Heaven Stood Still

Yesterday David Johansen died. He was the last Doll standing. He was 75. Stage 4 cancer. Born and died on Staten Island.

All the other Dolls gone before him. As Johnny Thunders said,”You can’t put your arms around a memory.”

Heaven Stood Still

As a tear fades away
And the dawn drives a lovers eyes
No more tears, they're all gone
Just believe this will always be

My heart in your hand
Knows that all this belongs to me
And like a child there I stand
While your heart sings inside of me

One dream of my life
One night in eternity
The wind whispers soft to me
And heaven stood still

One Side of the dawn
Knows that all this belongs to me
One celestial rhapsody
And heaven stood still

Willie de Ville

Of course Willie is gone too. Mr. Mink de Ville. Another New York legend. He was born in 1950 as well as William Paul Borsey Jr.

Everyone had stage names then. Not David Johansen. He was always David Johansen. The New York Dolls in 1973 won the Creem magazine poll categories as the year's best and worst new group. They were nominated several times for The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame but never got in.

Willie DeVille also is not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. None other than Bob Dylan says he should be. But the list is long with snubbed stars NOT in the hall.

In the case of David Johansen and Wille DeVille, perhaps they were too real. Certainly they were never corporate. They were all buried in street cred, but we know what that is worth.

These were the heroes we had growing up. The Dolls, DeVille, Richard Hell, the Velvet Underground, Lou and John Cale, Ramones, and Patti Smith.

Punk may have broke with Sex Pistols and The Clash, but it was New York that wrote the book.

How do you spell New York?

A knife, a fork, a bottle and a cork. That’s the way you spell New York.

Reggae Toaster Dillinger spells it out for us in his song Cocaine In Ma Brain

Hey Jim, Jim, just a minute, ya
I want you to ask you something
I want you to spell something for me, Jim, can you do that?
Sure, John
Well, I want you to spell for me "New York"
John, why you ask me to do that?
I just want you to spell "New York," Jim
Well, alright, I'm gonna go ahead, man
N-E-W Y-O-R-K, that's New York, man
No, Jim, you've made a mistake, Jim
I'm gonna teach you the right way and the proper way to spell New York
Well, go ahead, John
A knife, a fork, a bottle, and a cork
That's the way we spell New York, Jim

Yeah.

David Johansen was New York. The real deal. Mr. Buster Poindexter. Mr. New York.

Thunders, Nolan, Kane, Sylvain, Johansen.

The New York Dolls.

Too much Too Soon.

And now they are all gone.

Heaven Stood Still.