# RIP, David Johansen/Buster Poindexter
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-david-johansen-buster-poindexter/1014984
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Tags:** music
**Created:** [March 1, 2025, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-david-johansen-buster-poindexter/1014984 "2025-03-01T18:50:55Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)
#### Post date: [March 1, 2025, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-david-johansen-buster-poindexter/1014984/1 "2025-03-01T18:50:55Z")
Always loved the NY Dolls, and “Hot Hot Hot” wasn’t bad, either. Also, he was a pretty good actor.
> **[David Johansen, New York Dolls Frontman and Punk Pioneer, Dead at 75](https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/david-johansen-new-york-dolls-singer-buster-poindexter-dead-obituary-1235284539/)**
>
> David Johansen, frontman for the New York Dolls and the last surviving original member of that pioneering punk band, has died at the age of 75.
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aQTGqqXHw4)
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### Author:  [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)
#### Post date: [March 1, 2025, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-david-johansen-buster-poindexter/1014984/2 "2025-03-01T19:17:21Z")
He was so funky but chic!
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### Author:  [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)
#### Post date: [March 1, 2025, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-david-johansen-buster-poindexter/1014984/3 "2025-03-01T19:28:52Z")
I only knew him from _Scrooged_ and as Buster Poindexter who was part of the Saturday Night Live house band in the late 80s. I didn’t know he was in a punk band before that. Well, for _Scrooged_ and Hot, Hot, Hot alone he will be missed.
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### Author:  [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)
#### Post date: [March 1, 2025, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-david-johansen-buster-poindexter/1014984/4 "2025-03-01T19:41:08Z")
I think of myself as well-versed in the history of Rock (particularly Punk) but I had no idea they were the same person.
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [March 1, 2025, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-david-johansen-buster-poindexter/1014984/5 "2025-03-01T20:13:44Z")
He had a great role in _Let It Ride_.
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### Author:  [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)
#### Post date: [March 1, 2025, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-david-johansen-buster-poindexter/1014984/6 "2025-03-01T21:02:23Z")
The New York Dolls were a hopelessly unsuccessful, but immensely influential band. Malcolm McLaren learned everything about forming the Sex Pistols when he (very unsuccessfully) managed the Dolls. Both their albums were great, but nobody listened at the time because of mismanagement and awful promotion. Now they’re all dead, Johansen was the last to go. RIP, you done good.
ETA: a little bit of trivia: when he was a teenager, Morrissey was the head of the British New York Dolls fanclub.
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### Author:  [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)
#### Post date: [March 1, 2025, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-david-johansen-buster-poindexter/1014984/7 "2025-03-01T21:21:39Z")
I loved the Dolls.
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### Author:  [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)
#### Post date: [March 1, 2025, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-david-johansen-buster-poindexter/1014984/8 "2025-03-01T21:33:42Z")
Dang, loved NY Dolls as well. I wore out their first album (well, technically it was a tape).
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### Author:  [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)
#### Post date: [March 1, 2025, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-david-johansen-buster-poindexter/1014984/9 "2025-03-01T23:35:48Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#):
>
> Now they’re all dead, Johansen was the last to go.
I was coming in to say that Sylvain Sylvain was the last, but I see we lost him back in 2021 😢. New York Dolls was pretty much a perfect debut album and Johansen was the perfect front man (even if he drove poor Arthur Kane nuts).
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### Author:  [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2025, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-david-johansen-buster-poindexter/1014984/10 "2025-03-02T00:12:59Z")
“Trash, go pick it up, don’t take your life away.”
The NY Dolls were better than their “glam” image. The later Buster Poindexter stuff is forgettable.
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### Author:  [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2025, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-david-johansen-buster-poindexter/1014984/11 "2025-03-02T01:48:27Z")
I swear he was in some horror movie. I remember it because in a scene, a black cat went into his body.
The NYDolls were one of a kind.
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### Author:  [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2025, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-david-johansen-buster-poindexter/1014984/12 "2025-03-02T01:59:07Z")
> [@SuntanLotion](#):
>
> black cat went into his body.
Can’t remember if the black cat thing happened, yet he played the “Ghost of Christmas Past” in Bill Murray’s “Scrooged”. I think he was a cab driver.
> **[Scrooged (5/10) Movie CLIP - Taxi Ride From Hell (1988) HD](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0zvX6AGd7Q%2F)**
>
> Scrooged movie clips: http://j.mp/1CKXnDGBUY THE MOVIE: http://amzn.to/voc2DmDon't miss the HOTTEST NEW TRAILERS: http://bit.ly/1u2y6prCLIP DESCRIPTION:Frank...
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### Author:  [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2025, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-david-johansen-buster-poindexter/1014984/13 "2025-03-02T02:03:46Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#):
>
> I think of myself as well-versed in the history of Rock (particularly Punk) but I had no idea they were the same person.
Hehehe, I am a little stunned that this thread revealed that to you. Not that I picked up on it myself, I basically have face blindness and a girlfriend of mine pointed out that Poindexter was Johansen, I’m absolutely certain that my amazed look when she told me this entertained the hell out of her. I should have picked it up from the voice.
> [@SuntanLotion](#):
>
> I swear he was in some horror movie. I remember it because in a scene, a black cat went into his body.
> The NYDolls were one of a kind.
Tales From the Darkside - The Cat from Hell
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DycpqHaK2mM)
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### Author:  [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2025, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-david-johansen-buster-poindexter/1014984/14 "2025-03-02T02:05:48Z")
Cool! So he was in Tales and Scrooged.
“Go back to Jersey, you moron!” - what an insane role.
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### Author:  [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2025, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-david-johansen-buster-poindexter/1014984/15 "2025-03-02T02:47:28Z")
I saw him when I was in college in the early 80s. I wasn’t wildly familiar with his stuff, but he was entertaining. IIRC, he did the first set as David Johansen and the second set as Buster Poindexter.
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### Author:  [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2025, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-david-johansen-buster-poindexter/1014984/16 "2025-03-02T03:01:53Z")
Buster and the Banshees clearly were having fun with this cover of Louie Innis’s “Good Morning Judge”.
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGE7JBlkefE&t=00)
Not to be confused with [the 10cc song of the same title.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5jczes_nMI)
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### Author:  [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2025, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-david-johansen-buster-poindexter/1014984/17 "2025-03-02T03:43:52Z")
He taught us how to use Preparation H to tighten up our eyes.
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### Author:  [@Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mundane_Super_Hero)
#### Post date: [March 1, 2025, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-david-johansen-buster-poindexter/1014984/18 "2025-03-01T21:27:28Z")
RIP David Johansen. OMG… I sort-of met him. I gambled on the other side of the table from him at Foxwoods back-in-the-day. He laughed, smoked a big cigar, and he won like Crazy. When I left the table, every other table I gambled at that night I was a winner.
I liked his music, I liked his acting, I respected him enough not to fan-boy him. His gift to me was Good Luck.
#GoneTooSoon
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### Author:  [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2025, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-david-johansen-buster-poindexter/1014984/19 "2025-03-02T04:06:59Z")
> [@TriPolar](#):
>
> He had a great role in _Let It Ride_.
A very underrated comedy and he was very good in it.
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2025, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-david-johansen-buster-poindexter/1014984/20 "2025-03-03T04:10:00Z")
Hey, welcome back, **Quasimodem**!
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