Death of Sylvain Sylvain, the penultimate survivor of the New York Dolls

Alongside Johnny Thunders, he was the other guitarist of the legendary New York glam punk group marked by the more or less early death of most of its members. This brave and sympathetic representative of wild and authentic rock died of cancer at the age of 69.

And only one remained… With the disappearance of Sylvain Sylvain, who died of cancer at age 69 on January 14, the New York Dolls are the other rock institution as cult as the underground of the Big Apple. to see its members succumb, sooner or later, to the self-destructive way of life that was integral to their reputation and fame. The Ramones are all gone. On the Dolls side, only the singer David Johansen, alias Buster Pointdexter, remains as living memory of a group as flamboyant as it is cursed, whose two wild and rickety albums (published in 1973 and 1974) remain classics, as much as black sheep of glam as punk precursors to come. A rock that is both purist in its references and decadent in its treatment, like the outrageous appearance of the musicians, pure New Yorkers but of various origins, notorious junkies disguised as trashy transvestites. Trash was also one of the rare standards of the group signed by Sylvain Sylvain, guitarist called to remain in the shadow of Johnny Thunders, magnificent loser and absolute icon of a romantic and stoned rock’n’roll, the Keith Richards of his Mick Jagger, Johansen.

Death was a companion for the Dolls from the start, original drummer Billy Murcia dying of an overdose in 1972. Murcia was the boyfriend of Sylvain Sylvain, born Sylvian Mizrahi in Cairo, Egypt, into a French-speaking family who emigrated early in the USA. And it is together that they joined, with bassist Arthur Kane, the nascent New Yorks Dolls of Johansen and Thunders, in 1971. With Jerry Nolan behind the drums to replace the deceased, the uncontrolled quintet shakes up the initiated rock planet, in search of thrills, fury and authenticity, but their success remains limited. The group, ravaged by drugs, disintegrated in 1975, after a final and disastrous attempt by their new manager Malcom McLaren to revive them, revamped as communist rockers clad in red leather!

As often, the cult around these precursors only developed afterwards, each of its members enjoying a reputation above all suspicion. Sylvain Sylvain is no exception to the rule, his first two solo albums of a joyfully retro rock ‘n’ roll earning him – failing to arouse the same interest as those of Thunders’ Heartbreakers or those of Johansen solo – sympathy nostalgic worshipers of the devastated flamboyant quintet. A legendary group whose aura has been strengthened to the rhythm of the tragic disappearances of its musicians – Thunders at 38, Jerry Nolan at 45, Arthur Kane at 55 …

The latter, after having hit rock bottom, had been able to take advantage of a comeback initiated by an early fan, Morrissey, who invited the group, at least its three surviving members, to reform for a concert. in 2004. A performance sufficiently awaited and celebrated to encourage the Dolls to record a new album. Kane, broke by leukemia, will unfortunately not participate. It is therefore Johansen and Sylvain who, with new recruits, are working on it. It was up to Sylvain to replace Thunders as co-composer of the majority of the songs, a challenge from which he resigned himself. The album with a title full of self-mockery but premonitory (One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This, “One day we will even be happy to have done it”), without reaching the sublime decay of the two original records, holds more than the road. A satisfaction undoubtedly for the charming Sylvain Sylvain, whose disappearance grieves any lover of an instinctive and honest rock’n’roll who never ceases to make dreams come true and to inspire all those who still believe in it a little.

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