David Johansen (born January 9, 1950, in Staten Island, New York) is an American rock, punk, blues and pop singer, as well as a songwriter and actor. He was a member of the seminal punk band The New York Dolls and also achieved commercial success under the pseudonym Buster Poindexter.
David Johansen, born on January 19th in 1950, lived a modest life as a young boy in the New York City borough of Staten Island. His father, John Johansen, worked hard as a fisherman, while his mother Barbara tended to young David. David was often spotted dancing naked as a lad, but problems of money would forever limit his involvement in music. When his father was arrested in the fall of 1967 for smuggling 15 pounds of marijuana into the country, David found solace in the music of MC5 and the hope of one day following in the footsteps of his idol, Mick Jagger. Johansen was an iconic musician in the early era of punk rock, creating a new style whose influence on other musicians anticipated and helped inspire the punk revolution.
Originally influenced by Mick Jagger and by Rob Tyner of MC5, Johansen began his career in the early 1970s as the singer in the protopunk band the New York Dolls. The Dolls only released two albums, their self-titled debut (1973), and "Too Much Too Soon" (1974). The bulk of the material was written by Johansen and guitarist Johnny Thunders. The Dolls were critics' darlings with a modest cult following, but their failure to break commercially is often put down to their being ahead of their time.
Drugs played a role in the departure of Thunders and drummer Jerry Nolan from the band in 1975. Bass player Arthur Kane also departed at around this time. Johansen and Sylvain Sylvain hired new musicians and continued under the name New York Dolls for a short time, disbanding the group on their return from a tour of Japan in August 1975. In early 1977, Johansen embarked on a solo career. His first two albums, David Johansen and In Style, featured several enduring originals. His fellow ex-Doll Sylvain Sylvain frequently performed with him, and his band covered many Dolls tunes in concert; his live albums Live It Up and The David Johansen Group Live document Johansen's reputation as an exceptional concert performer. The studio releases Here Comes the Night (which includes a signature number, "Heart of Gold") and Sweet Revenge again showcased his strengths as a writer of new material and featured a guest appearance by jazz saxophone player Big Jay McNeely.
In the late 1980s Johansen achieved a commercial breakthrough under the pseudonym Buster Poindexter, accompanied by The Uptown Horns performing a mixture of jazz, lounge, calypso, and novelty songs, and appearing as part of the house band on the television program Saturday Night Live. As "Buster Poindexter" he scored his first hit song, "Hot Hot Hot," which in an interview on National Public Radio's Fresh Air he referred to as "the bane of my life," owing to its pervasive popularity. "Hot Hot Hot" was initially written and recorded by Montserratian-Antiguan Soca Artist Arrow. As Poindexter, Johansen often appeared with his band The Banshees of Blue. The initial Poindexter releases combined an eclectic selection of cover versions with compositions of Johansen`s own. Johansen/Poindexter went on to issue Buster Poindexter`s Happy Hour, a CD of songs largely connected with alcohol. Probably his most obviously jazz-influenced release to date, it also leaned towards `50s rock and roll. Following on from that came Buster Poindexter`s Spanish Rocket Ship, a latin album.
Johansen acted in several films during the 1980s and 1990s, and had a brief role on the HBO drama Oz. He also appeared in the television series The Adventures of Pete & Pete in the episode "On Golden Pete," in which he played a park ranger. One of his more memorable roles is that of the wisecracking ghost of Christmas past in Scrooged. He was also in the movie based on the old television series "Car 54, Where Are You?". He can likewise be seen in the Jim White documentary film Searching for the Wrong Eyed Jesus in which he does a version of "James Alley Blues" (by Rabbit Brown) from a motel room.
Johansen then turned to the rendition of country blues with his back-up group, The Harry Smiths. The group was named by way of tribute to Harry Everett Smith, who compiled the Anthology of American Folk Music; "James Alley Blues" and some of the other songs covered on their eponymously titled debut come from the Anthology. Johansen's second album with the Harry Smiths is called Shaker. He also had a supporting role with Mick Jagger and Emilio Estevez in the movie Freejack and a supporting role as Looney in the comedy Let It Ride.
Johansen is currently touring with a re-formed version of the New York Dolls. Owing to the success of the tour, in 2006 the Dolls released "One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This," their first album in nearly thirty years. It was critic Robert Christgau's choice for album of the year (http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/pnj/deans06.php.) Johansen hosts a weekly show on Sirius Satellite Radio while continuing to write and perform.
In addition to his own albums, Johansen contributed songs to the soundtracks of the films Times Square and the Aviator (Flowers of the City and Ain`t Cha Glad respectively) and guests on About Them Shoes, a CD by veteran blues man Hubert Sumlin. Another non-album track of his, Johnsonius, appears on the 1984 compilation A Diamond Hidden in the Mouth of a Corpse and The Rope (The Let Go Song), a track recorded during the sessions for his eponymous first album but not included on that, surfaced on the `b` side of the single, Funky But Chic.
An artist noted for his musical unpredictability, Johansen has been a consistent blues enthusiast since the earliest days of the Dolls, with covers of songs by Bo Diddley and Sonny Boy Williamson having been among their earliest numbers. The 2006 Dolls CD Private World : The Complete Early Studio Demos 1972/3 featured the Dolls performing songs by Otis Redding, Gary US Bonds, Chuck Berry, The Shangri-Las and Muddy Waters in addition to versions of songs from their two Mercury albums. Also featured on the CD was a previously unreleased Dolls number, Endless Party.
During a career that has seen many changes, long-term associates have included Sylvain Sylvain, drummer Tony Machine (a member of one of the later Dolls line-ups and a fixture in many David Johansen groups and throughout the Buster Poindexter period) and Brian Koonin, guitarist and banjo player with Buster Poindexter and The Harry Smiths as well as being keyboard player with the New York Dolls for the reunion gig and CD.
