SOMETHING MUST HAVE HAPPENED OVER MANHATTAN

On the eve of the release of a new New York Dolls album, we are left to ponder the fate of a name...

Which is appropriate, because if the Dolls were “about” anything, it was identity: losing it, finding it, and holding onto it.

By 1975, the Dolls name was industrial-strength commercial poison.

So David Johansen’s first solo album sported a look-at-me-I’m-a-regular-guy-no-fishnets-and-mascara-here-no-siree-bob cover and a bunch of look-at-me-I’m-a-regular-guy-no-fishnets-and-mascara-here-no-siree-bob tunes.

The best of those tunes were the ones written by Johansen/Sylvain.

And here we sit in 2006— with Nolan, Kane, and Thunders having gone to that great plastic bordello in the sky— awaiting an album full of new Johansen/Sylvain songs.

A New York Dolls’ album.

It is a New York Dolls’ album because the Dolls name has evolved into a viable brand: The epitome of scuzzy cool, but with the real scuzz scrubbed away.

Much like New York, New York itself, I guess.

So tomorrow, I’ll pop on my CBGB t-shirt (available in a wide variety of colors and styles), and hit the local Best Buy for my copy of One Day it Will Please Us to Remember Even This.

I’ll get back to you on that title...