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(More customer reviews)I was going to give this DVD four stars; then I reevaluated it in the context of what it represents technologically and sociologically, and I had to give it five.
It's 1973-74. You have a band playing '50s rock and '60s girl-group music, sloppily and more distorted, but with obvious reverence; a band that wanted to put good times and visual appeal back into rock 'n' roll. You have a good photographer who happens to be in the right place at the right time (as good photographers often are), but now he's armed with space-age technology in the form of a portable videotape recorder.
Bob Gruen and his wife Nadya obviously had a knack for videography. Their earliest concert footage serves mainly as a historical document (and certainly not "art"), but as the DVD progresses (chronologically), they begin to explore the capabilities of the new video medium as the camera follows the band backstage, onto an airplane, into a restaurant, inside Rodney Bingenheimer's English Disco (!), etc. One startling backstage sequence features the doll seen poking out of Jerry Nolan's kick drum on the cover of Too Much Too Soon. Here, the sinister doll rests on Johnny Thunders' knee in the extreme foreground of the frame as Johnny and Sable Starr chat at what due to foreshortening appears to be a distance of ten feet away. There are numerous other "photographer's tricks" employed to keep the all-black-and-white footage interesting. Since much of the "action" is fairly tame offstage hijinx and chatter, one would assume Gruen has done us a big favor by editing the 40 hours down to 95 minutes for the "documentary" segment.
The song performances -- presented whole on the "extras" portion of the disc -- are charmingly ramshackle, as one would expect. The mono audio is surprisingly good (by 1973 standards). It's great to see a band with modest talent and a huge visual "gimmick" confidently exploiting what they know to be their greatest asset: well-written basic rock songs. One comes away from this DVD entirely convinced that the Dolls all fell in love with rock 'n' roll at early ages, and were dedicated students, amateur rock historians, and big fans as much as they were performers. Sylvain's completely unpretentious audio commentary drives this point further home, even including references to specific guitars and how they were obtained. JoHansen comes off as more jaded in his commentary track; it's worth noting that he's conspicuously silent when viewing footage of himself being particularly annoying.
A brief interview with Gruen conducted by Handsome Dick Manitoba of the Dictators covers the same ground as Gruen's liner notes to the 16-page color booklet included, then delves deeper into the subject of drug abuse and the general decline of Thunders, Nolan and Kane (without becoming maudlin). Billy Murcia is mentioned only in passing; his own passing predates Gruen's acquisition of the video camera.
Finally, Gruen narrates a slideshow of what must be nearly 100 excellent Dolls photos, some familiar, many not, including a barely-swimwear-clad JoHansen relaxing poolside in Los Angeles (with Lisa Robinson's toes visible in the foreground) and another "welcome to L.A." shot of the Dolls crammed onto a hotel bed with Iggy Pop, Kim Fowley, a very young Shaun Cassidy (!), and various hangers-on.
Some of Gruen's b/w video footage had found its way onto bootleg VHS years ago, but the poor quality of the boot made it almost frustrating to view. Here all is put right, and at the price you can't go wrong. This isn't just a New York Dolls video; it, like Dogtown & Z-Boys, captures the essence of the '70s the way I prefer to remember them, and brings that spirit into the new millennium with no loss of fidelity. It is as "1974" as Ashley Whippet catching a Frisbee in center field, yet as fresh as an egg cream from Gem Spa. (It's still there, and they still sell 'em.)
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New York Dolls - All Dolled Up (1970)In the early 70's, rock photographer Bob Gruen and his wife Nadya purchased a portable video recorder.In a period of three years they shot over 40 hours of New York Dolls footage.Now for the first time ever this footage is unveiled.This feature leng
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