David Johansen#Buster Poindexter

Johansen was born in the New York City borough of Staten Island, to a librarian mother, Helen (Cullen), and an insurance sales representative father, Gunvold Johansen, who had previously sung opera.{{cite web|url=http://www.filmreference.com/film/36/David-Johansen.html |title=David Johansen Biography (1950?-) |publisher=Filmreference.com |date=January 9, 1950 |access-date=June 15, 2013}}{{cite web|url=http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20098147,00.html|title=David Johansen Used to Bare It with the Dolls, but Alter Ego Buster Poindexter Is a Bigger Grin|publisher=People|date=January 25, 1988|access-date=December 25, 2015|first1=Margot|last1=Dougherty}}{{Cite news |last=Edwards |first=Gavin |date=2025-03-01 |title=David Johansen, Who Fronted the New York Dolls and More, Dies at 75 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/01/arts/music/david-johansen-dead.html |access-date=2025-03-05 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}} His mother was Irish American and his father was Norwegian American.{{Cite book| last=Antonia | first=Nina | title=The New York Dolls: Too Much Too Soon | publisher=Omnibus Press | date=February 2006 |pages=23–24|isbn=1-84449-984-7}} He was one of five siblings. Johansen attended St. Peter's Boys High School, but was expelled in 1964. He finished his high school education at Port Richmond High School. After graduating, Johansen became involved with the scene at Andy Warhol's Factory. He also worked with Charles Ludlam at Ludlam's Ridiculous Theater Company, where Johansen did sound and lights.

File:New York Dolls - TopPop 1973 10.png on the Dutch television program TopPop in 1973]]

Johansen began his career in the late 1960s as the lead singer of the Vagabond Missionaries, a local Staten Island band{{cite book|title=The Guinness Who's Who of Indie and New Wave Music|editor=Colin Larkin|publisher=Guinness Publishing|date=1992|edition=First|isbn=0-85112-579-4|pages=152/3}} and later in the early 1970s as the singer/songwriter in the proto-punk band the New York Dolls.{{cite book|title=The Virgin Encyclopedia of Popular Music|editor=Colin Larkin|editor-link=Colin Larkin (writer)|publisher=Virgin Books|date=1997|edition=Concise|isbn=1-85227-745-9|page=676}} The New York Dolls were part of the Mercer Arts Center's scene, appearing on the bill at a New Year's Eve 1972 gig with Ruby and the Rednecks.{{Cite web|url=https://dsps.lib.uiowa.edu/downtownpopunderground/story/ruby-and-the-rednecks-at-the-mercer-arts-center/|title=Ruby and the Rednecks at the Mercer Arts Center|website=Dsps.lib.uiowa.edu|date=September 3, 2018|access-date=January 13, 2021}} They released two albums, the eponymous New York Dolls (1973) and Too Much Too Soon (1974). The bulk of the material was written by Johansen and guitarist Johnny Thunders. The Dolls had a strong cult following and glowing reviews from critics such as Lester Bangs, Robert Christgau and Nick Kent, but overall garnered a divided critical reaction and did not initially find commercial success. The New York Dolls appeared on the BBC TV's live music programme The Old Grey Whistle Test, when presenter "Whispering Bob" Harris notoriously derided the band on air as "mock rock".{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/jun/14/new-york-dolls-mock-rock|author=Stevie Chick|date=13 June 2011|title=The New York Dolls play 'mock rock' on British TV|newspaper=The Guardian}}{{cite web|url=http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/simon-price-theres-no-going-back-to-the-old-grey-twilight-zone-2341170.html|title=Simon Price: There's no going back to the Old Grey Twilight Zone|date=21 August 2011|website=The Independent}}

In 1975, Johnny Thunders and Jerry Nolan left the band. Johansen and Sylvain Sylvain along with Peter Jordan, Chris Robison, and Tony Machine continued playing as the New York Dolls until 1976 after which Johansen embarked on a solo career. His first two solo albums, the eponymous David Johansen and In Style, featured several enduring originals. His self-titled album peaked at number 91 in Australia in August 1978.{{cite book|last=Kent|first=David|author-link=David Kent (historian)|title=Australian Chart Book 1970–1992|edition=illustrated|publisher=Australian Chart Book|location=St Ives, N.S.W.|year=1993|isbn=0-646-11917-6|page=158}} Sylvain Sylvain frequently performed with him and his band covered many Dolls songs in concert. His live albums Live It Up and The David Johansen Group Live document Johansen's reputation as an exceptional concert performer. The studio releases Here Comes the Night (which includes a signature number, "Heart of Gold") and Sweet Revenge again showcased his strengths as a writer of new material and featured a guest appearance by jazz saxophone player Big Jay McNeely. A number of the songs on Here Comes the Night were co-written with South African musician Blondie Chaplin. In 1982 Johansen was the opening act for the Who at several U.S. East Coast concerts, including Shea Stadium in New York City and Capital Centre near Washington, D.C.{{cn|date=March 2025}}

