Jetboys of Babylon: A Tribute to the New York Dolls
 by Kevin Wierzbicki

Jetboys of Babylon: A Tribute to the New York Dolls
Rating: 
 

Tracks: Babylon (Frankenstein 3000 w/ David Johansen) Personality Crisis (Flipp w/ Steve Jones) Looking for a Kiss (Geoff Starr Rock’n’Roll Band) Vietnamese Baby (Slow Motorcade) It’s Too Late (the Taste) Trash (Super Deluxe) Bad Girl (R50) Subway Train (the New Romantics) Private World (Tattooed Millionaires)  Puss ’n Boots (the Napoleon Blownaparts) Chatterbox (Coyote Shivers) Human Being (Science Fiction Idols) Who Are the Mystery Girls (Starduster) Lonely Planet Boy (Crash Kelly) Frankenstein (Killingbird) Jet Boy (the Alarm MMV) You Can’t Put Your Arms around a Memory (American Anthem)

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They only put out two albums in the ’70s before they imploded, but the New York Dolls created more than simple music; they created a scene. Long credited as being the inspiration for the Sex Pistols (and indeed, being managed at one point by Malcolm McLaren, who went on to handle the Pistols), the Dolls planted a revolutionary seed that would grow into a harvest of punk, crossbreed with glam, and eventually give birth to a bastard known as hair metal. Thirty-some odd years later the music community has not forgotten, and those paying homage here clearly know their history.

David Johansen is the only surviving member of the Dolls to participate in the project, offering a guttural vocal on the opening track, “Babylon.”  Guitarist Steve Jones (Sex Pistols) sits in with rawkers Flipp for a cover of “Personality Crisis,” but most of the names here are relative unknowns. The Napoleon Blownaparts offer “Puss ’n Boots,” the Taste delves into “It’s Too Late” and Coyote Shivers bust apart “Chatterbox.” Simply put, everyone here does a superlative job; this is one of the best tribute records I have ever heard. Not only that, this is one of the best releases of the genre to come along in a long time, period. Those who don’t have the Dolls in their collections will no doubt want to go back and check out the originals after hearing Jetboys of Babylon---that’ll be easy. The hard part will be tracking down records by all the other participants here, all of whom are worthy.