Part two of David Johansen’s Your Hometown episode is the portrait of an artist in the process of becoming. If Staten Island was the setting of David’s coming of age, Manhattan would him into his next act. Hear David talk with host Kevin Burke about living in the East Village, the early days of the New York Dolls, the birth of Buster Poindexter, and performing at the Café Carlyle. David’s hometown journey is an invitation to dive into what it means to be an artist and to find what in their origins stories is knowable and what remains enigmatic – even to them – as they continue looking around the corner, following their instincts and their muses.

Your Hometown is a show where the local is the epic. Visit yourhometown.org to subscribe to the podcast and our various social media channels.

Our co-presenter this season is the Museum of the City of New York. For more, including information on live events, check out our NYC series page at mcny.org/yourhometown-podcast.

Archival

Oh Madeline “Play Crystal For Me” from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UlhfUzsu6A&t=1s

All Dolled Up: A New York Dolls Story Found Tapes from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92HhdXuqc4g

New York Dolls footage Local TV Story, 1973 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGnZ4RsUpBE

Man's Country New York Gay Bathhouse commercial from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Er1Ri3qKavw

From Hot, Hot, Hot to Camelot, Buster Poindexter Plays Café Carlyle from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxULtuLMNiI

Music

New York Dolls - Personality Crisis (1973)

Prince Buster - Enjoy Yourself (1968)

New York Dolls - Bad Girl (Demo) (1972)

“Cabaret in the Sky” (1974) from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNTN1gpuz38

David Johansen - In Style (1979)

"Wilkommen" from Cabaret (1972)

New York Dolls - Stranded in the Jungle (1973)

Buster Poindexter- Whadaya Want (1987)

Edvard Grieg Impromptu, EG 175 (1896)

David Johansen - Mara Dreams the Moongate of Uncommon Beauty (2007)

David Johansen - Piece of My Heart from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUxAIMvuqQk (2016)

David Johansen & Larry Salzman - James Alley Blues (2005)

Illustration

Charlotte Yiu

Poem

Walt Whitman, “Song of Myself,” Part 52, Leaves of Grass (1855)

“I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love,
If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles.

“You will hardly know who I am or what I mean,
But I shall be good health to you nevertheless,
And filter and fibre your blood.

“Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,
Missing me one place search another,
I stop somewhere waiting for you.”