New York Dolls Remastered

[uwe]

Don't know how it is with you, but sonically both New York Dolls albums already weren't a great listening experience in the seventies, In Too Much Too Soon being slightly better than the totally flat debut. Johnny Thunders once said that "the first one was produced by a cokehead, the second one by an alcoholic", meaning Todd Rundgren and Shadow Morton, he might as well have added of course that "a heroin junkie played on both" given his own substance preferences! 

Come the CD age, it took a long time to get those Mercury albums out on CD. In the mid-nineties the "Rock'n'Roll" compilation of both albums came out (plus one extra track), supposedly remastered, but even flatter in sound than the vinyl. I could hardly bear listening to it and I really love those two albums, ardent punk rocker I am.

Culture Factory, a French label specializing in limited rereleases (with lovingly done cardboard replica sleeves), has "now" (2013) remastered both the Dolls' debut and the sophomore one (which I always preferred, I love "Babylon" and "Stranded in the Jungle")

http://www.culturefactoryusa.com/our-catalog/view/productdetails/virtuemart_product_id/139/virtuemart_category_id/1

http://www.culturefactoryusa.com/our-catalog/view/productdetails/virtuemart_product_id/86/virtuemart_category_id/1

and the improvement in sound has to be heard to be believed. I  have never witnessed the Dolls blast this forcefully out of my speakers, even the lame production of the first album is now crisp with a level of detail previously undetectable. It's like those two albums had been rerecorded with someone with an ear for the music and the inherent brashness of the Dolls.

So if you like me dug the two Dolls album, but were always disappointed with the sonics, give those remasters a try. Edith is not an audiophile at all and always laughs when I marvel about remaster differences, but when I played "Personality Crisis" off the Rock'n'Roll compilation back to back with this new French stuff today, even she gaped. It sounded in the remaster of the track as if that intro piano was in our living room, it was startling, those platform boots received a new shine. About time.

http://www.culturefactoryusa.com/component/content/article/8-information/6-remastering

[SKATE RAT]

love the Dolls.

[Nocturnal]

Thanks for letting us know about this Uwe. I will definitely be on the lookout for them. I agree that the originals quality was lacking sound wise, but I still love those albums 

[uwe]

The remaster of the debut is better than that of ITMTS - you can hear some flaws in Shadow Morton's production which was more than a bit 60ish Shangrilas-garage-noisy with sharp frequencies in places. Todd Rundgren's production of the debut - while lifeless and boring - was the more balanced job right from the start (he was a good producer, by his own admission he just didn't know what to do with the Dolls and their music meant nothing to him). It has gained more, receiving that sorely needed kick in the butt. Listening to ITMTS in the car today, Morton has tweaked the hi-hat, cymbals and some of Thunder's distorted guitar presence in the original production too much. And you hear that more distinctly now. On the positive side, however, Killer Kane's bass work is almost dominant in the remaster, you hear him like you have never heard him before. A busier player than I had remembered too!

Listening to those two albums more intensively now in the last two days than I have done in a long time, it struck me how Johansen's love for the blues (he's a serious blues aficionado) permeates even the Dolls' music.

And now I have even bought the Buster Poindexter albums - I saw him in this lounge lizard guise in the late eighties in NYC, polonaise of background singers, big band and him through the hall during Hot Hot Hot and all. It was a fun evening though not a single NYD track was played.