Personality Crisis: One Night Only (2022) Movie Script

Good evening to all.
How exciting is this?
Come on, you gotta give it
New York City...
2020?
It's really been a pleasure
to introduce this guy.
One of the most bon vivant.
I said it again, elegant,
super intelligent,
nicest guy in the
restaurant, right?
To Mara, the beautiful Mara,
tells us what's going on.
The note comes under
the door, right?
We don't know, Buster
Poindexter, David Johansen,
Rama Lama Ding Dong!
He's got a personality crisis.
He's gonna bring it
all to you right now, OK?
He's also got the best pompadour
in the business.
He's here in person.
Wait, he's right there.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Buster Poindexter, David Johansen!
You're funky,
funky but chic
A funky, funky but chic
Your funky, funky but chic
All right.
You funky, but, funky but
All right, all right, all
right
Got a pair of shoes
somebody gave me
My momma thinks I
look pretty fruity
But in jeans I feel rockin'
I don't wear nothin',
not too fussy or neat
I just want somethin' baby
To be able to walk
down your street
Hey, come on baby, let's
get on down to the boutique
Bring back somethin'
that's a funky but chic
I said funky,
funky but chic
That's right, boy.
Funky, funky but chic
I tell you I'll get
down in any neighborhood
My friends will take me
The people out there
they all itch and bitch
Lord, I swear they
gonna break me
Well, I fly just
to get downtown
Where everybody's crazy
I fly on down that street
Them folks stop acting lazy
And I say...
I don't wear nothing
not to fussy or neat
I just want somethin' baby
To be able to fly
down your street
Hey, get on baby,
who at the boutique
Bring back something that's
a funky but chic, yeah
Funky, funky but chic
That's what I'm talking about.
Funky, funky but chic
Correct.
Funky, funky but chic
Oh, yeah!
You funky but, funky but
All right, all right,
all right
I got a little car, come on,
let's go driving 'round
A '56 Mercedes-Benz
I had painted cocoa-brown
It's brown.
I don't drive nothin',
not too fussy or neat
I just want somethin'
to be able to drive down your street
Hey, beep, beep, beep, baby
Let's get down
to the boutique
I'll bring back somethin'
that's a funky but chic, yeah
Funky, funky but chic
Oh, chic.
Funky, funky but
Oh tr s chic
- Funky, funky but
- Oh what chic, now
You funky but, funky but
All right, all right,
all right
All right, all right,
all right, all right
Got a pair of shoes
somebody gave me
My momma thinks I
look pretty fruity
But in jeans I feel rockin'
Cut 'em up!
I don't wear nothin'
not too fussy or neat
I just want somethin'
to be able to walk down your street
Hey get out of bed baby,
let's get on down to the boutique
I'll bring back somethin'
that's funky but chic
Oh!
Yeah!
Yeah!
Yeah!
All right, boys!
Oh, yeah!
All right.
Oh, yeah.
You were the lead singer
of the New York Dolls.
A lot of people credit you guys
with really helping to
start the punk movement.
Well, yeah, but
inadvertently, like,
we didn't do it on purpose.
We were in Newcastle and
it's a place in England
where they make this beer
called Newcastle Brown Ale.
And we were young men
and we had a reputation
of being able to hold our booze.
So they say, "Oh, boys, you
gotta try the local brew."
And they give you
these gigantic cans of
Newcastle Brown Ale.
And we're at like the
Newcastle Polytechnic Institute
or something for a show.
We're drinking these things.
"Have another one."
OK, Ok, another one.
So we drank maybe 10
of these things... and...
Maybe, maybe 10.
We go on stage to play and
everything is going fine.
All of a sudden, the drummer
barfs about 12 gallons
of Brown ale onto
his snare drum,
but he keeps playing.
And so, you know, a good dollop of it
hits me right in the nose
and you know how that is,
it's like a chain reaction.
Yeah, I know how that is.
Why would I know how that is?
I don't know how that is.
Well, I let loose and then the
bass player let loose,
the guitar player let loose,
the audience was like...
Everybody's throwing up
and at the end of the song,
everybody's like, "Yeah!"
And they thought it
was part of the act
and then all the kids in
England started doing this.
It became the rigor of, uh...
Oh, we gotta throw
up like The Dolls!
You know, that kind of thing.
And that's... that's how the
punk movement was born.
I would say that was the...
if you wanted to bring it
down to a moment in time,
that was the moment.
It's super sensuous,
transcendental
something not to be
explained in rational terms.
It's the Mansion of Fun show.
I hear that melody
On the street
My melody
Soft and sweet
Your melody, would you
sing that song to me
Melodies hauntin' me
Memories just repeat
Your melodies even
haunt me in my sleep
I tried to show you,
you just couldn't see it
I tried to tell you, but your
heart couldn't hear it
I tried to love you, but ya
Your heart had to slip away
Now that melody's
hauntin' me
Melody got that beat
The memory just
repeats in my mind
A melody, where I dance
In the place
that I find romance
Your melody just won't
give me a chance
I tried to show you, but
your heart couldn't see it
I tried to tell you, but
your heart couldn't hear it
I tried to love you, but
your heart had to slip away
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah
Melody
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Melody
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Well certain songs
I just can't take it
They start to play and
my old heart starts achin'
Certain songs,
I just can't fake it
They start to play and
I just want to break 'em
I just can't take it
When I hear them
play that song
Yeah that melody
Haunting me
A tender rhapsody,
soft and sweet
The memory follows me
'Til it's insanity
Driving me
Now my melody's
on the street
Oh, melody,
soft and sweet
Oh, melody
Yeah, yeah, melody
Yeah, my melody
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Where am I?
Who am I?
Ahhhh, ahhhh
Ahhhh, ahhhh
Well, I'm stranded
in the jungle
I'm trying to keep a date
With my little girl,
that was back in the States
I'm stranded in the jungle,
I'm afraid of it all
Wondering how I could
get a message back home
But how was I to know that
the wreckage of my plane
Had been picked up
and spotted
By the girl
on Lover's Lane
I said, meanwhile,
back in the States
Baby, baby
Let's make romance
Your old-time love
hasn't got a chance
I said he's stranded in the
jungle, bad as he can be
Come on, pretty darling,
just you and me
Oh yeah, oh yeah
Meanwhile, back in the jungle...
Ahhhh, ahhhh
Ahhhh, ahhhh
Why come
to a New York Dolls show?
A lot of kids are
like whipped dogs
and they feel like they're
really terribly alienated
And I think we give 'em a
feeling that they're not
the same people that
feel these feelings
not the only people
that feel these feelings
and that they're not alone.
They all can come
together on our show
and see each other
and meet each other.
There's a thousand
bands that are coming up
like from the streets,
from the ghetto.
1,2,3,4!
Trash, go pick it up
Take them lights away
Trash, go pick it up
Don't take your life away
Trash, go pick it up
Don't try to take
my knife away
And please don't you
ask me if I love you
If you don't know
what I'm doing
What you know is
Trash, go pick it up...
Now, is it
true that you were president
- of their fan club?
- No. Not at all.
Well, were... were you
involved in their fan club?
No. Not even slightly.
- A member?
- Not even a member.
Tempted to send off
of town for four months?
- Yes, it's all true.
- Yeah.
- It's all true.
- It is true.
You were in the fan club,
you denied it.
- But it's true, isn't it?
- I, I, I, I, I... was the fan club.
I was the fan club.
