TERRI GROSS:
The New York Dolls were so into a sort of pre-punk sensibility. Very raw, high energy. Buster Poindexter is much more lounge, Vegas persona. Buster Poindexter is in a tuxedo…DAVID JOHANSEN:
It’s all drag Terri. Birkenstocks are drag. I mean everyone is saying something with their clothes.
New York Dolls Frontman David Johansen
Johansen was a founding member and frontman for the early ’70s glam band The New York Dolls – the band that helped set the stage for the punk movement. Later, Johansen created the lounge-lizard persona Buster Poindexter. He’s the subject of the new documentary Personality Crisis: One Night Only, co-directed by Martin Scorsese and David Tedeschi. Johansen spoke with Terry Gross in 2004.
NOTE – quote is my rough transcription.