All Dolled Up

There was a time when rock music — the gritty stuff, not this quasi-cavalier mutton we call rock 'n' roll today — was feared. In the '70s, in New York City, the counter-culture revolution had been reduced to a mockery and real music fans itched for messages slightly more tangible than saving the planet. They wanted reckless abandon. They wanted glamour. The needed a sign. Enter the New York Dolls.

Though the Dolls only lasted three years as a performing band, their arty decadence allowed the birth of such seminal punk rock acts as The Ramones and (sadly, in some cases) almost all of the '80s hair-metal bands. All Dolled Up traverses these three years through stunningly candid (and incredibly rare, given the fleeting existence of the group) footage taken by rock photographers Bob Gruen and Nadya Beck. The insightful backstage banter via David Johansen exudes not a pompous front as you might assume from his legendary fashion sense, but rather the symptoms of being a wide-eyed 20-something whose dreams of rock royalty have come true. Concert footage of early performances at Max's Kansas City and Kenny Castaways show the unpolished grit of what would become better-tailored unpolished grit during the duration of the group's wide influence. This is certainly an intriguing view into the early days of punk rock, and a bewildering delve into the minds of jaded scenesters, before it was cool to be a jaded scenester.
– Ryan Prado

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