Latest news with #ChristmasPast
Yahoo
02-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Martin Scorsese Remembers David Johansen: ‘What a Remarkable Artist. What an Amazing Man'
Martin Scorsese has paid tribute to David Johansen, who died on Feb. 28 at age 75. The filmmaker helmed the Johansen doc Personality Crisis: One Night Only, which featured interviews with the New York Dolls frontman and punk rock pioneer. 'With David Johansen, it started with the music, of course. Actually, with a New York Dolls song, 'Personality Crisis.' I heard that song, I can't remember when or where, and it stayed with me. I listened to it obsessively,' Scorsese said in a statement shared with Rolling Stone. 'The sound was rough, the playing was raw, the voice was wildly theatrical and immediate. And the energy was New York, 100 percent pure and uncut, right off the streets. More from Rolling Stone Flashback: David Johansen Appears as the Ghost of Christmas Past in 'Scrooged' Watch the New York Dolls Play 'Jet Boy' and 'Pills' at Their Final Show in 2011 David Johansen, New York Dolls Frontman and Punk Pioneer, Dead at 75 'After the Dolls broke up, I kept watching and listening to David. He never stopped growing as a songwriter and a singer, always exploring, always staking out new paths,' he continued. 'There was the Buster Poindexter alter ego.' In the 2023 film named after the New York Dolls' song 'Personality Crisis,' Scorsese explored the many facets of Johansen's art, including his persona Buster Poindexter, which Johansen didn't expect to take off. He created the act as one not intended to tour, after spending a ton of time on the road with his post New York Dolls band, David Johansen Group. 'With Buster, I can do anything I want,' he said in the film. 'People aren't expecting something else. They come because it's unexpected what I'm gonna do. They kind of trust that it's gonna be good, and it's always good.' Scorsese also noted Johansen's weekly radio show, Mansion of Fun, which the director said he listened to 'obsessively.' 'That was when I understood just how wide and deep David's knowledge of music history was—all of music history, from Debussy to the Cadillacs to Loretta Lynn to the Incredible String Band to Gregorian chants to David's beloved Maria Callas, all of it mysteriously connected.' It was Johansen's love of opera singer Maria Callas that reunited the New York Dolls in 2004 by way of Morrissey. In the documentary, he tells the story in-between songs at a performance at Café Carlyle. '[Morrissey] called me, and he said, 'I understand you're a pretty big Maria Callas fan.'' Johansen explained in the doc. 'And I said, 'Yes, I happen to be known for that in certain circles.' He said, 'Well, you know that film she made where she did a fantastic concert at the Royal Festival Hall?' I said, 'Yes, by heart.' He said, 'How would you like to play the Royal Festival Hall?… All you have to do is get the Dolls back together.' And I thought, 'Royal Festival Hall, Maria Callas…' I combed every opium den in Chinatown, and I pulled that band together. We were fantastic.' Scorsese said that even as Johansen grew 'fragile' (he had been diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer and a brain tumor, and in November 2024 he had broken his back in two places following a fall), he would still show up for screening and gatherings along with Mara and Leah Hennessey, Johansen's wife and stepdaughter. 'He would sit quietly, preserve his energy, but he was always fully there, right up to the end,' Scorsese said. 'What a remarkable artist. What an amazing man. I was so lucky to have known him. I just wish there had been more time.' Best of Rolling Stone The 50 Best 'Saturday Night Live' Characters of All Time Denzel Washington's Movies Ranked, From Worst to Best 70 Greatest Comedies of the 21st Century
The Guardian
01-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
David Johansen, frontman of New York Dolls, dies aged 75
David Johansen, the swaggering, peacocking frontman with glam rock band New York Dolls, has died aged 75. Last month he had announced he was living with cancer, and recently suffered a broken back. 'David Johansen passed away peacefully at home, holding the hands of his wife Mara Hennessey and daughter Leah, in the sunlight surrounded by music and flowers,' reads a statement on a website created to raise funds for his medical care. Strikingly handsome, he and his bandmates offset the macho rock star image by wearing women's clothing and makeup, bringing a vaudevillian energy to their brutish music. As well as being straightforwardly thrilling, it proved to be hugely influential, pointing the way from glam to the punk music that was beginning to brew in New York City. They never broke the Top 100 of either the US or UK charts, but critics have deemed songs such as Personality Crisis – sung by Johansen with a throaty, lung-busting howl – some of the greatest rock of the 1970s. Johansen was born and raised in Staten Island, and fronted local band the Vagabond Missionaries before he joined the nascent New York Dolls in 1971, and became the heart of an