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Clothes Make the Band
New photo books on early punks say at least a thousand words Two of the year's most enticing photo books tackle rock pioneers as their subjects. In a strange, coincidental twist, both have bright pink covers. New York Dolls (Abrams Image) collects photographer Bob Gruen's portraits, live shots, and..
12.04.08
New photo books on early punks say at least a thousand words
Two of the year's most enticing photo books tackle rock pioneers as their subjects. In a strange, coincidental twist, both have bright pink covers.New York Dolls (Abrams Image) collects photographer Bob Gruen's portraits, live shots, and publicity stills of the mid-'70s pre-punk pacesetters; The Clash (Grand Central), on the other hand, is an oral history- accompanied by a scrumptious array of visuals--of the most widely beloved of the early British punks. The commonality between the books is that their subjects believed that the being in a band was about making spectacles of themselves. (Maybe that's where the hot pink comes in.) Even if the Dolls and the Clash had not influenced countless acts, they'd have made rock history for their fashion sense alone.Thanks to the notorious cross-dressing photo on their 1973 debut's cover (pictured left), the Dolls were infamous before anyone outside New York had heard a note of their music. The shot was misleading, but not by much: The band only played one show, at the drag spot Club 82, while dressed entirely in women's clothes. Flip through New York Dolls and you'll see all manner of gender-line-crossing attire. There's hulking, six-foot bassist Arthur Kane in gold-lamé tube top and hot pants; lead singer David Johansen in a nylon see-through blouse; lead guitarist Johnny Thunders rocking a black feather boa where a shirt should be; and a group shot of them wearing heels so chunky, they make Fluevogs look like matchsticks. Even a spread of the band dressed in '30s pinstripe gangster regalia looks like a parody of masculinity, thanks to Johansen's painted-on mustache and Kane's sloppy, three-shades-too-dark lips sourly puckering a cigarette.The Malcolm McLaren/Vivienne Westwood red patent leather outfits the group wore onstage in 1975 (while McLaren managed them) were relatively dowdy when compared to the Doll's found-clothing style. The band's genius for the spectacularly thrown-together was key to its appearance and its sound as well. The Dolls' name came from the New York Doll Factory, a toy repair shop; it is appropriate for a band whose music and look both could have come from the Island of Misfit Toys.