Arthur Kane - The New York Dolls

The New York Dolls

After returning home after spending about a year in Amsterdam, Kane had been noticing a charismatic figure around New York City with avant-garde hair and clothes who would shortly take on the name Johnny Thunders. Kane decided to approach him one day in front of a West Village pizzeria (accompanied by Rick Rivets, who had heard that Johnny was a musician) to ask him if he wanted to get together sometime to jam on their instruments. Shortly thereafter they all met at a rehearsal studio, where they had booked some time, located in the West Thirties area of New York City (Johnny brought along his friend Billy Murcia to play drums). Kane later wrote in his autobiography that as he was about to enter the studio space he heard Johnny's original style of playing electric guitar: "It was raunchy, nasty, rough, raw, and untamed," adding, "His sound was rich and fat and beautiful, like a voice." Kane had originally envisioned himself as being the guitar player of the band but in that moment offered to pick up a Fender bass to accompany saying, "I know exactly what to play with what you're playing on guitar. Let's hear what it sounds like." Adding, "And it sounded great to us. We had hit the nail on the head."

Sometime after that event, Kane then approached future Dolls singer David Johansen. As Johansen explains it:

Sometime in ’71-72 there was a knock on my apartment door on East 6th Street. I opened it to find Arthur and Billy in platforms with Arthur a good foot and a half taller (I had to look up). He said “I heard you’re a singer.” The tone of his voice was kind of ethereal for a boy with such an imposing presence, and I have to say that I was both amused and intrigued by him, so we went to Johnny Thunders’ apartment on 10th Street and started to play some music and just like that I was a New York Doll.

Killer Kane was known for his outrageous outfits such as one-piece body stockings, large bow-ties, and thigh-high, neon-colored platform boots. Kane created many original and infamous looks by scouring shops in London, "combing through Amsterdam's Waterlooplein flea market during all of 1970", and "various Brooklyn thrift shops". Mixing pop art with music, the Dolls sought to create a persona as "larger-than-life rock-and-roll comic book superheros", or as if they were a band from outer space - concepts that were expanded upon in one form or another not much later by other bands such as KISS.

In addition to his signature bass sound, Kane had a unique way of performing on stage. As rock photographer Bob Gruen explained, while playing bass Kane "moved a bit robotically, kind of like a giant Frankenstein." Throughout his tenure with the Dolls, Kane dated a succession of atypically tall women, including Stacia of Hawkwind.

The Dolls put out two studio albums, 1973's New York Dolls and 1974's Too Much Too Soon. The Dolls influenced several bands that came soon after with the emerging Punk scene such as the Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Damned, and Generation X; and were a precursor to 80's Glam metal bands such as Mötley Crüe, Cinderella, and Poison.

Their drummer, Billy Murcia died tragically from an accidental overdose while they were touring England in 1972. Plagued by bad management, drug and alcohol abuse, and cliques forming within the group, the band broke up in 1975 - Kane's last experience with the band that year being a shouting match in a trailer court in Florida.