New York Dolls

Before founding The Smiths, Steven Morrissey put out this 1981 fanzine/book on the Dolls. It's a slim volume that provides background and criticism about Morrissey's then favorite band. Morrissey's contribution only accounts for about 8 pages of text though. The rest of the book is taken up with low quality reproduction photographs and reprints of other peoples articles.

There have been several reprints recently that include 14 pages of new notes by Mike West with an updated history and discography. These reprints are missing 10 pages of photographs, including some of the best, that are found in the original. My reprint came out in 1995 and has an embossed stamp on the front cover saying 'Babylon Books (Publishers) Limited'. It also has a nice image afixed to the inside rear cover showing the Dolls faces and the text "Before anyone discovered New Wave Rock, The Dolls were inventing it".
Cool zine but it tells as much about Morrissey as it does about the Dolls.

The text from this book is now available on-line!

(Yo Bob, thanks for the book.)

From The Johnny Thunders Cyber Lounge

Last modified: May 16, 1999

Created by: Chris Ridpath