In the late 1980s, Johansen achieved moderate commercial success under the pseudonym Buster Poindexter, accompanied by the Uptown Horns, performing jump blues, traditional pop, swing, and novelty songs. He also appeared as part of the house band on the television program Saturday Night Live. As Poindexter, he scored his first hit song, "Hot Hot Hot", which, in an interview on National Public Radio's Fresh Air, he called "the bane of my life" due to its pervasive popularity.{{cite news |last1=Gross |first1=Terry |title=New York Dolls Frontman David Johansen |url=https://www.npr.org/2023/05/04/1173991910/new-york-dolls-frontman-david-johansen}} "Hot Hot Hot" was initially written and recorded by Montserratian Soca artist Arrow. As Poindexter, Johansen often appeared with his band, the Banshees of Blue. Early Poindexter releases combined an eclectic selection of covers with Johansen's own compositions. Johansen went on to issue Buster's Happy Hour, an album of songs thematically linked by their subject matter: alcohol. It was followed by Buster Poindexter's Spanish Rocket Ship, which focused on salsa and merengue music.{{cite news |last1=Schulman |first1=Sandra |title=POINDEXTER A MERENGUE CABALLERO |work=Sun-Sentinel |date=November 11, 1997 |page=3E}}

Johansen acted in several films during the 1980s and 1990s, and in 2000,{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0423774/|title=David Johansen|website=IMDb}} had a brief role on the HBO drama series Oz. He appeared in the television series The Adventures of Pete & Pete in the episode "On Golden Pete", in which he played a park ranger. He appeared in the Muppet Television segment of an episode of The Jim Henson Hour. He also appeared in The Equalizer playing a violent criminal named Garnet in the 1987 episode, "Re-Entry." Among his more prominent roles are that of the wisecracking Ghost of Christmas Past in Scrooged (1988), which starred Bill Murray as well as the part of "Looney" in the movie Let It Ride (1989), playing opposite Richard Dreyfuss. He starred opposite Hulk Hogan and Sherman Hemsley in Mr. Nanny (1993) and co-starred with John C. McGinley in the movie Car 54, Where Are You? (1994), based on the television series. He can be seen in the Jim White documentary film Searching for the Wrong Eyed Jesus in which he sings a version of Geeshie Wiley's "Last Kind Words" while in a motel room. He also had a supporting role with Mick Jagger and Emilio Estevez in the movie Freejack (1992). He also played Halston (a hired hitman) in the anthology film Tales from the Darkside: The Movie (1990), in the segment "The Cat from Hell". He was also the guest music artist on the Miami Vice episode "The Dutch Oven" (1985), where he sang "King of Babylon".{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0647121/|title=The Dutch Oven|date=October 25, 1985|via=www.imdb.com}} Johansen most recently portrayed the bartender in the Bill Murray Netflix special A Very Murray Christmas. Johansen voiced the villain Ding Dong Daddy in the original Teen Titans animated series in the season 5 episode 9 episode "Revved Up".

Johansen's legs appeared in John Lennon and Yoko Ono's 1971 film Up Your Legs Forever.{{cite book|author=Jonathan Cott|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ei8DAwAAQBAJ|title=Days That I'll Remember: Spending Time With John Lennon & Yoko Ono|date=July 16, 2013|publisher=Omnibus Press|isbn=978-1-78323-048-8|page=74}} He also voiced the Beartaur character in the 2021 Centaurworld animated Netflix television series.{{cn|date=March 2025}}

File:David Johansen 2008.JPG

Johansen then turned to blues with his group, the Harry Smiths. The group was named as a tribute to Harry Everett Smith, who compiled the Anthology of American Folk Music, several songs of which were covered by the band.{{cn|date=March 2025}} Johansen's second album with the Harry Smiths is titled Shaker.{{cite web | url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/shaker-mw0000221203 | title=Shaker - David Johansen & the Harry Smiths | A... | AllMusic | website=AllMusic }}

In 2004, Johansen reunited with Sylvain Sylvain and Arthur Kane of the New York Dolls. Owing to the success of the tour, in 2006 the New York Dolls released One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This, their first album in nearly 30 years. It was critic Robert Christgau's choice for album of the year.{{cite web|url=http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/pnj/deans06.php |title=2006: Dean's List |publisher=Robert Christgau |date=February 14, 2007 |access-date=June 15, 2013}} In 2009 the band released Cause I Sez So and in 2011 Dancing Backward in High Heels.AV review [https://www.avclub.com/new-york-dolls-dancing-backward-in-high-heels-1798167577]

