Search - New York Dolls :: 'Cause I Sez So

Still the Greatest

Daniel S. Hooley | Durham, N.C. | 05/07/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If The Rolling Stones made an album as good as the reunited NY Dolls` "Cause I Sez So" in 2009, critics would be hailing "a triumphant return to form." It's an old-fashioned rock album in the sense that every song has its own distinct personality, and nearly very song burns itself onto your memory within seconds. Ahhhhh .... remember those days?



Some may still wonder how these five guys, led by the only two surviving original members, have a right to call themselves The New York Dolls without guitarist Johnny Thunders (1952-1991), whose signature buzzsaw sound helped define the band. Furthermore, many of the new songs, sung from the perspective of older, wiser men, lack the trash-and-glamor appeal of the first two classic albums from `73 and `74, so why bother?



But here's another question: Who knows how the Dolls would have sounded in 1976, 1977 or 1980 and beyond if they had chosen to stay together? Would they have begun to challenge themselves musically, as The Clash did on their third album "London Calling"? We'll never know, but the best clues - which point to "yes" -- can probably be found on Johansen's early solo albums of the late `70s.



Truth is, singer David Johansen and guitarist Syl Sylvain have every right to claim the legacy of the Dolls. When Thunders, bassist Arthur Kane and drummer Jerry Nolan left in 1975, they were replaced by three new guys, and the band soldiered on for a couple of years, during which time some songs emerged that ended up on Johansen's first solo album, which featured Sylvain. Those songs were very, how do you say, Dollsy.



The band has been reunited with three more new members since 2004 -- guitarist Steve Conte, bassist Sami Yaffa and drummer Brian Delaney. They made their first great comeback album "One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This" in 2006, which elicited critical responses split between raves and indifference. With Thunders gone forever, people tend to underestimate Johansen's contribution to the band's greatness. He's perhaps the member most responsible for the blues-loving, girl-group-loving musical philosophy, the look, and the personality of the band, then and now.



He is also one fantastic lyricist and singer, and he gives his all to every cut on "Cause I Sez So." On the rocking title track, he manages to bellow and pout at the same time, just like the old days, as he rails against the surveillance society: "Takin' pretty pictures every place I go/ Orwell in the bathroom watching me go."



This track also highlights the exciting guitar interplay between Sylvain and Conte, who have solved the problem of replacing a distinctive former lead guitarist the way the Stones did when they hired Ron Wood; the two guitarists now weave around each other, challenge each other, and speak almost as one playful voice.



The album's best rocker may be the next song, the hard-charging "Muddy Bones," co-written by Johansen and bassist Sami Yaffa. Amid the clamor and bang, Johansen laments the mess left behind in the post-Bush era: "Around the world it's a bloody mess/ It's a permanent apocalypse ... Everybody's startin' to figure out what's goin' on."



Most of the co-writing credits go to Sylvain, but the "new guys" are no slackers. Conte co-wrote the lovely, jangling ballad "Better Than You," in which the tough/tender lead singer warns that he'll "kick your a**" if you talk bad about his baby, and sings the album's wittiest line: "My baby, she says my music's better/ It's much better than it sounds."



Conte's other writing credit, "This is Ridiculous," is a Howlin' Wolf-style blues number, and a sequel to the last album's "I Ain't Got Nothing" that bemoans a life of poverty, experienced after a period of relative success. There's a Randy Newman-esque feel to how Johansen inhabits the down-and-out character telling his sad story here.



The band covers many bases in their litany of influences on "Cause I Sez So." Johansen's melodramatic Eric Burdon side comes out on "Drowning," co-written with Sylvain.



Another of their collaborations, "Lonely So Long," is pure, AM-radio old soul. "Nobody Got No Bizness" is J. Geils-style funk with the requisite harmonica-as-percussion device. Johansen gets all metaphysical on "Temptation to Exist" over a Latin lilt, with some slyly humorous Spaghetti-Western touches, in the camp Dolls tradition that also includes sound effects ("Making Rain") and girl-group-inspired backing vocals throughout.



On some other numbers, Johansen and Sylvain go somewhere new. "Making Rain," a meditation on despair, is built on strummed acoustic guitar, and sounds more like crashing waves then rain. Acoustic strumming anchors "My World" as well, with a Springsteen-meets-Righteous-Brothers grandeur, as Johansen gives thanks for redemptive love: "Got to be my world/ You're so beautiful."



A lilting reggae reworking of their 1973 classic "Trash" evokes sides 5 and 6 of The Clash's "Sandinista," and it's surprisingly effective (and somehow, poignant). The closer, "Exorcism of Despair," is a giddy, loud rocker with backup vocals that recall "My Boyfriend's Back."



Johansen has never sung better. His tobacco-stained, bassy baritone hits every nuance of humor, toughness and tenderness that he intends. He is a very smart man, with impeccable taste in old rock and roll and a keen understanding of the world today.



That description works just as well for the David Johansen of the 1970s, and that helps makes the case for the New York Dolls of 2009. And don't underestimate the new guys, either, While you're listening, just zero in on Yaffa's nimble, propulsive bass lines, particularly on the title track. Or concentrate on Delaney's drumming , then realize you've been tapping your foot, or nodding your head in time all along,



As long this great band honors the legacy of the Dolls, and rock and roll, as they do on "Cause I Sez So," I'll remain a believer. They are the world's greatest rock and roll band, for my money."

Cause I Sez So!

CRH | OHIO | 05/06/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This release by the New York Dolls is a little mellower than than their previous outing but it works in a good way. While this record doesn't always follow the typical Dolls formula you hardly notice because the songs are so good and the raw production by Todd Rundgren is stellar. They don't make 'em like the Dolls anymore so enjoy them while they are still around."

WOW!

Lawrence J. Simonutti | Sarasota,FL | 05/11/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The Dolls just keep getting better and better. I loved the first reunion cd and this one is even better. Fantastic lyrics with every musical style you can imagine. It keeps getting better with every listen. Be sure to see them live if you can and you will be blown away. Long live the Dolls!"