Rock ‘N’ Roll Is The New York Dolls: New York Dolls for Live At The Fillmore East (Thanks Again Morrissey)

This is rock ‘n’ roll: Skinny boys who smoke smack and confidently flip their long hair back like conceited prom queens. It's beer cans crumbled like pieces of paper. It’s sneaking out of your parents' second-story window to go to a show, the show, probably the most important show of your life. (And if it’s not, then fuck it, at least you got drunk and/or laid).

Rock ‘n’ roll is a band like The New York Dolls, who played their very first show on Christmas Eve 1971 at a homeless shelter, who listened to The Rolling Stones, MC5, and The Stooges in the same way Kiss, Blondie, and The Smiths listened to them. Without The New York Dolls, rock record buffs would be missing essential building blocks in their collection: Too Much Too Soon, Seven Day Weekend, and New York Dolls are albums as important as Whiskey Sours and unfiltered cigarettes to every new generation of smut.

The New York Dolls' first break came when Rod Stewart invited them to fill the opening slot in London, but their second break is all because of Morrissey. In 2004, Morrissey organized his heroes to reunite for the Meltdown Festival, which gave way to both an album and DVD on Morrissey’s Attack label. So thank Morrissey for giving us a second chance to catch all the glory.

Which leads me up to the new news: On June 17, The New York Dolls are releasing Live At The Fillmore East, a new live album recorded last December, via Sony BMG. It's supposedly cleaner than any live document released before, but it still sounds like how we prefer them: raw.

Live At The Fillmore East tracklist

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