The New York Dolls song that inspired a classic track by The Smiths
It’s one of music’s worst-kept secrets that Morrissey is a New York Dolls fanatic. The former Smiths leader was on the ground floor of fandom when the Dolls first began making waves in the early 1970s, even establishing a fan club for the band in England. Morrissey was set to witness one of the Dolls’ first gigs in Britain before it was cancelled due to the death of original drummer Billy Murcia in 1972.
“Everyone in the venue seemed to be [crushed] – which actually surprised me,” Morrissey later told author Nina Antonia. “There was a very loud sigh of disbelief. But, the Dolls had, even by then, received a lot of attention in the press, and were already a heavily photographed band. They were also a group about whom everyone in music seemed to have something to say – rarely complimentary, of course, which made me stand by them even more.”
By the time the band’s self-titled debut was released in 1973, Morrissey was fully galvanized to defend them as his favourite band of all time. “It was like being hit by lightning. I’ve never recovered,” he added. “David’s singing – at a time when everyone was trying to sing softly and be somewhat effeminate – David Johansen rattles out with this raging roar, hard and indifferent with an incredible mantle of pride.”
“Johansen was, then, such a great stylist, and a brilliant lyricist – which is never considered in assessments of the Dolls, but if you listen to ‘Frankenstein’, with all its unnatural rhymes, and uncontrolled vocal leaps, it’s incredibly cinematic and clever, and also very intimidating,” Morrissey also said.
Johansen’s influence on Morrissey would become clear when Morrissey himself became a songwriter. As late as 1986, Morrissey was still borrowing elements from Johansen and the Dolls, specifically on the song ‘There Is a Light That Never Goes Out’. The penultimate track from 1986’s The Queen Is Dead is most commonly associated with the 1955 film Rebel Without a Cause, but a close analysis of the lyrics finds more direct parallels with the New York Dolls’ ‘Lonely Planet Boy’.
There’s no doubt that Morrissey would have been familiar with the track. Specifically, the line “Driving in your car / I never, never want to go home / Because I haven’t got one” almost directly mimics a lyric from ‘Lonely Planet Boy’: “But how could you be drivin’ / Down by my home / When you know, I ain’t got one.” Morrissey would later use the title Lonely Planet Boy for a compilation album by the long-departed glam rock musician Jobriath in 2004.
Check out ‘Lonely Planet Boy’ and ‘There Is a Light That Never Goes Out’ down below.