And what was it that drew
you to The New York Dolls?
Well, they were very violent.
They were very witty and
they were very intelligent.
And as you know, most pop
stars are not very intelligent.
and they're not very witty
and not very violent.
Right.
And why-ha-hy ha-ha ha-hy
Why do you hang around
I'm so sorry
I-I-I-I'm so sorry
It was a good lay, good lay
Ah ha
Do you remember
when you first saw the Dolls?
Mm, yes. I had gone to
see them live in '72,
but their drummer had
died three days earlier.
And everybody was expecting
the Dolls to walk on the stage.
And of course they didn't.
There was just suddenly an
announcement that
Billy had died
and everybody just collapsed.
And then the next
encounter was television.
They, they appeared
very famously
on The Old Grey Whistle Test
which in those very
dark days of '73
was a fantastic vision.
People forget how
absolutely dank things were,
how dank life was
and pop art was.
And there was no,
there was no sense of danger
within pop music at all.
But I was obsessive.
I was, I was
ridiculously obsessive.
This, this was the band for me.
This was the turning
point for me.
Why have so few
people heard New York Dolls?
This is
a blighted band.
I'd almost say cursed
because if you listen to,
if you listen to, to,
to the... the music they made,
every single song is
really a hit single.
And there's no reason on earth
why it shouldn't have happened.
But because they were connected
with drugs and absurdly
transgender issues.
So here were boys who were
calling themselves "Dolls"
and they looked like
prostitutes, male prostitutes,
which at the time,
you have to remember,
it was a long time ago
and all... and all of that kind
of thing was really taboo.
And if a man walked
down the street wearing
women's clothes,
he could be arrested
and thrown into jail.
That's why they only made
two studio albums.
And for a group who
did so little really
and existed for such
a short amount of time,
their impact has
been extraordinary.
And the music, because it was
such fantastic pop music,
it, it just seemed to me like
the absolute answer
to everything.
Which of course...
too dangerous.
I just want
to be like very welcoming.
'Cause the way the society is,
I mean, it, it was set up is
like very strict, like...
straight, gay...
whatever, vegetarian,
whatever you want to, you know,
anything you want to say.
I just wanted to kind of like
bring those walls down and...
and have a party
kind of a thing.
Oh, man, this is great.
This is very nice.
And we are starting our
semi-annual bisexual...
What am I talking about?
Bi-annual residency.
And the cafe called Mara,
who runs this whole
shebang up here and asked
if we'd like to come back.
She said, "Yes."
No, we love it here because,
I'll tell you why,
you take the elevator to work.
My whole life I've
been schlepping.
Oh, in some ungodly conveyances.
Then came the... the question of
what kind of a repertoire we
would present because you have
to have a new one every year.
And I was in no mood
for learning 20 songs.
There's only so
many hours in a day.
So we decided that we
would do Buster Poindexter...
That's me...
singing the songs of
David Johansen... that's me.
Because I know those songs.
And so here we are, both of us.
And... tonight, I'm gonna do
songs that I wrote or co-wrote,
I guess from when I was a
teenager, all the way up to now.
And the one thing I could say,
the unifying thing
of my existence, is that there's
always been plenty of music.
That's nice. Very nice.
Feeling a great
sadness today
I don't want to shush
it or shoo it away
It belongs to the whole
world, the boys and girls
It ain't just mine
Like joy and love,
it's always there
I don't know how I tune in,
or why that I care
But I can't pretend it
don't feel like the end
And everything is fine
I feel exiled
from the divine
Me and these sad
friends of mine
We're just waiting down here,
drinking beer
And losing time
Well, I hear
plenty of music
I see superfluous
beauty everywhere
Why should I care
What does it matter to me
Yeah, yeah.
All right, now.
The myth of life
is a song
Yeah!
And nature, too,
that's the song
All right.
Don't you destroy the song
'Cause when
the song is gone
You'll be gone too
I don't know
how it went astray
Seem like the whole world
is an ashtray
Floatin' around
Some broken-down,
low-end galaxy
I don't know what I
did to get sent here
Must have been some
bad that I done
There in the world gone mad
Feeling sad
I guess I'm sorry
I don't need
no one to love me
Or place theirself above me
What does it matter,
I don't need a ladder
What's it to me
I hear plenty of music
I see superfluous beauty
Everywhere
So why should I care
What does it matter
Yeah, I hear
plenty of music
I see superfluous beauty
Everywhere
Why should I care
What does it matter to me
What's it matter to me
Nothing matters to me
What's the matter with me
Oh!
Beautiful.
Beautiful.
Poor boy
Poor boy
Poor boy long way from home
When I was down
in Louisiana
Just doing as I please
Now I'm in Texas
I got to work or leave
Poor boy
You
actually knew Harry Smith?
Well, I didn't really know him,
but I met him a couple of times.
You went to
his place at The Chelsea?
Yeah, probably, yeah.
What
was his room like?
It was kinda like, you know,
a speed den,
I think at the time.
You know, like when I was a kid
you would go to The Chelsea
and you'd get stuck
in there for like a week,
going to different
people's rooms and stuff.
I was probably 18 at
the time, you know,
so I would like to go see
people that were generally older
and could impart
some kind of wisdom.
Was Harry
Smith one of those people?
Well, I, you know...
He could have been.
- Who's this?
- Who's who?
This guy.
- Oh, that's Harry Smith.
- Oh.
He was, you know,
like a polymath.
This guy was into a lot
of really good shit.
He would be into something
and then he would be like
through with it, you know?
When he was young,
he started out,
he would hang with
the Lummi people.
He recorded their
traditional music
and he made a lot of like
experimental films later on.
He would put ads in
newspapers around the country,
asking people if they
wanted to get rid
of their old 78s that
were in the attic.
I mean, you know,
he was the kind of guy
who would collect string,
you know what I mean?
His record collection
is pivotal
in the American music
and rock and roll
and the folk boom in the 50s.
Everybody who wanted
to be a folk singer
in the 1950s would learn
songs from those records.
And there was a lot of
different kinds of songs.
He picked like, you
know, really strange tunes.
You
recorded a lot of songs
from the Harry Smith
record collection
and you named your
band The Harry Smiths.
Would you say that he's
someone who inspired you?
Not at all.
Well, you're very averse to...
No, because he was such
a grouch, this guy.
I mean, I liked a lot
of the stuff he did,
but I never thought, "Oh wow,
I wish I could do that."
Poor boy
Poor boy
I grew up
in Staten Island
in a house that my
grandfather built.
We had a lot of
records in the house.
Music was on all the time.
You know, sometimes
there would play a show
while we were having dinner
or something, you know.
What
about your dad singing?
What about it?
Like,
did you sing with
your dad around the house?
Uh no, not so much,
but he was a very good singer.
He used sing like light opera
like Gilbert and Sullivan.
He knew a lot of operas.
How old were you
when you had your first band?
Thirteen or fourteen.
We used to play at you know,
like school dances
and we used to go into
the "Battle of the Bands."
We always used to come in
second because this other group
from the ass end
of Staten Island,
used to play these songs
with like The Ventures,
like with the guitars
behind their head,
which I always saw felt like,
that's really a lame gimmick.
But... they won every time.
I remember the first
time we played
I remember the first song,
Boogaloo Down Broadway
by the fantastic Johnny C.
- You know that song?
- No.
Baby, oh baby
Boogaloo down Broadway
Yeah, yeah, funky Broadway
I closed my eyes for
the whole first song...
and then I could hear
them all applauding
and I opened my eyes
and I was like,
"Oh, they like it."