Johansen hosted a weekly show, David Johansen's Mansion of Fun, on Sirius Satellite Radio while continuing to write and perform. Featuring music "from the jungles of Africa to the Bayou of Louisiana and from Duke Ellington to Phil Spector to Billy Joe Shaver, the show was all over the musical map", the show is free-form and eclectic. {{as of|2020|1}}, the show aired on channel 710 (stream-only), The Loft.{{cn|date=March 2025}}

In October 2007, Johansen participated in "The Staten Island Composers Project", featuring work by three musicians who call the island home: Johansen; Vernon Reid, founder of the '80s rock-metal pioneers Living Colour, and Galt MacDermot, best known as the composer of the musical Hair. The Council on the Arts and Humanities for Staten Island commissioned the program and asked each artist to write 20 minutes of music conveying something of his connection to the island often referred to as New York City's forgotten borough. Johansen's opus, a cinematic and unabashedly romantic Adagio scored mostly for strings, is called "Mara Dreams the Moon Gate of Uncommon Beauty". Inspired by "The Moon Gate of Uncommon Beauty", a round portal between two rockscapes in the Chinese Scholar's Garden at the Staten Island Botanical Garden. In September 2009, he appeared on Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, the Travel Channel television program, in which he toured Staten Island with the program's host.{{cn|date=March 2025}}

In addition to his own albums, Johansen contributed songs to the soundtracks of the films Times Square and The Aviator ("Flowers in the City" and "Ain't Cha Glad" respectively) and guests on About Them Shoes, a CD by veteran blues man Hubert Sumlin. Another non-album track of his, "Johnsonius", appears on the 1984 compilation A Diamond Hidden in the Mouth of a Corpse and "The Rope (The Let Go Song)", a track originally recorded during the sessions for his eponymous first album and published on the B-side of the single, "Funky But Chic", a song that was performed by the original New York Dolls before their break up.{{cn|date=March 2025}}

An artist noted for his musical unpredictability and versatility, Johansen was a consistent blues enthusiast since the earliest days of the Dolls, with covers of songs by Bo Diddley and Sonny Boy Williamson among their earliest numbers. The 2006 Dolls CD Private World : The Complete Early Studio Demos 1972/3 featured the Dolls performing songs by Otis Redding, Gary U.S. Bonds, Chuck Berry, The Shangri-Las, and Muddy Waters, in addition to versions of songs from their two Mercury albums. Also featured on the CD was a previously unreleased Dolls number, "Endless Party".{{cn|date=March 2025}}

Johansen worked consistently with Sylvain Sylvain, drummer Tony Machine – formerly an agent who worked for Leber & Krebs, a member of the New York Dolls in 1975–1976 and a fixture in many David Johansen groups and throughout the Buster Poindexter period – and Brian Koonin, guitarist and banjo player with Buster Poindexter and the Harry Smiths as well as keyboard player with the New York Dolls for the first reunion engagement and the One Day It Will Please Us To Remember Even This CD and tour.{{cn|date=March 2025}}

In September 2020, Johansen released a cover of "Sinking Ship" by Gypsy.{{Cite web|url=https://www.punknews.org/article/73337/david-johansen-covers-sinking-ship|title=David Johansen covers "Sinking Ship"|website=Punknews.org|date=September 17, 2020 |access-date=January 13, 2021}}

On July 7, 2020, Showtime Documentary Films announced that filmmaker Martin Scorsese would direct a new feature film on Johansen.{{Cite magazine|last=Shaffer|first=Claire|date=July 7, 2020|title=Martin Scorsese to Direct Documentary on New York Dolls' David Johansen|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/martin-scorsese-new-york-dolls-david-johansen-documentary-1024990/|access-date=August 7, 2020|magazine=Rolling Stone}} The Showtime documentary, Personality Crisis: One Night Only, was released on April 14, 2023.[https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-news/david-johansen-martin-scorsese-documentary-personality-crisis-new-york-dolls-11-big-reveals-1234711571/ 11 Big Reveals From Scorsese's David Johansen Doc 'Personality Crisis'], Rolling Stone, Kory Grow, April 14, 2023. Retrieved April 15, 2023. Scorsese was joined in the making of the film by his frequent co-director David Tedeschi, and, with Johansen, Scorsese was interviewed about the film by MSNBC host Joe Scarborough.[https://www.msnbc.com/morning-joe/watch/new-york-dolls-legend-david-johansen-on-his-life-legacy-and-documentary-170147909621 New York Dolls legend David Johansen on his life and legacy], Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough, April 14, 2023. Retrieved April 25, 2023.

