Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis.

The stories about the New York dolls are insane.

They came to life when their hometown of New York City was coming apart, the seams,

in the midst of rising murder, rape, and burglary rates. The dolls dressed like women,

fucked with men, and made the antics of the Rolling Stones look like innocent schoolboy

shenanigans. Their drummer drowned, their bassist was nearly murdered. Their guitar players despised their singer, and the only thing that their singer loved more

than Archie Bell was himself.

This, of course, was all part of the act, the self-destruction, the violence, the intra-band, squabbling,

but it was, of course, also a part of the band's reality.

A reality that in early 70s New York, in that

weird moment between downtown avant-garde music and the coming punk explosion, between the

velvets and the Ramones, a transitional New York city reality that the New York dolls embodied.

There were a band that at the time, just like the city they were from, seemed born to

lose. There were also a band that made great music. Unlike that music I played for you at the top of the

show, that wasn't great music. That was a preset loop from my Melotron called Kansas City

Flapjack, MK2. I played you that loop because I can't afford the rights to

Family Affair by Sly and the Family Stone. And why would I play you that specific slice of

thicker than the mud funk could I afford it? Because that was the number one song in America

on Christmas Eve, 1971, and that was the day one song in America on Christmas Eve, 1971.

And that was the day the New York Dolls played their first show and forever changed the trajectory of rock and roll.

On this episode, Lipstick Killers, a city in transition in the New York Dolls.

I'm Jake Brennan, and this is Disgraceland. The Bandito lived a life that was envied, separate and apart from the daily life of his fellow

...