OK, here we go.
I'm gonna just reminisce
for a minute here, but...
...it's my birthday today.
And I'm such a
sentimental old fool.
I was recalling how
when I was like 16,
my friends and I went to...
and I had a very interesting
group of friends,
kind of like Maynard G. Krebs
type people.
The New York Avant
Garde Festival was...
held on the ferry boat.
So we went to see
Charlotte Moormon
play the cello topless.
That's the kind of
crowd we ran with.
We liked a little culture
with our pornography.
So a friend of mine said,
"I work for a guy over there
and he's looking for
somebody else to work there."
It was a little store on
St. Mark's Place
called Matchless
and it was run by a
fellow named Lore Wilson.
And it was nice.
They had tchotchkes,
you know, around the store.
And I was sent down to
the basement to work,
which was like...
very dark, dank, stonewalls...
like it was dug out of rock...
with moss and water
dripping down.
It was a Dickensian hell.
And my job was to cut logos
off of beer cans and
soda cans, like Pepsi,
and then put a fastener on it
and make earrings out of them.
It was kind of pop art jewelry.
But I noticed that along
the walls there were racks
and on the racks were
these big fat lush boas.
There was a huge
sequined phallus.
There was... all kinds of
headdresses and costumes.
And so I said, "Lore, what's the
deal with this...
cosplay stuff over here?"
And he said, "Oh, well
I'm the costume designer
for the Ridiculous Theater
and these are costumes
for their next production."
I think it was
Whores of Babylon,
or Conquest of the Universe,
or something.
So I said, "Oh, can I go
to the rehearsal with you?"
And he said, "Oh yes."
And then I met the most
fabulous people I think
that I could ever have
imagined at that point.
So I said, "Lore, I'm not
gonna be coming back tomorrow."
I was like, "I'm gonna stay
over here at the theater."
And... sometimes I
would do the sound and...
sometimes I
would do the lights,
sometimes I would nod out
while I was doing the sound
and Charles Ludlam
would have to like...
give me my cue
like three times.
"And then the thunder rolled."
"The thunder rolled!"
And then I would go.
Sometimes I was a spear
carrier and went on stage.
It was just great.
And one time I was sharing
a dressing room table
with Candy Darling and
Black-Eyed Susan was complaining
about her waitressing job.
And Candy said, "I've been a
lot of low things in my life,
but I've never
been no waitress."
I went from hell to heaven,
you know, it was fantastic.
OK, baby.
Yeah, yeah.
Temptation to exist
Give me another kiss
Tell me how you love me
A mesmerizing kiss
That I can't resist
Say I'm the way you want me
So I can breathe
your perfume
Dancing with you
'round the room
Long after a masquerade
All right, baby.
Stripped of
facade and costume
The drag with being born
It's really not a thorn
Baby, it's a dagger
Most people would deny
Say it's a piece of pie
To you it doesn't matter
I hear about all
the sad affairs
Up on the heights
of despair
Someone's always perishing
Ah...
By the self they've assumed
All right Ray, let's go.
Oh!
Yeah, baby!
Aw yeah.
Heh-hey!
Temptation to exist
Obsession to persist
Death-defying romance
Give me another kiss
Show me what I miss
Baby, since our last dance
So I can get back in tune
All right.
Dancing with you
'round the room
Long after the masquerade
All right, baby.
With no facade, no costume
Here we go, boys.
Ray Grappone, everybody,
Ray Grappone on
whistling and drums.
Ray, I would whistle
with you anywhere.
Well, thank you, boss man.
You know, Ray and I
have been practicing
in the shower and it's
coming together really well.
- Oh, Thomas!
- Did he say that?
- Thomas everybody.
- Thank you.
You are a living legend.
Oh, oh, oh...
God bless you.
If you need anything here
ladies and gentlemen,
just slip Thomas a "C" note
and he'll take care of it.
- I love you, thank you.
- Same to you.
What a class joint.
Oh, this is great.
I'm used to playing the 2:00 AM
show in the Boom Boom Room.
You know what I'm saying?
Boys, we're in top form tonight.
Have you noticed?
This is The Boys
in the Band Band.
Well, have you heard of
a fellow named Morrissey?
If you haven't,
I'll clue you in.
He was the teenage president
of the New York Dolls
fan club in England.
He's kind of a Gloomy Gertie.
But he loved him some Dolls,
you know what I'm saying?
And still does.
So... he called me and he said,
"I understand you're a
pretty big Maria Callas fan."
And I said, "Yes, I happen to be
known for
that in certain circles."
And he said, "Well, you know
that film she made
where she did
a fantastic concert
at the Royal Festival Hall?"
I said, "Yes, by heart."
He said, "How would
you like to play the
Royal Festival Hall?"
I said, "Yes, I would."
He said, "Well,
all you have to do
is get the Dolls back together."
And I thought, Royal Festival
Hall, Maria Callas.
I combed every opium
den in Chinatown
and I pulled that band together.
We were fantastic.
It was a big success.
They added a second show.
Then... it was the
beginning of the summer
and all these festivals
in Europe were
starting where they
play in the fields.
I didn't know
about these things.
They called, "Would you play?"
And I said,
"Well, of course we would."
We were up and running.
We went all over the place.
Then we went all over the world.
Then we went all over
the world three times.
And I was like, "OK, you know,
I've really seen
enough of this world.
I want to go home, thank you."
I came home, my liver
was like...
So, I'm just saying
this because like
if you haven't seen
me around, that's why.
One, two, three, four...
Oh! That was some segue.
My baby
I don't talk
nasty about her
You ain't even got no class
I'm gonna kick your ass
All 'cause my baby
Oh, wait a minute,
I fucked it up.
I fucked it up.
I fucked it up.
It's all my fault.
I was thinking of another song,
I was thinking of a
Jimmy Rogers song.
Who's so fly up in the sky
Faster than any boy
could ever describe
Who's got that love so deep
With everything alive,
I said
Jet boys fly, jet boys gone
Jet boys stole my baby
Flying around
New York City so high
Like he was my baby
This is the kind of
place where no one cares
What you're living for
And Jet Boy's
so preoccupied
He don't care about before
And that's why
Jet boys fly, jet boys gone
Jet boy stole my baby
Flying around New
York City so high
Like he was my baby
My baby
- Yes.
- Very nice.
Fantastic.
I've never seen
anything like it.
Yes, you've never seen.
Happy memories looking back?
What is that?
What feelings are you feeling?
I feel invincible.
Yes.
Didn't you
once get arrested
for impersonating a woman?
Well, it was in Memphis,
as I recall, right?
But you weren't
impersonating a woman.
I wasn't, I was kind of dressed
like Liza Minnelli at the time.
He invited everybody
on the stage
and he got arrested for
that in Memphis, Tennessee.
But they, they pegged it on
dressing like Liza Minnelli?
Yeah, I had to go to jail
dressed like Liza Minnelli
and Memphis jail
is not Mayberry.
It's a real jail.
No if you went to like
the thrift store or something,
you would most likely have
to buy women's clothes
to look like a
rockstar, you know?
It's
interesting that you guys,
that you thought that you
had to wear women's clothes.
Well, we didn't have to
but there was nothing
else available.
You know, if
Granny Takes a Trip,
had opened an outlet,
then we could have wore
men's woman's clothes.
But we used to kind of
improvise, you know.
