10 Perfect Glam Rock Albums With No Bad Songs
4. New York Dolls - New York Dolls
When you really break it down, glam and punk actually do have a lot in common. As much as the aesthetics may have been different at the time, the idea of deviating from the norms of rock music and paving the way for something completely different was running through the veins of both the Clash and Slade in equal measure. Change was in the air and the New York Dolls gave us glam rock by way of punk on their debut.
Granted, you aren't going to say that this is the most technically accomplished record by any stretch. Just listening to something like Personality Crisis, you'll see that there's more than a few rough edges behind the scenes and guitars that are more piercing that they are tuneful. On almost every one of these songs though, you get to here the Dolls playing up every single bit of their persona, as they talk about playing up their looks and trying to get one over on Frankenstein by the end of the night.
This is one of the few cases in rock where the visuals do count as substance for a band, and the New York Dolls had enough swagger in their ringfinger than most would have for their entire career. The mainstream rock scene may have been fun, but why set yourself up to be Jimmy Page when you have Johnny Thunders right in front of you?