I’ve been thinking about late New York Dolls bassist Arthur “Killer” Kane today—for whatever reason—which means I’ve been increasingly melancholy as the morning progresses. Part of that is probably because of my recent discovery that I’m allergic to Diet Coke and my irrational, uncaffeinated swarm of feelings.
ANYWAY. Arthur Kane was a million things at once, although his life as a hard-drinking rock & roll man will forever be both his legacy and his downfall. When the Dolls split up and his attempts to find other musical employment went to hell, Kane got wicked depressed and started living like, well, he’d already lived his life out. He assumed he’d never be as good as he was so he stopped trying, eventually jumping out of a window after seeing former bandmate David Johansen flicker across his TV screen during a late-afternoon viewing of Scrooged. He survived the fall, although all the parts of his brain didn’t. After healing up and boxing up the rest of his ambition, Kane joined the Church of Latter Day Saints and served as a long-time librarian in the LA Temple.
Here’s where Morrissey (!) enters the story, tracking Kane down in 2004 and pitching the idea of a reunion concert featuring Killer and the other two living members of the Dolls, Johansen and Sylvain Sylvain. Kane agreed to do it, borrowing money from the Latter Day Saints to buy his guitar back from the pawn shop. The concert went down in London and the footage of Kane trying to regain his musical mojo is chronicled in the absolutely heartbreaking flick NY Doll.
Less than a month after the show, Kane had what he thought was the flu and drove himself to the hospital where he was swiftly diagnosed with late-stage leukemia. He died 22 hours later. Seriously, this guy makes me hurt to the core, Arthur does, because for his entire life he seemed to discover that things aren’t as bad as they seem…sometimes they’re fucking worse.
The song attached is called “NY Doll”, performed by Robyn Hitchcock & the Venus 3.
I was a New York Doll
I was really something on the map
That never ends
I was the pulse of it all
But there’s always poison to drink alone
Or to share with friends
One in a million
People hit you like a window pane
Sincerely I remain,
Arthur Kane
Underground Garage Festival, Randall’s Island. Just after Arthur had passed. They had done the Meltdown Festival as the Dolls, and here, finally, I was going to see them.
Right before they came onstage, you could hear David Jo’s voice over the PA, dedicating the set to Arthur’s memory. Waterworks, mascara everywhere, I’m standing in the middle of a field and crying.
If you haven’t seen the documentary the LDS filmed of Arthur, you have to.
