The New York Dolls : Showdown At The Mercer LP

TMOQ UUP 115

Nine tracks of prime New York raunch, recorded at the legendary Mercer Arts Centre on January 16^th 1973, second set. The label TMOQ (remember them?) claim that the source of the tape is Paul Nelson, die-hard Dolls champion who persuaded Mercury to sign the band whilst he was A&R manager there. 

Colour sleeve with some cool, mostly unseen photos and a slightly fuzzy fold out colour poster that would look best Blu-tacked to a teenage bedroom wall. An amazingly thick vinyl pressing – thicker even than the discs on my original Exile On Main St. No titles on the LP label, bootleg style.

The sound quality sounds like someone with a portable cassette recorder made a decent recording from the PA which has subsequently been cleaned up digitally. David Johansen’s vocals are not high in the mix but clearly audible. Johnny Thunders and Sylvain Sylvian’s guitar parts are distinct. Jerry Nolan’s driving beat  is omnipresent, in one of his first gigs after taking over from the late Billy Murcia. Only Arthur Kane’s bass gets a bit lost in the mix. 

Any reservations I have about the sound are overcome by the performance. It is simply the best live recording of the Dolls I have ever heard – so much better than Red Patent Leather, the Paris live LP and the other flotsam and jetsam that has been released since the bands demise. The performances are playful with a light touch that was absent by 1974. It’s great to have a band recording of Give Her A Great Big Kiss, and the other eight tracks are just as good. Johansen’s introductions are witty and give a sense of a band crammed into a small club in their prime. The nearest comparison is The Faces at their most ebullient. 

But don’t just take my word for it – here’s Nick Kent’s verdict of a very similar gig at Kenny’s Castaways:

“The music is raw and alive, played with reckless abandon until it becomes a joyous celebration of the whole ‘be young, be foolish, be happy’ school of thought. Believe me the records don’t even begin to capture the special magic of the Dolls playing in a pissy little club to their elite little crowd of mascara-daubed misfits and vagrant vamps.”

Good luck in finding a copy – mine came via Discogs and was posted from Sweden. Worth making the effort!