KCRW Broadcast 830

Fanatic. You might remember in the show notes from our February 15 broadcast, we included a site address where a Fanatic could send some funds to help David Johansen and his family. Thanks to your kind contributions David’s remaining days were made as comfortable as possible. He passed away yesterday at 75 years of age.

Somewhere in the early 1980s I saw that David was coming to Los Angeles to play at the Roxy as his persona Buster Poindexter. I had never seen David on stage before and was determined to get to the show. I carefully saved enough money for a ticket and took the long bus ride from Redondo Beach into Hollywood. The show was great and I was so glad I had gone through all the twists and turns to be there. I didn’t have a way back from the show and have no memory of how I made it to the beach. Many years later, I was able to meet David a few times and he was always great. I think he knew he meant a lot to a lot of people and he, as they say, "wore it well” and was extremely cool, charismatic and funny. I believe it was Dez from Black Flag who played the New York Dolls album before band practice one day. I’d never heard the entire record, but as soon as I did, I liked it immediately. When I was on tour in England in 1984, one of the chain record stores in London had a big sale on catalog records and I was able to buy the first New York Dolls album for really cheap. I think at this point we’ve listened to every track from that record on our show. It’s a great Rock ‘n’ Roll album.

David is survived by his amazing wife, Mara and his extremely talented stepdaughter Leah Hennessy. Her super cool song 8 Men Have All The Money starts our second hour.

Fanatic, I know that officially spring doesn’t start for a couple of weeks, but for me, spring starts on March 1. I’m officially done with winter and I’m ready for a change of season. We weren’t anticipating the sad news of David passing, so our show tonight is for the most part buoyant, effervescent, and hopefully, spring-minded.

As always, the show is designed for your maximum enjoyment and we hope to have succeeded in that pursuit yet again. Thank you so much for tuning in no matter when or where or how you do. Getting this great music to you is what it’s all about.

Until next week, hang in there and stay Fanatic.

–– Henry