2021 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Nominees POLL

Devo definitely feels more modern than the Dolls in many ways and their early herky jerky stuff echoes throughout U.S. underground rock to this day

I know of the New York Dolls by reputation, but I couldn't tell you any of their songs.

I really love the Dolls but I remember hearing them at first and being really disappointed, I thought they were supposed to be this wild punk band and it kinda sounded like...Aerosmith if they couldn't play for shit?

their appeal is very subtle, but now i love them

I was really too young to understand the historical context of either of these bands. I do remember Devo's "Whip It" fitting seamlessly into a radio landscape of other catchy New Wave pop-rock like "Centerfold", "Another One Bites the Dust", "Super Freak", "Funkytown", and "Don't Put Another Dime in the Jukebox" in the early '80s though.

the band that formed after dodging bullets at the kent state massacre not exactly lacking for 'historical context'?

I meant musically, of course.

I thought they were supposed to be this wild punk band and it kinda sounded like...Aerosmith if they couldn't play for shit?

Exactly, plus Steven Tyler was a better lyricist.

Maybe there's also the feeling, after both the Sex Pistols and Poison have been throughly digested, that the Dolls' time of influence has come and gone? Whereas Devo still stand as a unique phenomenon?

the Hardcore Devo comps of the early stuff I think changed the band's profile

I also wonder if the Dolls reunion albums and shows, which were at least politely received at the time, took some of the mythical aura away.

I think there's probably some truth to that.

Buster Poindexter didn't help, either.

definitely did not

I'm not a Buster fan, but I think, in a way, the distance of that act from the Dolls underscored the myth - like Johansen had to devise a complete different persona in the 80s because there was no point in trying to redo what the band had done.

His solo work (post-Dolls / pre-Buster) holds a reasonably fond place in my memory. Let's Just Dance etc. Drunk oldies covers.

i strive to forget buster poindexter, but its funny how it seemed like a distancing act at the time (at least to me), but in hindsight it makes sense as a progression of the dolls idea, certain aspects of the dolls taken to the next logical extreme

Taking Sides: Buster Poindexter vs the Swiffer

I kind of like "Everything is Awesome" but at least it doesn't seem to have hurt Devo's image.

I don't understand the animus toward the whole Buster Poindexter thing. The first two albums are perfectly fine, amusing Louis Prima-esque schtick. The songs are decent and reasonably uncommon; he's not singing things you've heard a million times before, and he had a good band full of NYC session pros.

I thought "Hot Hot Hot" was decently catchy and amusing when I heard it. It would be many years later till I found out he had been in some band called the NY Dolls.

it's not animus for Buster Poindexter, but if you're looking for things that made it harder for the NY Dolls to maintain their reputation and importance in subsequent generations of rock nerds, that's part of it

Buster Poindexter was part of the Dolls, too, especially a couple of the covers on the second album, and honestly, I didn't much care for it then, either.

the beginning of the Hot, Hot, Hot video is this weird moment where an out of character "Poindexter" explains he used to be in the New York Dolls and this is his new act or some ish

here’s where I interrupt the proceedings for a PA by a Calypso and Soca Hall of Fame inductee:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkGgdIBX1to

I had forgotten all about the intro to the Poindexter video. It is kind of strange.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhZba-P7R18

Watching that led me to this Tonight Show clip, which is something:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EalIXbQsLCA

I enjoyed both the Hot Hot intro and the Carson clip.

There was a sketch on the comedy show Bizarre with the same extended joke, although I don't think Goulet was the punchline. I assume they're both borrowing some old vaudeville routine.

the song was so annoyingly ubiquitous that every fuckin thing was working in "Hot Hot Hot".

one day I went to uhh, I think Disney MGM Studios with my folks and all of the Toons were putting on a musical show, and then they FUCKING START PERFORMING "HOT HOT HOT". Roger Rabbit singing lead, it was annoying.

It was either that or "Vietnamese Baby".

I know that Johansen is out promoting something, and that that's what you do, but I wonder if he really believes himself when he brushes away his old group in the Carson interview and says he's doing something "a bit more mature" now--did he think he'd be remembered for Buster Poindexter? I also wonder if he was the only guest who ever called Carson "John."

He is joking, as the Hot Hot Hot version of the schtick makes clear. The character is named Buster Poindexter!

(I'm sure he was sincere about wanting to perform standards and dance hits at that period in his life, but he clearly didn't think that "Buster Poindexter" was a serious artiste who was going to create a standing legacy in world history.)

there was a whole lot of buster in the dolls, tbh. ref. showdown, great big kiss, stranded in the jungle, don't start me talkin', etc. etc.

just occurred to me he was probably best known in the larger culture as the cabbie from Scrooged

I know him as Looney from Let It Ride (thanks Comedy Central)

He is joking, as the Hot Hot Hot version of the schtick makes clear.

Wouldn't count on that at all. Artists kid themselves all the time when it comes to concepts like maturity and artistic growth.

i'm sure i've seen johansen more than any other performer. (i'm not proud.) he is at his best when he is first working out his concepts. those early buster shows at tramps were a hoot. i caught a couple of "dollettes" shows (him + syl + staten island cronies) that were post-dolls and pre-solo album, and they were great too. you never knew what you were going to hear next. i did see the real dolls once in their very waning red patent leather days. that show has a special place in my heart but i sure wish i had seen them earlier.

he discusses Scrooged in the Carson clip, in the context of Buster Poindexter being this persona / project and using his real name for other work

Wouldn't count on that at all. Artists kid themselves all the time when it comes to concepts like maturity and artistic growth.

"Some of the older kids might remember I used to make loud, raucous music fifteen years ago, but now I want to do something refined and dignified, so soft and sweet, that you might sip wine by the fireplace while listening. Here, I'll show you: *puts face in camera and screams 'YESSS-aaaahhhh, HA HA HAHHAHHAHAHAGH!!'*"

I'm pretty sure he knew what he was doing.

I'm rarely sure of anything; I know you usually are.

I don't think that him understanding the camp/commercial appeal of Buster Poindexter and also feeling he'd outgrown the New York Dolls part of his life are mutually exclusive.

I'm sure he was sincere about wanting to perform standards and dance hits at that period in his life

:)

But, you know, he was covering Big Fat Mamas Are Back in Style and Who Drank My Beer (While I Was in the Rear)?, not Moon River.

those early buster shows at tramps were a hoot

yes! the schtick was good until he leaned so far into it that the schtick basically swallowed him.

The longer you stare into the abyss...

the longer the abyss gets HOT HOT HOT!

Man, motherfuck Todd Rundgren. Devo, Fela Kuti and Iron Maiden all locked out but that cocksucker gets in?

Well they have to make sure that all of the 70s classic rock dudes get in, even the third tier ones.

I wish they'd just stop nominating Chaka at this point. It's just getting cruel.

I misread and thought the Dolls had gotten in and was going to say Little Richard was turning over in his... SHUT UP!

man that Buster Poindexter clip on Carson is a hoot ("tout suite").

TWO GERMS IN THE HALL!

It's a shame Fela didn't get in, but I'm not terribly surprised. Foo Fighters was a band custom built to appeal to RRHOF voters, so that's no surprise.