Born on January 9: David Johansen, the New York Dolls singer, has passed away in 2025

The whimsical lead singer of the turbulent band founded in New York (of course) in the early 70s, David Johansen has just closed the final chapter of a legendary band that owed as much to glam rock as it did to punk. 

Guitarist Johny Thunders, plagued by addictions, was the first to retire in 1991 before the age of 40. He's also notably the author of ‘Born To Lose’, which sounds very much like him. The discreet bassist Arthur Kane bowed out in 2004 without being noticed. Sylvain Sylvain ascended to heaven in January 2021 and mostly played keyboards and rhythm guitar.

Often at odds with Thunders, and a proud citizen of the Big Apple where he was born in 1950, David Johansen is undoubtedly the Dolls' figurehead, even if the alchemy created with his bandmates - no doubt the only one - enabled them to concoct just two albums that carried all the rage of punk in one. ‘New York Dolls’ (1973) and “Too Much Too Soon” (1974) are still true grenades that shouldn't be slipped into every eardrum.

And yet, some of the more soothing tracks, such as ‘Lonely Planet Boy’ from 1973, already hinted at the cabaret jazz direction Johanson took in 1987 under the pseudonym Buster Pointdexter. Of course, like many artists of his generation, David Johansen couldn't resist rekindling the Dolls' flame several times in 2004, accompanied by Sylvain Sylvain.

David Johansen has also played a host of small roles in the cinema, notably in Sofia Coppola's musical film ‘A Very Murray Christmas’ (2015) as a bartender alongside George Clooney, Miley Cyrus and, of course, David Murray in his own role. The documentary ‘Personal Crisis: One Night Only’ (2023) directed by Martin Scorsese is seen today as the most beautiful of epitaphs.

Stricken with a brain tumour, he died on 28 February at his home on Staten Island, opposite Manhattan. He was 75 years old...

(Stéphane Soupart - Tr.: MH - Photo: © Etienne Tordoir)
Photo: David Johansen on stage at the Werchter Festival on 8 July 1984