Come on, boys!
Were
there places where,
or times where it felt a
little more risky or dangerous?
Well...
Or you
might get beat up?
Yeah, I mean, the first
time we played outta town
we played at some like
club in Long Island.
It was called like
The Shark or something,
I don't remember
what it was called.
It was just like a big room,
like a warehouse kind of room.
And when we pulled up,
there was all these
like muscle cars and
stuff, pack of cigarettes
stuck in the shirt that was
rolled up kind of a thing.
And I was like, "Oh man,
people still doing this?"
And we started to play
and all the guys moved
towards the back and the
girls moved towards the front.
Somethin' happened.
I don't even remember what,
but the guys started beating
the hell out of each other
and then they opened up
the doors on either side
- and pushed everybody out.
- Why?
Because of the sound?
The look?
What was so bad?
It kind of caused a
lot of sexual tension, I think,
between guys and girls.
It was a mess.
The thing about the Dolls,
the original Dolls, was that
we all had very kind
of similar ideas about
what it takes to be
a great rockstar.
People who are really
campy, but you know,
it's an old expression,
but it's like the lie
that tells the truth, you know?
And it just kind of
gets to the point.
Baby, up all night
Baby, New York City
Baby, so so high
Baby, so so high
Don't you know that
Like he was my baby
Like he was my baby
Like he was my baby
I remember during this period
when we were having this
reunion thing, the Dolls,
we got a call from
one of our myriad
record companies.
Every time we do a record,
we get dumped.
So, they said, "Would you
like to go to the island
of Kauai, Hawaii
and make a record
at the home of Todd Rundgren?"
I said, "Yes... now?
Like now? January now."
"Yes."
Showed up a few days early.
Todd was kind of pissed,
but fuck him.
You know what I'm saying?
Who does he think he is?
So he said,
"OK, what do you...
play me what you got.
What do you got?"
I said,
"We don't have nothing, man.
We'll get right to it though."
So, it was great.
It was verdant.
It was lush.
I don't know if you saw it
in Architectural Digest,
but Todd's house,
it looks like a Cambodian
drug lord's pagoda.
It's beautiful.
I was like,
"Man, a gentleman of my stature
belongs right here."
You know what I'm saying?
We went back to the
Bay of Honah Lee.
You know who lives there,
don't you?
Puff.
Oh, yeah.
We hung with Puff a
little bit there, baby.
It was cool.
Normally it rained every day.
But intermittently,
at intervals.
Usually, it stopped raining
when it was time for us
to go in the studio
and make some noise
with the pots and pans, but
it was it was still beautiful.
Anyway, we wrote
this song there.
It's a good one.
It's gonna be really good.
Hate how the myth
of separation
Really cast a spell on me
Never missing one occasion
Of the infinite
varieties of agony
We pass on down our
borrowed anguish
Our blasted joys,
our jubilant despair
Leave us crying out
here to languish
Poor outcast,
it's too much to bear
Making rain
Yeah, making rain
It's always raining here
Sometimes I need a
little shove, yeah
Remind me of my providence
Learn to bear the
beams of love, yeah
Mending my conflict
with circumstance
Just making rain
Yeah!
Yeah, making rain
It's always raining here
The heart's in pain
Crying in the rain
Here comes that rain again
Exacerbations,
excruciations
That's the tears of things
Yeah, baby.
Exacerbations,
excruciations
Well, that's the
tears of things
Very nice.
Waiting in a subway station
In some godforsaken
neighborhood
It's as if my
blood was dreaming
And resolved
itself into melody
Yeah, making rain
Here comes the rain
It's always raining here
Our hearts in pain
Yeah, findin' the rain
Oh, the rain
Yeah, the rain
It's always raining here
Oh, the rain
Yay...
Yeah, it's always
raining here
Yeah, baby.
Yup.
Keith Cotton,
everybody, on the piano.
You know, when I was 18,
I started hanging around at
this place, Max's Kansas City.
It was kind of like this place.
Great people.
My kind of people,
you know what I'm saying?
Like, it was probably the
But still up there
in the top two.
It was a lot like this actually.
It was a lot like this.
Some of the greatest queens
you'd ever wanna meet.
Oh, my god.
I remember one night...
I believe it was...
Penny, you'll correct
me if I'm wrong.
Because Penny Arcade was
there as well this evening.
It was Ingrid Superstar?
It was you, Bill Vehr and
Ingrid Superstar and me.
OK, Penny and I,
my friend Bill Vehr
from the Ridiculous Theater.
The author of Turds in Hell.
He was my best
friend at the time.
We were biffing.
And Ingrid Superstar.
And Ingrid said,
"You're on a trip.
You're on a trip.
You're on... everybody here
is on a trip except for me."
And Bill very calmly said,
"But, Ingrid Superstar,
you took eight Tuinals."
She said, "Yeah, but
I'm not on a trip."
Anyway, I found that
amusing, you know.
So much so, that I recall
that after all these years.
Something about certain
turns of phrase in language
that are peculiar to each of us.
Written
for you, Tina Louise.
- What's my real name, Duchess?
- I don't know.
You really like to
destroy people, don't you?
Everybody you
would meet would be alive,
freewheelin' and so
much stuff going on.
So that after you've
come six times, six times,
you're gonna find out
that you're Superman, you see.
There's something
wrong with this.
Charles Ludlum came
to the show one night
and he just said, "I'm
having a personality crisis."
And I thought,
"That's really good."
And I kind of
remembered it, you know.
Here, let me
pull through the bottom.
I remember when I moved
into my first apartment,
which was a seventh-floor walkup
on the Hells Angels block.
I turned on the radiator
and it just like started hissing steam
I really didn't
know what to do about it.
And so, I knocked on, I guess
it was my neighbor's door,
or two doors down
and this guy came in.
He was like a college professor,
but kind of like, you know,
a hip college
professor kind of guy.
He was very nice
and very political.
He told me that I should
check out his group,
which happened to be the Up
Against the Wall Motherfuckers.
I said, "OK."
And he kind of like would
encourage me
because apparently,
I had the stuff to rally the
street if something went down,
so I used to stay on the corner,
like go climb up a
lamppost and say,
"We're not gonna let these cops,
blah blah blah blah
blah blah blah."
And everybody'd
be like, "No, no."
And then there'd be
like some kind of a...
skirmish or whatever.
And my mother said to
me about them, she said,
"You know what you are?
You're a commie dupe."
I had to
think like, "Yeah, maybe."
Maybe I was.
There were so many characters
on St. Mark's Place in,
you know, '69,'70.
I used to really like Abbie
Hoffman a lot when I was a kid.
Did
you meet him first?
Yeah, I used to see
him all the time.
He was very personable.
We planted a tree in the
middle of St. Mark's Place.
He was the instigator of that.
The ruse of it was
that we need more trees
on St. Mark's Place.
He said, "Where're
we gonna get a tree?"
I said, "They got trees
all over Staten Island."
He got a van, came
to Staten Island,
dug up a tree like
in the Greenbelt
or something where
there's a million trees.
And did you
put it in like a bucket
or did you...
No, I think they just
put a mound of dirt around it,
as I recall.
They didn't expect it to stay.
It was in the middle
of the street.
Like they just wanted
to like do something.
We went to Lincoln Center.
It might have been the
opening of Lincoln Center.
You know, those like
industrial boxes of Tide
like they have at a
laundromat so you can buy
like a cupful or whatever?
They dumped one of
those in the fountain.
