Punk pioneer Sylvain Sylvain: guitarist of the New York Dolls dies – culture

The New York Dolls never became quite as popular as other early punk bands. But the band, whose founding member Sylvain Sylvain died at the age of 69, was particularly influential.

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Stuttgart – It was a more than strange text that was read hectically: “Garbage, go, pick it up, take the light away! Rubbish, go ahead, pick it up, don’t throw your life away! ”This piece, titled“ Trash ”, was squeaking rather urgently from the New York Dolls, who were named after a doll clinic. It was across from the clothing store where guitarist Sylvain Sylvain worked during the day. Away with the light, but not plunging into the darkness of self-destruction: In the songs of the punk pioneers, a broken city life was somehow patched up again, but not in a way that looked neat like a brand new doll on the store shelf. “Frankenstein” was a fitting title of another song from the 1973 debut LP.

Horror and snottiness

The New York Dolls had been scraping their music when their first album was released for two years. Sylvain’s friend and band co-founder Billy Murcia had already died of an overdose on a mini-UK tour. The underground stars never achieved widespread success with the public, but their sound and their outfits, which were mixed with clothes bags and the will to shock, had a great influence on many other musicians: the Sex Pistols, Ramones, Smiths, Kiss and Guns ‘n’ Roses, for example.

The sound of the New York Dolls Sound was simple, snotty, sometimes silly, but again and again seriousness and horror were noticeable. Sylvain was born in 1951 to Jewish parents in Cairo, the family fled, settled in Paris, and moved on to New York. Sylvain Sylvain brought full-blown panic, a shrug of shoulders and a spark of hope into the music, a wild mix that brought subculture in the metropolis to the point. He died on January 13, 2021 at the age of 69, but troubled New York of the 70s, this city of many legends, will always sound a little like him.

“Trash” with the New York Dolls, 1973

Perfect, virtuoso, majestic, overwhelming, often complex orchestrated: this is how established rock wanted to be in the early seventies. Then the New York Dolls and a few other bands came along and whistled for everything clean, precise and well-designed. In retrospect, it’s hard to imagine how fresh it sounded to some and repulsive to others.

„Formidable“ mit den New York Dolls, 1981

A few years after the very snotty early days, you could see how the interactions went back and forth between the punk bully of the first hour and the younger bands they had pioneered. When it comes to “Formidable”, some people will think of the shaglier branches of Brit Pop than the old New York Dolls.

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