There's a moment between the time you reach to turn off the radio or power down the iPod and the time it takes for those last few notes of a song to wash over your ears. Somehow, that song manages to stay with you until the next song comes around. For me, that song was "N.Y. Doll" by Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3.
There's the life that one leads and the life that one hopes to lead. For Arthur "Killer" Kane, the memory of a life that almost was came full circle at the age of 55. Kane was the original bass player for the New York Dolls until he was dropped from the band in 1975. He attempted several musical projects throughout the late 70s and 1980s without much success that would vault him past just being known as the ex-New York Dolls bassist. While living in Los Angeles in 1989, Kane attempted suicide by jumping out the window of his second floor apartment. It was during his stay at the hospital that a TV commercial for a free copy of the Book of Mormon caught his attention. He was later visited by two missionaries of the Mormon Church and soon became a member. Free of drugs and alcohol, Kane worked as a volunteer librarian at the L.A. location of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' Family History Center.
In 2004, Morrissey presented the New York Dolls with a chance to reunite and perform at his annual Meltdown Festival in London. The surviving members by that time were Kane, singer David Johansen and guitarist Sylvain Sylvain. On June 22, 2004, almost thirty years since he last performed with the band, Arthur Kane was a New York Doll again. Sadly, he later died of leukemia on July 13, 2004.
"N.Y. Doll" is Robyn Hitchcock writing from the perspective of Kane. It's a plaintive song focused on a older man who wished to touch a life that was barely in his hands as a young man; for a brief moment, Kane accomplished just that. "I was a New York Doll/I was really something on the map that never ends," sings Hitchcock over Peter Buck's slow ascending and descending guitar movements. As a quiet closer to Hitchcock's Ole! Tarantula, his first album in collaboration with members of R.E.M. (Buck, Scott McCaughey, Bill Rieflin), the song comes across as a good-bye rather than a remembrance of Kane. It's the final send off that Kane wasn't able to give himself.
Verse after verse, Hitchcock taps into Kane's story, summing up the highs and lows with fine detail. Musically and lyrically, the song stands as one of Hitchcock's best in the last seven years of his creative output.
Filed under: ChicagoNow blogs
Tags: Arthur Kane, Bill Rieflin, music, New York Dolls, Peter Buck, Robyn Hitchcock, Scott McCaughey
