New York Dolls

The missing link between the Stones and the Pistols

The New York Dolls gave the five-year countdown to punk’s much-vaunted 1976 Year Zero. Hailed as the missing link between the Stones and the Sex Pistols, they railed against overblown rock tedium and, most vitally, were teenagers representing the punk ethic that anyone could form a band. Their naturally outrageous image combined gutter glamour with pimped-up hood. The Dolls were like explorers with no map, plotting no strategies, just pursuing their passions to an unreachable Promised Land.