Sylvain Sylvain

Sylvain Sylvain Mizrahi

Rest In Peace

February 14, 1951 ~ January 13, 2021

As most of you know, Sylvain battled cancer for the past two and 1/2 years. Though he fought it valiantly, yesterday he passed away from this disease. While we grieve his loss, we know that he is finally at peace and out of pain. Please crank up his music, light a candle, say a prayer and let’s send this beautiful doll on his way.

Please read this letter written for Syl by Lenny Kaye

SYL: An Appreciation

Lenny Kaye

Sylvain Sylvain, the heart and soul of the New York Dolls, bearer of the Teenage News, passed into his next astral incarnation on Wednesday, January 13, 2021.

Syl loved rock and roll.   His onstage joy, his radiant smile as he chopped at his guitar, revealed the sense of wonder he must have felt at the age of 10, emigrating from his native Cairo with his family in 1961, the ship pulling into New York Harbor and seeing the Statue of Liberty for the first time.

It was he who looked across Lexington Ave. and saw the sign for the New York Doll hospital.   Syl and a high school friend, Billy Murcia, were in the rag trade then, the aptly named Truth and Soul, handknit sweaters with a side of rockattitude.  Hooking up with another classmate, John Genzale, and then, as bands will, Arthur Kane, and David Johansen, and Jerry Nolan, they became a quasar in the rock firmament; embodying trash, glam, garage-to-punk, the ambisexual affirmation of music played louder.

His role in the band was as lynchpin, keeping the revolving satellites of his bandmates in precision.  Though he tried valiantly to keep the band going, in the end the Dolls’ moral fable overwhelmed them, not before seeding an influence that would engender many rock generations yet to come.

The New York Dolls heralded the future, made it easy to dance to.  From the time I first saw their poster appear on the wall of Village Oldies in 1972, advertising a residency at the Mercer Hotel up the street, throughout their meteoric ascent and shooting star flame-out, the New York Dolls were the heated core of this music we hail, the band that makes you want to form a band.

Syl never stopped.   In his solo lifeline, he was welcomed all over the world, from England to Japan, but most of all the rock dens of New York City, which is where I caught up with him a couple of years ago at the Bowery Electric.  Still Syl.  His corkscrew curls, tireless bounce, exulting in living his dream, asking the crowd to sing along, and so we will. His twin names, mirrored, becomes us.

Thank you Sylvain x 2, for your heart, belief, and the way you whacked that E chord.  Sleep Baby Doll

.(taken from Sylvain FB Page)

Sylvain Sylvain was the heart and soul of the New York Dolls, the connection between that and the best of David JoHansen's solo albums.  He made a solo album that I bought and will have to hear again.

Upon tonight, I managed to watch a You Tube movie about the reunion of the NY Dolls in 2004, which focused on Arthur (killer) Kane, the bass player who turned to the Mormon Religion to set himself straight around 1989.  Kane was the bad ass bass player, along with the Heroin addicts and doomed rockers Johnny Thunders and Jerry Nolan, the Original Toxic Twins.   The movie is called New York Doll and it shows Kane reuniting the the remaining NY Dolls, egged on by Morrissey, who is credited for getting them back together.  After the 2004 London show, Kane, got leukemia and passed away 22 days later.  Kane talked about reconciling with the band.  The first person to hug him was Sylvain Sylvain.  New York Doll is a must watch.

It took me a good thirty years to reconnect with the NY Dolls music.  And of course, the first two NY Dolls albums are their legacy.  The only band compared would be Aerosmith, but Aerosmith was polish rock and roll compared to the Dolls, The Dolls was a trainwreck in the making.  But the Dolls unknowingly started up the punk rock revolution in the UK.    

With the success of the 2004 reunion, Johansen and Sylvan, with help with Sami Jaffi, former bass player for Hanoi Rocks taking over for Kane, made a surprising good One Day It Will Please Us To Even Remember This (which disappeared after it's release, being on Roadrunner instead of Morrissey's Attack Records one reason why it failed) and follow up Cuz I Sez so, had decent moments but it turned out to be NY Dolls all grown up, with Todd Rundgren producing this, his first time since the debut.  Once Jaffi left, their last album Dancing Backward In High Heels was garbage.  If they were the Rolling Stones, this was their Bridges To Babylon. 

But Sylvain was a remarkable person.  The best David Johansen albums has Sylvan playing.  Alas, he had been fighting against cancer since April 2019 and it finally claimed him on Thursday Jan 14.  He was 69.