Song of the Day 2/20: David Johansen, “Heart of Gold”
David Johansen is not a guy who gives up. When the New York Dolls broke up he went solo. When that didn’t pan out he became Buster Poindexter. As Buster, a nightclub entertainer turned up to 11, he had a big hit that would drive you crazy if you heard it too much, and Johansen heard it way too much. He turned to the blues and avoided overexposure by naming his band the Harry Smiths. Hardly anyone noticed, but he kept going, sometimes as himself, sometimes as Poindexter, until a couple of years ago.
More proof the 75-year-old singer doesn’t give up: He’s had stage 4 cancer for the past five years, but didn’t go public until a fall late last year broke a couple of bones in his back, leaving him bedridden and in need of specialized care. This hit the news last week when the family reached out for crowdfunding to deal with the medical expenses. Seems being a cult icon, even for 50 years, doesn’t pay all that well.
Most news site ledes identified him as either the frontman of the New York Dolls or the cab-driving Ghost of Christmas Past in “Scrooged,” his most notable film role. He was in several movies, but really, he was always acting.
The New York Dolls have been called proto-punk, because there was no punk rock when they formed in 1971. Their limited musicianship made them sound like Iggy Pop covering the Stones, but it was Johansen’s provocative attitude that presaged punk. The sound was pure garage rock, but they dressed in women’s clothes and their first album came out in the wake of David Bowie’s androgynous Ziggy Stardust character, so people thought they were glam. It was enough to cause a personality crisis. They toned down their act for this TV gig on “Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert.”
Before creating Poindexter in the late ’80s, Johansen pursued a solo career for a decade. He tried to forge a more mainstream persona, but critics complained his act lacked the excitement of the Dolls, so most people never got to hear his mature songwriting. Martin Scorsese made a 2022 Showtime documentary about Johansen, “Personality Crisis: One Night Only,” that wove interviews and archival footage into the singer’s 2020 show at the Cafe Carlyle. He presented as Buster Poindexter but he performed several of his own compositions and closed with “Heart of Gold.” It first appeared on his 1982 LP “Here Comes the Night.”