irreverent scene centred around Manhattan's Mercer Art Center. They were signed to Mercury Records, who released their 1973 debut and the follow-up Too Much Too Soon the following year. The latter title felt prescient: the often debauched band broke up in 1975, with Johansen fronting a version that continued until 1976. Johansen began a solo career, releasing his self-titled debut album in 1978, and released three more before taking on a new pseudonym: Buster Poindexter. This was as theatrical as his New York Dolls days but pointed in a very different direction, performing classic R&B, blues and pop as a tuxedo'd crooner. He had a hit with his cover of Arrow's holiday anthem Hot Hot Hot, and his self-titled 1987 debut took him to the US Top 40 for the first time. Three more Poindexter albums followed over the next decade. In 2004, Morrissey induced the New York Dolls – Johansen, along with bandmates Sylvain Sylvain and Arthur Kane – to reform for the Meltdown festival he was curating. Kane died weeks later, but Johansen and Sylvain kept the band going, releasing three more studio albums and touring until 2011. Johansen had an acting career, including opposite Bill Murray as the Ghost of Christmas Past in 1988's Scrooged. He also worked as a radio host and was a painter. Among his admirers was Martin Scorsese, who co-directed the 2023 documentary Personality Crisis: One Night Only, centred on Johansen. Sign up to Sleeve Notes Get music news, bold reviews and unexpected extras. Every genre, every era, every week after newsletter promotion Johansen had been living with cancer for some time, with his stepdaughter Leah Hennessy explaining on his fundraising site in February: 'David has been in intensive treatment for stage 4 cancer for most of the past decade. Five years ago at the beginning of the pandemic we discovered that David's cancer had progressed and he had a brain tumor … To make matters worse, the day after Thanksgiving David fell down the stairs and broke his back in two places. After a week in the hospital and a successful surgery David has been bedridden and incapacitated.' He is survived by Hennessey as well as his wife Mara, who he married in 2013. She was his third wife, after marriages to Cyrinda Foxe from 1977 to 1978 and Kate Simon from 1983 to 2011.
The Independent
10-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
New York Dolls singer David Johansen reveals stage 4 cancer diagnosis and asks fans for help
New York Dolls frontman David Johansen has revealed he is living with stage 4 cancer and a brain tumor. The pioneering punk musician's daughter, Leah Hennessey, has launched a fundraising site to help pay for his treatment and care. On the site, Hennessey says Johansen has been receiving intensive cancer treatment for 'most of the last decade.' In 2020, he was diagnosed with a brain tumor, which has caused further complications. Last November, he fell down stairs and broke his back in two places. In a statement shared by Brooklyn Vegan, Johansen said: 'We've been living with my illness for a long time, still having fun, seeing friends and family, carrying on, but this tumble the day after Thanksgiving really brought us to a whole new level of debilitation. 'This is the worst pain I've ever experienced in my entire life. I've never been one to ask for help, but this is an emergency. Thank you.' The site is seeking to raise funds to pay for full-time nursing, physical therapy and day-to-day living expenses. Hennessey writes that Johansen had previously chosen to keep his diagnosis private, but is now facing an emergency situation as his fall has left him bedridden and incapacitated. 'He's never made his diagnosis public, as he and my mother Mara are generally very private people, but we feel compelled to share this now, due to the increasingly severe financial burden our family is facing,' says Hennessey. 'Due to the trauma, David's illness has progressed exponentially and my mother is caring for him around the clock. To continue his treatment and give him the best chance of recovery, David and Mara will need full time assistance. As hilarious and wise as David continues to be, he is physically debilitated and his care exceeds what we are capable of providing without specialized professional help.' Johansen was a member of the proto-punk band New York Dolls from 1971. They released their debut album in 1973. He later led his own group, the David Johansen Band, before reinventing himself in the 1980s under the pseudonym Buster Poindexter. He is also well known for playing the Ghost of Christmas Past in the 1988 Bill Murray comedy Scrooged. In 2023 he was the subject of Martin Scorsese and David Tedeschi's documentary Personality Crisis: One Night Only, which featured a live Johansen performance filmed at Café Carlyle in New York City. He has been married to the artist Mara Hennessey since 2013.
Bloomberg
10-12-2024
- Business
- Bloomberg
Wall Street Asks: What Could Go Wrong in 2025?
The Ghosts of Christmas Past and Future are starting to emerge on Wall Street as analysts say farewell to 2024 and hello to 2025. Let's first deal with the years gone by.
