David Johansen Talks About Starting a Punk Rock Trend on ‘Late Night With Conan O’Brien’ in 1994

While appearing on a 1994 episode of Late Night With Conan O’Brien late great David Johansen casually talked about the time that the New York Dolls went drinking in Newcastle, England before a show. The drummer got sick, which then got everyone sick, but the band kept playing. This started a very punk rock trend of vomiting onstage.

David Johansen talks about how the New York Dolls changed the music scene and helped to start punk rock.

He also talked about bringing his comedy show to the Catskills, putting on an incredible Yiddish accent to tell a funny Borsch Belt joke.

We sing all over we sing in the Catskills, we sing in Atlantic City…entertaining the troops, as I like to say. We come out do some shtick.

Johansen then performed “Personality Crisis” by the New York Dolls.

via Nag on the Lake