And it just like started,
it was like a comedy movie.
It just like started foaming
up and all these people
who were like, you know...
uh...
society contributors
to Lincoln Center, right?
They were all done
up to the nines
and they were all like
slipping in the foam.
And it was great.
It was so beautiful.
There was a lot of
liberation movements
in the East Village
in those days.
They were all kind
of interesting, so...
But the Yippies were the
most ridiculous, you know,
so that appealed to me
and Charles Ludlam
was ridiculous
and that appealed to me.
Ridiculousness is something
that I've always kind of,
especially, if it's really
intelligent ridiculousness
it's kind of appealing to me.
We've really expanded
all definitions
and all mediums to where
that you have to forget
those definitions that you
learned in school.
But you got
to forget that, folks.
So, you got to forget
the definition of art,
the definition of music, the
definition of video art now.
All these things are being
expanded every single day.
Music does not aim
at sound itself,
but is in a complex conception.
First, forget about sounds.
Sounds must be free.
The goal of today's
Mansion of Fun show
is to live with
godlike composure
on the full rush of energy,
like Dionysus riding the leopard
without being torn to pieces.
Hey, Leroy!
- What?
- Your mama.
She's calling you, man.
You know, when I was a kid,
I lived on East Sixth Street.
Before that, I lived
on Third Street
on the Hells Angels block.
Not my cup of tea.
I mean, it was all right.
But... one day there was
a knock at the door,
which was in the kitchen,
which is also where the
bathtub was located.
I opened the door and
there stood this big viking
who was wearing a tutu
and paratrooper boots
and some like ripped
yellow tights.
Next to him was this
little Colombian guy.
He was kind of like cleaning
his nails with a stiletto.
But still I thought, "I gotta
watch out for this big guy."
Turned out though it
was the little guy
I had to watch out for.
Anyway, it was Arthur Kane
and Billy Murcia.
And... Thank you.
Arthur said to me, "I
understand you're a singer."
I didn't really
expect that voice,
you know, to come
out of this Cossack.
I said, "Yeah, I like to sing."
He said, "Well, we're
trying to start a band
and we need a singer."
And I said, "OK, I'm in."
I mean, you know, I made
snap decisions in those days.
You know, like later on in
life you start thinking,
"Well, what's this gonna
be like in six months?"
You know?
This is like,
at that point like,
"What's this going to be like"
let me do the arithmetics.
Fifty years later,
you're still like,
"Oh my God, what was that?"
So we went over to 10th Street
where Johnny Thunders had
a very nice apartment.
The bathtub was in the bathroom,
you know what I'm saying?
Couple other rooms.
I think his mother
was paying his rent.
I mean, I'm not sure, OK?
So don't quote me on that.
New York Dolls
guitarist Johnny Thunders
was found dead on the
floor of a guest house
in the French Quarter of New
Orleans on Tuesday afternoon.
The cause of death hasn't
yet been determined.
But Thunders, whose given
name was John Genzale,
had a longtime drug habit.
Our will is hard
Man, it's so hard
And it's a lonely
planet joy
When you bring a song
from your other boy
That's when I'm a
lonely planet boy
And I'm tryin'
For your love
Whoa, whoa, whoa, yeah
You pick me up
You're out drivin'
in your car
I tell you where I'm going
You're always telling me
It's too far
But how could
you be drivin'
Down by my home
When you know
I ain't got one
And
I'm so all alone
Whoa, whoa, whoa, yeah
All right.
Well, it's a
lonely planet joy
When you bring the song
from your other boys
That's when I'm a lonely
planet boy and I'm tryin'
Yeah, cryin'
Baby for your love
Whoa, whoa, whoa, yeah
Oh, yeah!
Whoa, whoa, whoa, yeah
Can't you hear me callin'
When I'm a thousand
miles away
I don't wanna stay
I'm thinking of
words I gotta say
'Cause I wanna be
there with you
I know what to bring you
I remember
From the days
I got over
Everything
Whoa, whoa, whoa, yeah
Well, it's a
lonely planet joy
When you bring a song
from your other boys
That's when I'm a
lonely planet boy
And I'm tryin'
Yeah, I'm cryin'
Oh, can't you see
that I'm dyin'
Baby, for your love
Whoa, whoa whoa, yeah
Whoa, whoa, yeah
Whoa, whoa, whoa, yeah
Let me tell you about
the time I met Mara, all right?
My life was going along
kind of like Groundhog Day.
I didn't really see
much reason to continue
and then I met Mara and
oh my God, you know?
I don't believe it.
I don't believe it.
I love you, Mara.
I love you.
Always will.
It was a scandal.
Oh my God.
But... so worth it.
So anyway, I wrote this...
I wrote this lyric...
for my love.
Been cravin' more life
And more love
That lives in the soul
Of my heart
I don't wanna be
No artist
I'm a dancin', singin'
A work of art
Yeah, you lit my heart
With fiery aggression
and you showed me
This feeling of love
Of sex and affection
that ya owed me
Danger
And I ain't scared
In danger
I found the splendor there
I was dancin' on
a flamin' pit
Dancing
We are creating it
We're dancing
Right on the lip
Of a volcano
Nature with its true voice
cries out undissembled
Be as I am
Revealing its wildest
most generous incarnation
In danger
Devil may care
Danger
The fire's everywhere
'Cause we're dancing
Atop a flamin' pit
We're dancing
We are creating it
We're dancing
Right on the lip
Of a volcano
Oh yeah.
All right.
Yeah, man.
All right, man.
Oh, yeah!
Oh!
In the center of action of
my psyche's need for love
I want liberation and joy
In a paroxysm
of intoxication
Inspiration ain't
no way to be coy
In danger
A blazing glare
Oh, yes!
In danger
I found the splendor there
Oh, yeah
Dancin' atop flamin' pit
Dancin', we're creating it
We're dancin'
right on the lip
Of a volcano
Volcano
A volcano
Thrown in the dance
with the mystics
It's burnin' us
up with his music
It's sensualistic
It's ritual
It's polytheistic
Ye-heh-heh.
Whoa.
Oh, smokestack lightning
Shinin' just like gold
Oh, don't you
hear me cryin'
A-whoo-hoo
A-whoo-hoo
A-whoo-hoo
Oh, stop your tryin'
Let a poor boy ride
Oh, don't you
hear me cryin'
A-whoo-hoo
A-whoo-hoo
A-whoo-hoo
A lot of these are from
when I sang with Hubert.
A lot of Howlin' Wolf
Wang-Dang-Doodle and
things of that nature.
Oh, here's Blind Willie McTell
and his wife.
Apparently he shot his wife.
He only winged her.
But from what they say,
it may be apocryphal,
but they say that he stood
in the middle of the room
and just, like, swung
around rapid firing...
like a ballet dancer.
What's this one?
I don't know.
This is...
It says it's Buster's
big book, so...
let's see.
Explain to
me your lyric book.
It's not just lyrics in there.
There's something else in there.
What's in that book that
I used for the show?
Uh-huh.
There's a lot of, like,
devotional art in there.
There's millions of
Hindu gods, you know.
You ever go to, like,
Central Park
and there'll be a lot of, like,
Cuban guys and Puerto-Ricans
and they're all playing
congas and things like that.
Do they still have that there?
Yeah.
You know those guys that
are into, like, the Orishas?
So, like, say you
and me are playing.
'Cause you know, the rumbas
all have, you know, like...
saints that each beat is
dedicated to or whatever.
