A short while ago, on February 28th the world lost rock ‘n roll icon David Johansen. 

Articles thoroughly recounted his most notable eras as an artist.

First, was his time as the cross-dressing lead singer of the New York Dolls—an early 70s “proto-punk” or glam rock band that influenced Aerosmith and the entire 80s hair metal scene;

Next was his solo career and another band, David Johansen and the Harry Smiths.

After this, was mentioned his alter-ego lounge singer Buster Poindexter.

This is how I first knew him. 

“Hot Hot Hot” was everywhere in the late 80s and his pompadour, tuxedo, and charisma were immediately indelible.

Lastly, his acting career was mentioned.

His role as the Ghost of Christmas Past in 1988’s Scrooged had left a mark on me when, as a cab driver, he was asked by Bill Murray’s character to get to an address. His response?

“Which floor?”

And these were the images in my mind when I first met him when I arranged strings on a track called “Maimed Happiness” on the NY Dolls 2006 album One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This.

In person, he was nothing like his over the top personas.

He was soft-spoken, smart as a whip and very kind.

I sat with him and his wonderful wife Mara as I worked up an arrangement on my laptop.

Fast forward to 2023 when that same song was featured in a Martin Scorsese produced documentary about David called Personality Crisis: One Night Only (streaming on Paramount+ at the time of this publishing).

I reworked the arrangement, but for a full orchestra, and it was performed at Royce Hall on the campus of UCLA in May of that year.

A clip of the performance and his interview for the press event can be found here.

However, what I want to mention was another artistic endeavor of David’s that I haven’t read about in recent weeks.

For this we go back to 2007, a short while after my initial work with him and the New York Dolls.

David was asked to write a 20 minute orchestral work for a cultural event on Staten Island.

Also on the program were Vernon Reid from the band Living Color, and Hair! composer Galt McDermott.

To compose and orchestrate the piece, David sent me original themes he played on a keyboard.

He also sent a fantastic playlist of orchestral adagios for inspiration.

He had me splice them together and flesh them out some and before we knew it we had a heart-felt orchestral adagio.

The NY Times visited a rehearsal and featured us in the Arts section on the day before the concert.

"Mara Dreams the Moongate of Uncommon Beauty" premiered to a packed audience in Staten Island on October 27, 2007.

I could prattle on with further details of our collaborations, but the bottom line is that David was an artist with tremendously wide interests and talents, only some of which he was able to share with us in his 75 years.

He will be missed. 

Rock on, David!