DAVID JOHANSEN "I Can't Be Wastin' Time"

We don’t go in much for posthumous tributes, here at JOKONKY ENTERPRISES.  We prefer to send the artists we love flowers while they’re alive.  But David Johansen is an artist who deserves one.

Devo considered themselves pioneers who got scalped, and that was the case with Johansen & The New York Dolls.  They were progenitors of punk, and glam rock.  Their audacious approach, musically & visually, influenced thousands of bands who were successful worldwide--while falling short of that level of success themselves.  Joe Strummer often cited The New York Dolls as a major influence, as did many of the first wave of punks—& the hair-bands of the 80’s.

Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler was closely watching Johansen when both bands were in their infancy.  Tyler lifted the androgyny, the scarves on the mic stand, and even married Johansen’s ex-wife Cyrinda Foxe.  And yet I never heard Johansen speak ill of him—which is only one of the reasons I admire him.

Johansen could do everything Tyler did—but Tyler couldn’t have pulled off a fraction of what Johansen accomplished if he'd lived four lifetimes.  And (as was said about Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers) Johansen did everything Tyler did backwards and in high heels.  

Whenever Tyler & his band presented a chance for a side-by-side comparison, they always fell short.  Compare the tracks on their blues album Honking On Bobo to David Johansen’s work with The Harry Smiths--or Aerosmith backing Jimmie Page & Robert Plant to Johansen playing with Hubert Sumlin (on today’s offering).

It might sound as if I don’t like Tyler’s music—just the opposite—but his success relies heavily on the cult of personality, whether he’s writing a book, cutting a contemporary country album at the height of the popularity of contemporary country, or criticizing other performers on a “reality” TV show.

Johansen seemed to be all about artistic expression &, rather than serving up what was popular, he challenged his audience to keep up.  He reinvented himself almost as many times as David Bowie, he acted as well as he sang, and he appeared in enough films for me to think of him as the American Tim Curry.  Along the way, David Jo co-starred in the Christmas classic SCROOGED, & acted in one of my favorite movies; LET IT RIDE holding his own with Richard Dreyfus, Terri Garr, Robbie Coltrane, Jennifer Tilly, & Mary Woronov.

In his Buster Poindexter personae, and as himself in the Scorsese-directed documentary Personality Crisis: One Night Only, he showed he’s also a bon vivant and a storyteller.  “The film captured him performing at the Café Carlyle, blending his entire musical journey—from Dolls to Buster to blues—in a single night. Scorsese, known for his meticulous storytelling, saw Johansen as more than a musician; he saw him as an artist who embodied the evolution of American music.”

He also hosted a satellite radio show.  I think we love him here at Jokonky because Johansen’s “love of music wasn’t just about performance—it was about sharing, educating, and celebrating every note and lyric that ever moved him.”

The two quotes above, and some of the information in this blurb came from this wonderful blog post:

https://www.thatericalper.com/2025/03/01/five-things-you-didnt-know-about-david-johansen/

Before he passed last week, I made a donation to Johansen’s SWEET RELIEF fund to help pay for his substantial hospital bills—which are still burdening his family.  As a life-long used record buyer, it was probably the only money he ever made from me.  If you’d like to contribute: https://www.sweetrelief.org/davidjohansenfund.html

The tracks I selected from Johansen’s varied career are the ones that I felt showcased his many facets, from the “attitudinal” lead off track, to him doing an intimate version of Looking For A Kiss on NYC’s WFUV, to his theatrical reading of a Disney song from Stay Awake.  

There are a few cuts from Live It Up, that show what a raucous live performer he was. There's also the clever wordplay of Funky But Chic, and Frenchette.  It closes with a stripped-bare live version of his own Heart Of Gold recorded with just Budd Mishkin on guitar and David on harmonica.  That version and the live version of Is This What I Get For Loving You? always stir my sadness, and I suspect that they always will.