So they kind of just, like,
beam it up and then it
comes back down to you.
It's not like we're playing,
like, at each other.
So when
you'll turn a page,
there'll be a
different image there
that's associated
somehow with that song.
It could be associated
with that song.
It's just something that reminds
me of what I'm there for,
you know.
Because it makes it a lot
more fun for me, you know.
Music to me is, you know, they
say playing music, you know.
They don't say
like working music.
You're supposed to be playing.
So...
If I don't do it as some
kind of a devotional thing,
it's gonna become
a grind for me.
You're in the Mansion Of Fun
with Sri Rama,
Poindexter, Johansen.
Where...
aestheticism
and eroticism...
are two sides of the same coin.
And unwillingness to see
this exacts a terrible price
in prudery, misery
and warped lives.
I'm just a bad boy
La la la la la la
la la la la la la
La la la la la la
la la la la la
All dressed up
in fancy clothes
I'm taking the trouble
To blow my bubble
Away
Bad boy
La la la la la la
la la la la la la
La la la la la la
la la la la la
Life is just
a bowl of cherries
I'm taking the trouble
To turn my night into day
You, were in the vanguard
of punk, new wave,
with the New York Dolls.
Legendary group.
Now, what made you
completely abandon
that kind of rock and
roll that you were doing?
I understand in Cleveland
you just decided
that you had enough of it.
Well, I'll tell you.
Contrary to popular
belief, you know,
because the Dolls
were such, like,
a shock kind of
troop battalion that...
I think a lot of people
didn't realize that
the Dolls music was...
built like basically, you know,
the roots of the thing was
really rhythm and blues.
And it was, like, a
classic rock and roll band.
What makes a classic
rock and roll band?
Big Fat Mamas
Are Back In Style.
And... uh Lavender Coffin?
Lavender... All I want is a
lavender coffin
and what I call pre-haze cold
rock and roll.
How did Buster
Poindexter become?
Well, basically, after
the Dolls, you know
I did the David Johansen
show for many years.
I was on the road for
like 250 nights a year.
And I had a lot of fun.
But after a while, you know,
you want to come back home
you want to kind of
establish relationships
and things like that.
So I came up with
this brilliant idea
to come up with an act that
could only play in New York.
There was a club in my
neighborhood called Tramps
and I thought I was gonna
do four Mondays there
because, it was a Blues bar
but they didn't have
acts on Mondays.
And so I thought I'd do, well,
since there's nobody there
on Monday, I'd try this
little cabaret thing
with, like, three
guys as a backup band.
And I started doing it and
it caught on and all of a
sudden I was making my nut,
so to speak.
And I wasn't going on the road.
I wanted to do a show that
would entertain my peers,
so to speak.
Now your peers, you're
what, 36 now, about?
I'm 37.
- Thirty-seven now.
- For a few more minutes.
Really inching up there.
- "Inching up there," to where?
- Well, I don't know.
- To the end.
- The next thing you'll be 40.
- This is the big one.
- Right.
OK, there's two
Yiddish hipsters.
It's a short joke.
Two Yiddish hipsters
sitting on a park bench
and one of them says
"Oy."
And the other one says,
"I'm hip."
OK?
Do you ever
write down, not jokes,
but, like, banter and
things you wanna say?
Banter?
Like things you wanna say
between songs that aren't jokes?
You mean that aren't funny?
- Yeah.
- No.
No.
I mean, you know, if I'm
playing in, like, a big place,
I'm not, like,
telling jokes because...
The David Johansen band
went on this whole tour
with Pat Benatar
and you know, she's great.
She can really belt out a tune.
But...
they would kinda look at me
like I was a bug a lot of the
times in those...
hockey rinks, you know?
Like you
were a little guy
or like you were a freak or...
Like a bug.
And what kind of
songs can Buster sing
that you can't sing?
Uh...
Everything.
I mean, you know,
I can sing, you know,
a lot of kinds of songs, but...
I think I already went
through this with you.
Like, Buster is just like,
I can do anything I want.
People aren't...
expecting something else.
They come because
it's unexpected,
what I'm gonna do, you know?
And they kind of trust
that it's gonna be good
and it's always good.
What can I say?
I woke up late one day
And turned on my TV
They said they'd
take it all
When I was asleep
Well they were
bringing down doors
They were purging
and burning
People just like me
Well I fixed a drink,
I switched around the channel
But that was
all I could see
Well it's such
a boring feeling
When you find that
you're fallin' to a
Totalitarian state
Well, I know what's left
It don't seem right
You just don't
feel so great
Well it seems
we're all camping
And the Mexicans
was laughing
Down at the
detention center
They didn't seem to care
that they were there
I couldn't find
one dissenter
I didn't feel communal
I was incommunicado
I couldn't see it
getting any better
I couldn't call no one
I wish I had a gun
I couldn't even
send a letter
It's such a boring feeling
When you find that
you're falling
To a totalitarian state
I know what's left
It don't seem right
You just don't
feel so great
When they came to get me
I'd hope they would
forgive me
I tried playing dead
I finished my drink,
assessed the situation
Put the covers
up over my head
I quit
Well, me and my friends
All hang out in a
non-litigious crowd
We're sensitive to
other people's needs
And on this we are proud
But this situation
really bites
I mean, for crying out loud
I don't know what to do
I feel like a fool
This time I'm gonna sue
It's such a boring feeling
When you find that
you're fallin' to a
Totalitarian state
You know what's left
It don't seem right
It just don't seem so great
Oh!
Whoa.
Whoa.
Hey, hey.
Hey, hey.
Totalitarian State...
Baby!
It sounds like
you've never really been bitter
about the fact that
the Dolls never garnered
these huge wages,
whereas you could
look at bands like
Kiss and Aerosmith
and they made a
pretty good dime off
- Yeah.
- essentially a
watered-down version
of what you were doing.
Yeah, no. We, we were
a band's band, you know?
In a lot of ways.
And we influenced
a lot of bands
and a lot of kids
were influenced by us
who started bands, you know.
Take the Ramones.
The Ramones saw us and they,
they looked at each
other and said,
"Hey, if these guys can
do that, we can do that."
And to have influence
like that on people,
I think, is really good,
you know.
To give people the...
the idea like,
"Hey, I could do that."
Wow, listen to
how sweet that is.
Didn't I make you feel
- Like you were the only man
- Whoo!
That's probably
Aretha playing piano.
- Didn't I give you everything
-You know that?
That a woman possibly can
- Is this her sister?
- Yeah.
But with all the
love I give ya
It's never enough
But I'm gonna show ya, baby
That a woman can be tough
Is there any
music you just don't like?
Most, most stuff on
the radio.
I don't even know
what I don't like,
because I just don't hear it.
You know?
It doesn't,
if I like something it stops in
the middle of my head
and it just rattles around
and if I don't like it it just
kind of goes through me and
I don't grab it.
You know, my show is not like
something that...
your average kid
would understand.
Why not?
Why not?
Because it's, it's
out of the ordinary,
you know, it's kind of like...
it's got, it's like peculiar
to my taste, you know.
That Marilyn Horne version,
she gets right to the meat.
Did the folks play that stuff?
- How'd you get turned on to...
- Oh, you know, my old man,
he was an opera singer.
And it's like, all that we heard
had been classical
music when I was a kid,
- Oh.
- which used to drive me crazy.
- Mm-hmm.
