(Sleep) Baby Doll (Fishhead)
by Jon Sarre
It’s been almost twenty-five years since Johnny Thunders and Jerry Nolan hopped a plane bound for the Big Apple, effectively ending the death watch which had become the New York Dolls. Perhaps it’s not fair to begin a review of Sylvain Sylvain‘s new solo record this way, but when they run his obit in Rolling Stone, it’s rightly gonna start with “founding member of the New York Dolls,” which is a hellavalot better than you or I are gonna garner and, I dunno, may even be better than watchin’ some shitty b-movie on HBO and pointin’ at one of the actors and goin’, “Hey, that’s whatshisface, that Buster Poindexter guy!”
My briefly meandering digression (I swear) is mostly designed to point out that although Syl would probably be annoyed to agree to be interviewed and then haveta answer a buncha Johnny Thunders questions, he’s the guy best known for being the ex-Doll still alive and not living in Hollywood under an assumed name (anyone heard from Arthur Kane?). Besides, I figure he opens himself up to dead horse floggin’ by covering the Dolls’ “Trash,” a Thunders composition (the typically unapologetic “Your Society Makes Me Sad,” complete with an icky Kenny G. adult contemporary sax intro?!) and including two compositions co-penned with David Johansen (“Frenchette” with lines borrowed from “Under My Thumb” and a Ronettes nod and wink, and the wickedly unsubtle blues of “It’s on Fire”).
On the other hand, Sylvain was the underrated tunesmith in the Dolls, not content to merely re-write Chuck Berry’s back catalogue, or ripoff Sonny Boy Williamson’s bluster. (Sleep) Baby Doll is a good retro-pop record by a crafty, if not completely original songwriter. Sylvain drops nods to ’50s balladry (“Another Heart Needs Mending”), Beach Boys harmonies (the ghostily touching Thunders/Nolan/Billy Murcia title track) and impeccably constructed ’60s Anglo-pop (“Paper, Pencil and Glue”). No, it doesn’t exactly rock, that was Johnny Thunders’ raison d’être (though the Diddley-beat of “Oh Honey” is an exception, as is “Trash”). Sylvain knows his way ’round a song and if that’s what you’re lookin’ for, then here’s yer guy.
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