David Johansen, the singer, songwriter, and frontman of the legendary glam punk band the New York Dolls, is dead at 75. Last month, Johansen revealed that he was suffering from Stage 4 cancer, a brain tumor, and a broken back. He died at his home in Staten Island.
David Roger Johansen was born on Jan. 9, 1950, on Staten Island. After graduating high school, Johansen was entranced by the New York City music and art scenes, from Andy Warhol’s Factory to the nightclub Max’s Kansas City and Charles Ludlam’s Ridiculous Theater Company. Ludlam’s Company was especially impactful as a young Johansen did lights and appeared as an occasional extra in performances. Perhaps most importantly, it taught him how to make a spectacle, skills he perfected when he joined the New York Dolls. The band—Johansen, Arthur Kane, the drummer Billy Murcia and the guitarists Johnny Thunders and Sylvain Sylvain—were known for their flamboyant performances, in which they typically dressed in women’s clothing.
The band was beset by tragedy before even releasing a record. Murcia overdosed and drowned in 1972; he was replaced by Jerry Nolan and the group signed with Mercury Records. In 1973, they released an eponymous debut, produced by Todd Rundgren. Creem Magazine dubbed them both the best new band and the worst band. Their next album, Too Much Too Soon was produced by Shadow Morton, known for his work with the girl group the Shangri-Las.
The Sex Pistols’ manager Malcolm McLaren briefly managed the band. They broke up in 1975, although Johansen and Sylvain continued to perform with replacements for another year. Mercury soon dropped the band.
Johansen went on to release several solo albums from the late 1970s to the early 1980s. In the late ’80s, he adopted the tuxedo-clad persona Buster Poindexter, who played blues and R&B party songs. His cover of “Hot Hot Hot,” originally recorded by the soca musician Arrow, was a minor hit, peaking at No. 45 in 1987.
He then formed a new group, David Johansen and the Harry Smiths, who released albums in 2000 and 2002, composed of songs from Harry Smith’s 1952 Anthology of American Folk Music.
Johansen also acted in movies and television, appearing in the 1988 movie Scrooged and HBO’s Oz, among others.
The surviving New York Dolls—Johansen, Sylvain, and Kane—reunited for a pair of shows in 2004. Kane died several weeks later. Johansen and Sylvain recorded three more New York Dolls albums: 2006’s One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This, the Todd Rundgren-produced Cause I Sez So, and 2011’s Dancing Backward in High Heels. Sylvain died in 2021.
In 2023, Johansen was the subject of a documentary directed byMartin Scorsese and David Tedeschi titled Personality Crisis: One Night Only. The film focused on a Buster Poindexter performance at the Café Carlyle in New York.
