited Kane there, or whether such a set up is commonplace in such a prime location, I couldn't say.