Johansen wed actress Cyrinda Foxe in 1977 but divorced within a year in 1978. Johansen was married to photographer Kate Simon from 1983 to 2011.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/01/arts/music/david-johansen-dead.html|title=David Johansen, Who Fronted the New York Dolls and More, Dies at 75|first=Gavin|last=Edwards|date=March 1, 2025|access-date=March 1, 2025|newspaper=The New York Times|url-access = limited}} Johansen wed artist Mara Hennessey in 2013.{{cite book |last1=Christgau |first1=Robert |title=Is It Still Good to Ya?: Fifty Years of Rock Criticism, 1967–2017 |date=2018 |publisher=Duke University Press |isbn=9781478002079 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dGlwDwAAQBAJ&q=%22kate+simon%22+and+%22johansen%22&pg=PT399 |access-date=April 15, 2020 |via=Google Books}}

Johansen was diagnosed with stage four cancer and a brain tumor in 2020, ending his musical career.{{cite news|url = https://variety.com/2025/music/news/david-johansen-dead-new-york-dolls-1236324334/|title = David Johansen, New York Dolls Frontman, Dies at 75|last = Saperstein|first = Pat|date = March 1, 2025|accessdate = March 1, 2025|work = Variety}} He fell and broke his back in two places in November 2024 and required surgery. His step-daughter launched a fundraiser to help with his treatment on February 10, 2025.{{Cite web |title=David Johansen Fund |url=https://www.sweetrelief.org/davidjohansenfund.html |access-date=February 11, 2025 |website=Sweet Relief |language=en}}

David Johansen died from cancer at his Staten Island home on February 28, 2025, at the age of 75.

{{Further|New York Dolls#Discography}}

• 1987: Buster Poindexter US: #40
• 1989: Buster Goes Berserk
• 1994: Buster's Happy Hour
• 1997: Buster's Spanish Rocketship

• 2000: David Johansen and the Harry Smiths
• 2002: Shaker

• 1979–1990: The Uncle Floyd Show multiple performances as The David Johansen Group or David Johansen and the Banshees of Blue (himself)
• 1989: Disney MGM Studios Opening special (Performer)
• 2015: Netflix A Very Murray Christmas (Himself)

• Stay Awake: Various Interpretations of Music from Vintage Disney Films (1988), as "Buster Poindexter and The Banshees of Soul"
• September Songs — The Music of Kurt Weill (1994/1997) — "Alabama Song"
• Stormy Weather: The Music of Harold Arlen (2003) — "Kickin' the Gong Around"
• Jim White Presents Music From Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus (2005) — "The Last Kind Words", with Larry Saltzman (Geeshie Wiley cover)
• AngelHeaded Hipster: The Songs of Marc Bolan & T-Rex (2020) — "Bang a Gong (Get it On)"

{{Reflist}}

• {{Citation | last= Jacobson| first= Mark| date= September 20, 2002| title= The Icon: Doll Face| periodical= New York Magazine| url=http://nymag.com/nymetro/arts/music/features/music2002/n_7736/}}.
• {{Citation | last= Rosen| first= Richard J. |date= July 2000| title= Rick Visits ... David Johansen| periodical= Stereophile | url= http://www.stereophile.com/interviews/248/}}.
• {{Citation | last= Rollins| first= Henry |date= September 2006| title= David Johansen | periodical= Interview | url= http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1285/is_8_36/ai_n16740654 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20061018112401/http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1285/is_8_36/ai_n16740654 | url-status= dead | archive-date= October 18, 2006 }}.
• Steven Morrissey – The New York Dolls, Babylon Books, Manchester, 1981

{{Commons category|David Johansen}}

• {{facebook|officialBusterPoindexter|Buster Poindexter}}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20160303225425/http://goto.glocalnet.net/newyorkdolls/ New York Dolls Homepage]
• [http://sites.google.com/site/davidjoresource/ David Johansen Resource] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201007074901/https://sites.google.com/site/davidjoresource/ |date=October 7, 2020 }}
• {{IMDb name|423774|David Johansen}}
• [{{AllMusic|class=artist|id=p4616|pure_url=yes}} David Johansen] at AllMusic
• [{{AllMusic|class=artist|id=p5159|pure_url=yes}} Buster Poindexter] at AllMusic
• [{{AllMusic|class=album|id=r470334|pure_url=yes}} David Johansen and the Harry Smiths]
• [{{AllMusic|class=album|id=r591655|pure_url=yes}} Shaker]
• {{discogs artist|David Johansen}}
• {{discogs artist|Buster Poindexter|name=Buster Poindexter}}

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