David Johansen Shows Off His Attitude and Spunk

When you listen to the just-released “The David Johansen Group Live” album, you notice how limited a vocalist Johansen was back in the ‘70s--and how little it mattered.

The colorful performer--who was to the New York Dolls what John Lydon was later to the Sex Pistols--is careless with his phrasing on the album (which was recorded in 1978) and rarely shows the kind of authority a great rock singer needs to quickly shift emotional gears.

So why is he--and the Epic/Legacy album--so delightful?

One reason is the cavalier way Johansen ignores his limitations as he struts through the 75-minute set, fueled by such an absolute faith in his own rock ‘n’ roll vision that you’d think he’d been personally chosen by Mick Jagger, his primary model, to carry the flame for a new generation of rockers.

It was this believe-in-yourself spunk that reminded a conservative rock world in the ‘70s of the importance of energy and attitude. Mixing glam-rock and punk instincts in the early ‘70s, the Dolls attacked the rock sensibilities of the day through both their rock ‘n’ rouge image (sometimes posing in high heels and lipstick) and in their wry mix of playful pop and R&B.;

It was Johansen’s conflicting belief in the purity and absurdity of rock that caught the eye of Malcolm McLaren, who came over from England to manage the Dolls briefly in the mid-’70s before returning to London to put together the Sex Pistols.

After the Dolls fell apart in 1977, Johansen formed his own band and made a series of solo albums before enjoying his greatest commercial success in the late ‘80s as Buster Poindexter, his lounge lizard alter ego.

This live album was recorded at New York’s Bottom Line club to help promote Johansen’s first solo album. Excerpts from it were sent to taste-makers in the industry on a promotional basis, but it wasn’t released commercially until now.

The material underscores Johansen’s anything-goes approach, combining songs from his solo career (including the ballad “Donna”), along with such Dolls classics as “Personality Crisis” and “Looking for a Kiss,” as well as such diverse material as the Foundations’ bouncy “Build Me Up Buttercup” and the Supremes’ “Love Child.”

In the album’s liner notes, Allan Pepper, co-owner of the Bottom Line, recalls Johansen’s many appearances there over the years: “It was always an adventure when David played here, and I mean that in the best of all possible ways.

“He never ‘phoned it in,’ but always had such great energy and connection with his fans. . . . He was so creatively driven. He’s what every artist should be about.”

No Dolls albums or Johansen solo collections sold enough to make the Top 100 charts, but they stand as essential steps in the evolution of contemporary rock--and this live collection is a welcome addition to the Dolls/Johansen legacy.