- My old man would be like
wearing his army clothes,
paint in the house
and the Texaco Opera
on the Grundig
would be in the window,
blaring out.
And my friends would come by,
on Saturday and I'd be like
holding the ladder
and I'd be like...
My old man would
be up there like
And now...
and now it's all
over your radio show.
This next song, I wrote it to
a Lightnin' Hopkins song.
Texas Blues.
I gave the lyrics to Brian,
see what he wanted
to do with it.
And he came up with
this really great song
and we're gonna
sing it for you now.
So the only one who sounds
like Lightnin' Hopkins
in this version is me.
I give you that Eddie
Murphy smile, like...
I keep watching
and wondering
Why a little bird
flies up to the sky
Only God knows,
maybe he don't
You know that holy
talk has been a lie
I keep praying
it's the truth
And I ain't got
no death to die
I ain't got no death to die
Yeah, I keep
hollering and prayin'
I don't have to be
such a hurtful bum
How could I
sometimes be so good
And turn around and
be so wrong to some
Ah, what's the use
of all this praying
When I don't know
the spirit from
The spirit from who
this prayer have come
That old eternal spirit
Always whispering in my ear
Radiance of the infinite
Seems to be everywhere
But my weary eyes can't see
And I'm afraid my
old ears cannot hear
Afraid my old
ears cannot hear
You've been a
consolation of my life
And you will be of my death
And I pray that
you'll have mercy
Moment of my last breath
I know these
words of weariness
Just don't make me wander
from death to death
Don't make me wander
from death to death
Beautiful.
Now, our next guest
is truly a unique rock star.
I mean he's what you call a
free spirit, a knockout singer,
starting a heat wave right
here at the Waldorf-Astoria
singing Hot Hot Hot,
Buster Poindexter!
One, two, three!
Ole-Ole-Ole-Ole
Ole-Ole-Ole-Ole
That was like, the bane of my
existence, that song, you know.
I don't know how I
feel about it now.
I haven't heard it lately.
Would
you hear it like
all over the place like...
Oh, God, that's
ubiquitous, that song.
It was like, forget about it.
It's like, you know,
they play it at weddings,
bar mitzvahs. It's like...
Six Flags.
Six Flags!
Hot hot hot
Hot hot hot
Hot hot hot
They used to have a show
on VH1 called One Hit Wonders.
And I was on it
twice because I sang,
you know, like that Animals
medley thing as David Johansen.
And then I sang
Hot Hot Hot as Buster,
so I was a one hit wonder twice.
Did you
have like a vision for
what your life would
be like at this point?
You can make plans
and they're fun to do,
but they're rarely...
What you want to do by
the time you get there.
I think I used to be like...
five year increments.
Where I'll be in five years
or whatever, when I was a kid.
Yeah.
Somebody
said that some guy
who was a record producer,
he was a...
he was a millionaire.
And I thought,
"Wow, a millionaire."
He was 23, you know?
And I was like,
"Wow, a millionaire at 23.
That'd be great."
But I didn't...
I came to realize, well,
that's not really so good.
Because the guy, turned out,
he was a murderer.
- Do I want to do like this?
- Yeah.
Yeah. I like this.
Get the oil
off your chest.
Just because I'm
not like responding,
doesn't mean I'm not in ecstasy.
I know that.
We're married.
Here you go.
So what
were you saying Mommy
about what we wanna make
sure we get in this?
You spend a lot of
time putting on a show,
while you're keeping hidden
not just your interior life,
but a lot of other aspects
of your life, right?
- And...
- Yeah.
You guys see the pants?
I can see
the, the pants are yellow.
- That's good.
- But I can't
see like the whole
style of the pants.
That's OK.
You wanna
see what you look like?
I wanna see what
you're gonna shoot.
It's best to leave
an incomplete...
- Yeah.
- picture of yourself.
Can we have the, uh,
like can we have the
coquettes showing on the book?
I was
gonna have David
look at that book, actually.
Oh!
I mean let's face it.
We've been very happy together.
We're very happy
and Leah is very happy.
That's like really
good because...
occasionally we have to
deal with like, you know,
I don't wanna use
the word crisis.
But you know, whatever.
- Something that's...
- We've had some crises.
Yeah.
As we get
older, we accumulate ghosts.
'Cause, you know,
there's a lot more dead people
than there are the living.
I've lived through
like, Vietnam War,
the AIDS epidemic...
and so many things, you know?
And had people who I love
that have died from COVID
very recently, you know.
Put your sweet lips
A little closer to mine
You know, there's
Hal Wilner, for example.
Given
that you lost someone
in your band at 21,
was an early death something
that you yourself feared...
- when this...
- No.
No. I never learned my lesson.
You know, after I was
in the original Dolls,
the ones that there was a lot of
you know, catastrophic stuff.
I had a band called David
Johansen Band I made for...
We got in a van and
went back and forth,
across this country about,
I don't know, nine times,
opening for heavy mental
acts at hockey rinks.
Oh my God.
When I think of that...
It killed me.
It actually killed me.
These guys, they called
magazines, books.
OK.
So, what are you
readin' there, pal?
Viva.
My book.
I said, that's not a book.
That's a Viva Magazine.
You know what I'm saying?
Thank God they had, they'd
come out with Walkmans by then,
you know.
And of course gin, you know,
which they always had.
A one, two, three, four...
You call that love in French,
but it's just Frenchette
I've been to France,
so let's just dance
I get all the love
I need in a luncheonette
In just one glance,
so let's just dance
I can't get the kind
of love that I want
And I need
So let's just dance
You come on like it's
all natural darling
But you know
Oh it's really
only naturalette
It's just like all of
your leathers darling
They don't scare me
I know what's really
only leatherette
I could take it down
and wash it down
I scrub you on down
in any old launderette
I can't get the kind
of love, that I want
Let's just dance
and I 'll forget
I want you to
come in my kitchen
Not my kitchenette
I want you to come
in my dining room
Not my dinette
I can't get the
kind of love
So let's just dance
and I'll forget
I can't the kind of love
that I want and I need
So let's just dance
I can't the kind of love
that I want and I need
So let's just dance
Come on, boys!
So let's just dance!
Oh woah-wo-wo-wo-wo
Come on, every one join.
Oh woah-wo-wo-wo-wo
Remember how we marveled
darling, we was marveling
We were marveling
at The Marvelettes
Yeah we fell in
love with Veronica
And every last one
of The Ronettes
It sure got hot
when Levis Stubbs
He got burned boy
Messing around
with Bernadette
You call that love in French,
but it's just Frenchette
I've been to France,
so let's just dance
I get all the love I
need in a luncheonette
In just one glance,
so let's just dance
Let's just dance
Let's just dance now
Let's dance
Let's just dance
Going to take a
little roll with you, honey
Let's just dance
A little stroll with
you, honey
Yeah, let's just dance
Just dance
My doctor said to
take it easy, baby
So let's just dance
My doctor said to
take it easy, baby
Let's dance
Come on, let's just dance
Yeah, baby
Let's just dance
All right.
Let's just dance
Come on, let's just dance
I can't get the kind
of love that I want
And I need
So, let's
Just
Dance
Oh, hi...
You know, when I was a...
a kid,
I was probably like,
not a kid.
I was probably like almost
30-years-old or something.
Maybe I acted like a kid.
I... went to...
see Milos Forman
to audition for a...
a part of one of the two,
like lead guys in Hair.
In the movie Hair.
You know, I figured,
an actor, what is that?
