David Johansen is one of the all-time front men in music and an artist who keeps changing the game – not by degrees but by solar systems. In the 1980s, he had everyone feeling “Hot, Hot, Hot” as Buster Poindexter. Then he showed up as the taxi-driving Ghost of Christmas Past in the Bill Murray film Scrooged. Before all this, he was the glammed-up lead singer of The New York Dolls, the mythic rock band of the downtown NYC scene of the 1970s. Hard rock, punk rock, glam rock, heavy metal – the Dolls sit atop a lot of family trees. To this day, whatever room he walks into, from loft spaces to the swanky Café Carlyle, David Johansen owns it.

In part one of this epic two-part interview, David talks with host Kevin Burke about coming of age on Staten Island in the 1950s and ’60s, a kid riding bikes, buying and listening to records, going to Catholic School, joining a band, and graduating from high school at the height of the Vietnam War. How did he get from the house his grandfather built on the North Shore to the pulsating East Village at the dawn of an era he’d help define? This is the origin story of a true original.

Your Hometown is a show where the local is the epic. Visit yourhometown.org to subscribe to the podcast and our various social media channels.

Our co-presenter this season is the Museum of the City of New York. For more, including information on live events, check out our NYC series page at mcny.org/yourhometown-podcast.

Show Notes

Archival

All In The Family Opening Theme (1971)

“Horn Battle in New York - Carnival Miracle vs Harbor Tug” from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeAJbDSITAk

“Traditional Latin Catholic Mass Easter Sunday” from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6AOvStZS64

Clip from The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (1961) from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5yvMExqKNA

“Why Can’t a Woman Be More Like a Man?” From my Fair Lady (1964)

Murray the K at the Brooklyn Fox from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHu9Y0zI0t0

Bob Dylan, talking on the radio, 1966, 26th January, 1966 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VG1pITY_m8E

Music:

Buster Poindexter - Hot Hot Hot (1987)

New York Dolls - Jet Boy (1973)

David Johansen- Heart of Gold (1987)

David Johansen - Animals Medley (live) (1982) from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Zc-DQiI8tA

Enrique Caruso - Vesti La Giuba, Pagliacci (1907)

David Johansen - Big City (1979)

David Johansen And The Harry Smiths - Well, I’ve Been to Memphis (2000)

Howlin’ Wolf - Tail Dragger (1969)

Robert Preston - “Ya Got Trouble” from the Music Man Soundtrack (1962)

The Platters - The Great Pretender (1960)

Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels - Sock it to Me, Baby (1967)

The Fantastic Johnny C - Boogaloo Down Broadway (1967)

Wilson Pickett - In The Midnight Hour (1965)

New York Dolls - Personality Crisis (1973)

Janis Joplin - Bye Bye Baby (1967)

New York Dolls - Lonely Planet Boy (1973)

Illustration

Nick Gregg