David Johansen, one of history’s most consequential New York rockers, died yesterday, and his absence will be felt throughout the Five Boroughs for some time to come. Few could verbalize what Johansen brought to popular music better than New York City spokesperson Martin Scorsese, and he’s been generous enough to share a few words about his fallen friend. Scorsese, who used Johansen’s music and visage in his tribute to New York rockers of the 1970s, Vinyl, and directed a documentary on Johansen, recalled, “the energy was New York, 100% pure and uncut, right off the streets.” Scorsese would know. As the New York Dolls burst onto the scene, Scorsese put the Dolls’ atmosphere on-screen with Mean Streets. Additionally, Scorsese highlights the impressive understanding of music history, inspiring all of Johansen’s output, from the New York Dolls through Buster Poindexter to his own collaboration with Johansen, Personality Crisis: One Night Only. Here’s the statement in full:
“With David Johansen, it started with the music, of course. Actually, with a New York Dolls song, “Personality Crisis.” I heard that song, I can’t remember when or where, and it stayed with me. I listened to it obsessively. The sound was rough, the playing was raw, the voice was wildly theatrical and immediate. And the energy was New York, 100% pure and uncut, right off the streets. After the Dolls broke up, I kept watching and listening to David. He never stopped growing as a songwriter and a singer, always exploring, always staking out new paths. There was the Buster Poindexter alter ego. And the radio show ‘Mansion of Fun,’ which amazed me and which I listened to obsessively. That was when I understood just how wide and deep David’s knowledge of music history was—all of music history, from Debussy to the Cadillacs to Loretta Lynn to the Incredible String Band to Gregorian chants to David’s beloved Maria Callas, all of it mysteriously connected. And then there were the cabaret performances at the Carlyle, which David Tedeschi and I were lucky enough to capture with our film Personality Crisis: One Night Only. As the years went by and David became increasingly fragile, he would always be there for screenings and gatherings, with his beloved Mara and Leah by his side. He would sit quietly, preserve his energy, but he was always fully there, right up to the end. What a remarkable artist. What an amazing man. I was so lucky to have known him. I just wish there had been more time.”
Johansen died shortly after his family made his illness public, revealing that the singer had been suffering from stage four cancer for most of the past decade. The family also launched Sweet Relief, a non-profit organization to help professional musicians needing medical or financial assistance.
[via Vulture]