So, I think I have
all the prerequisites,
completely irresponsible,
drunk a lot.
Hey, I can go on and on.
But...
I fit the bill.
So I went to see Milos and...
I didn't even do the audition.
I mean, we got along
like a house on fire.
I mean, "Oh God, David.
David, I love you."
And we were drinking schnapps
and we were smacking
each other on of back
and we were having a
gay old time, OK?
Oh my God, it was so great.
So then he calls
Twyla Tharp and he says,
"I got, I got the guy.
This is the guy.
I'm gonna send him over.
You see if he can dance."
In order to get this part,
the... one of the major parts
that you had to pass.
Milos, Twyla...
and Galt MacDermot,
who wrote the music.
So I went over to Twyla Tharp's.
I was...
dancing... like Nijinsky.
I mean, I was like...
like a gazelle.
Back and forth
with the whole troop back and
forth, like throwing flowers.
I mean imaginary flowers,
but still.
Twyla calls up Milos,
"He's, he's great.
He's a natural. He's great."
I'm thinking, you know,
"Hollywood, here I come."
I'm like picking
out real estate,
you know what I'm saying?
Next day I go to
see Galt McDermott.
It's up on one of those
Broadway rehearsal rooms,
you know, at the piano and
everybody's standing around.
He's got the piano
and I come in
and I decide to
sing the song Hair.
I figured, you know,
I hadn't really prepared.
You know and...
but Galt McDermott stood up.
He shut the... the...
the lid of the keyboard
and he said,
"This guy can't sing!"
I was like, "Wait a
minute, wait a minute.
I don't, I don't act.
I don't dance, but I'm a singer.
You know, I, that's
what I do. I'm a singer."
I didn't get the part anyway.
My dreams were crushed.
But I only had those
dreams for three days.
So it wasn't like a lifetime.
You know, years later...
I saw...
Galt McDermott
at an awards ceremony.
We were both getting a
medal for something and...
he was in his dotage.
And... we shook hands
and the whole thing.
He didn't remember me from,
from that day.
But, I didn't remind
him I didn't mention it.
You know, I didn't mention it.
I'm not that kind of guy.
This is nice.
It's a maimed happiness
I keep trying to acquiesce
It's like a
tempestuous child
You play with
and humor to keep
Quiet as you possibly can
'Til finally
it goes to sleep
Life takes a lot of finesse
It's a maimed happiness
I keep myself to every way
Both refined and uncouth
Then maybe once in a while
I can be with the truth
Don't know
If there's that
much to be said
I thought this world
and all the time
That we spend
Still I think
I want to live
This crazy life over again
Yeah, I've been
to the doctor
He said there ain't
much he can do
Said you got the
human condition
Boy, I feel sorry for you
There's a sorrowful joy
I know it since I was a boy
Joyful sorrow, I guess
It's a maimed happiness
Beautiful!
You guys have been great.
Thank you.
Thank you.
My friends.
Maimed Happiness.
I feel like that could be
your thesis for the show.
Yeah. Mara, what's that...
Those two brothers,
they were writers,
but one was a philosopher.
Henry James
and William James?
Who wrote that book?
Well, Henry James
was the novelist.
Right. So it was William
James was the philosopher.
- Right.
- Yeah.
I was reading that
William James
Variety of Spiritual
Experiences,
I guess it's called.
At one point he used the
expression "maimed happiness."
"It's kind of like a maimed
happiness," whatever he said.
And it just stuck in
my mind, you know.
It's just, existence is...
maimed happiness.
Happy birthday, man.
- Freddy.
- A lot more energy tonight.
Yeah, I slept like
10 hours last night.
You are not today who you
were when you were 17.
So...
- you were this innocent...
- Hmm...
Listen, sorry.
You were spinning around
on the parking meter
in front of Gem Spa.
I was spinning around on
the other parking meter.
It's the
Mansion of Fun show
where we do our thing and we
don't worry about the outcome,
because we recognize
sorrow as of the essence.
Because when there's
time, there's sorrow
and we can't rid
the world of sorrow,
but we can choose
to live in joy.
Look how beautiful.
Hi, baby.
Long time no see.
Like
when was the first time
you felt like your sadness
kind of connected
you to the world?
Oh.
Yeah, in 3D.
Oh, man.
Then the ostrich comes out.
People think I'm
so young, right?
And I'm sure people say that
to you, "You're so young."
'Cause it took us
so long to grow up.
Like we hit every crack.
We had to be...
we fulfilled the
premise of becoming.
- That's right.
- We fulfilled it.
- What's the rush?
- What's the rush?
There's a lot of
different things that
you can hear or see,
you know, people
overcoming obstacles.
Surviving.
Come on!
Wow!
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah baby no
Go baby yeah
Yeah, no, yeah, yeah
Wow
Wah-hah!
We can't take it this week
And her friends don't
want another speech
Hoping for a
better day to hear
What she's got to say
All about that
personality crisis
You got it while it was hot
But frustration, heartache
that's what you got
I gotta say about
the personality
Yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Now you're trying
to be something
Now you gotta do something
Wanna be someone
who cow wow wows
But you thinking
about the time you did
They took every ounce
Well it's sure
gonna be a shame
When you start to
scream and shout
Wow
You contradict all the time
You were butterflying about
Butterfly
But that personality crisis
You got it while it was hot
It's always hard to
know when frustration
Heartache that's
what you got
It's just a song
about personality
We are
And you're a
prima ballerina
On a spring afternoon
Turn into a wolfman
howlin' at the moon
Yahoooooooo
With a personality crisis
You got it while
you was hot
It's always hot.
Frustration, heartache
that's what you got
Oh, I'm talking about
your personality
Now with all the
crossin' fingers
Mother Nature said
Your mirror's
getting jammed up
With all your friends
Personality
It was just
starting to blend
It ain't like one.
With the personality
When your mind's
going to bend
Personality
Glad you know a friend,
of a friend of a friend
Friend of a friend
Personality
One that has
celebrities ever mend
Lookin' fine
on television
Personality crisis
Yeah, you got it
while it was hot
It's frustration, heartache
It's what you've got
All right.
Personality crisis
Please don't cry
A personality crisis
Please don't stop
Because you walk
with personality
You talk with personality
Yeah.
Yeah, baby.
That's what I'm talking about.
Personality.
Yeah.
You know, Plastic Bertrand
goes around saying he...
invented punk rock,
but I think that
one was really good.
You know what I always say?
Nothing recedes like success.
Am I...
You think I'm a whore
But I got a heart of gold
You're lockin' your doors
You're leavin' me
out in the cold
Well I've been
bought and baby
I've been sold and I
I need protection
from the cold
You may think
that my humanity
Has been the cause
of all this insanity
This whole damn world's
got so much uncertainty
I sure wish you'd
see something in me
You think I'm a whore
But I got a heart of gold
You're lockin' your doors
You're leavin' me
out in the cold
Yeah, I've been bought,
baby
I've been sold and I
I need protection
from the cold
Happy birthday, boss.
And many more.
Oh, baby.
You may think
that my humanity
Was the cause of
all this insanity
Hm-hmm.
This whole damn world's
got so much uncertainty
I sure wish you'd
see something in me
You think I'm a whore
But I got a heart of gold
You're lockin' your doors
You're leavin' me
out in the cold
I've been bought and baby
Yeah, I've been sold and I
I need protection
from the cold
Yeah, man.
I need protection
from the cold
All right, baby.
I need protection
From the cold