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There's No Bones in Ice Cream: Sylvain Sylvain's Story of the New York Dolls
There's No Bones in Ice Cream by Sylvain Sylvain is the inside story of glam heroes the New York Dolls--outrageous, defiant, sleaze kings, transgender posers, drug casualties, and victims, not just of their own excess but of an unsympathetic music industry that simply didn't know how to process them. Sylvain, one of only two surviving members of the original New York Dolls, offers a fly-on-the-wall, sincere and often hilarious account of the rise and fall of the Dolls, the group that flew so close to the sun that they exploded in a fireball that lit the touch paper under punk rock. Though their brief, sensation-filled yet doomed career produced just two albums, the Dolls exerted an influence on rock that changed it forever. A cross between the Rolling Stones and the Sex Pistols, the Dolls became the link in the chain between them, offering a crash course in mischief, cross-dressing, and anarchy, but like unheralded prophets of Biblical times they were cast aside until the world finally caught up. Other people turned the New York Dolls into legends. We just went along for the ride.
1 pages, Audio CD
First published July 19, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
September 18, 2018
There’s No Bones in Ice Cream: Sylvain Sylvain’s Story of the New York Dolls is an enjoyable eye witness account of proto-punk legends the New York Dolls.
Ghostwritten by the redoubtable Dave Thompson, always a good portent, this is guitarist Sylvain Sylvain's account of the New York Dolls brief car crash of a career. However, like fellow New Yorkers the Velvet Underground, their subsequent influence and retrospective recognition far outstrips any success they enjoyed whilst active.
For a brief period in the early 1970s the New York Dolls were the next big thing. Unfortunately drugs, egos (David and Johnny), mismanagement, and a glam/transvestite image that was never going to appeal much outside New York, LA, Detroit and (then) Glam Rock obsessed Europe, did for them.
Sylvain Sylvain is only one of the two surviving New York Dolls so his recollections of the band's history are timely and welcome. He has a good memory, an eye for evocative period detail, and a fistful of insightful and interesting anecdotes. His early life was also quite eventful and he shares some illuminating family history of growing up in Egypt, Paris, Buffalo and New York. That he spent time travelling all over in his formative years including London, Amsterdam and central America, also gives his stories plenty of variety. That said, it's the New York Dolls sections which are most rewarding.
The book's epilogue concludes with a letter to Sylvain Sylvain from Malcolm Maclaren (a staunch Dolls fan from their inception in the early 70s) urging him to get over to London ASAP and join his new group, the Sex Pistols, complete with photo-booth snaps of Johnny Rotten, Steven Jones and Glen Matlock. Another of those great what ifs. Malcolm Maclaren also briefly reinvigorated the Dolls in their twilight months with his enthusiasm and energy. Indeed Maclaren emerges from this book with a huge amount of credit.
You'll already know if this book is likely to appeal to you. If it does then grab a copy - there's lots to enjoy and appreciate.
Ghostwritten by the redoubtable Dave Thompson, always a good portent, this is guitarist Sylvain Sylvain's account of the New York Dolls brief car crash of a career. However, like fellow New Yorkers the Velvet Underground, their subsequent influence and retrospective recognition far outstrips any success they enjoyed whilst active.
For a brief period in the early 1970s the New York Dolls were the next big thing. Unfortunately drugs, egos (David and Johnny), mismanagement, and a glam/transvestite image that was never going to appeal much outside New York, LA, Detroit and (then) Glam Rock obsessed Europe, did for them.
Sylvain Sylvain is only one of the two surviving New York Dolls so his recollections of the band's history are timely and welcome. He has a good memory, an eye for evocative period detail, and a fistful of insightful and interesting anecdotes. His early life was also quite eventful and he shares some illuminating family history of growing up in Egypt, Paris, Buffalo and New York. That he spent time travelling all over in his formative years including London, Amsterdam and central America, also gives his stories plenty of variety. That said, it's the New York Dolls sections which are most rewarding.
The book's epilogue concludes with a letter to Sylvain Sylvain from Malcolm Maclaren (a staunch Dolls fan from their inception in the early 70s) urging him to get over to London ASAP and join his new group, the Sex Pistols, complete with photo-booth snaps of Johnny Rotten, Steven Jones and Glen Matlock. Another of those great what ifs. Malcolm Maclaren also briefly reinvigorated the Dolls in their twilight months with his enthusiasm and energy. Indeed Maclaren emerges from this book with a huge amount of credit.
You'll already know if this book is likely to appeal to you. If it does then grab a copy - there's lots to enjoy and appreciate.
November 10, 2019
Savory...Oh Sylvain. Thankyou For Laying Your Story Down...I'm 300 years old in Rock & Roll too...Please get better soon Sylvain, I've got the same diagnosis as you...I loved this story so much, sad it's over...
SJD
SJD
July 3, 2023
Even though I thought I knew a lot about the Dolls, reading Sylvain’s story was super interesting and enjoyable. His perspective was fresh and fun.
June 12, 2019
I always thought the New York Dolls were a bunch of grimy NY kids, turns out I was right.
But Sylvain's story is more interesting for his descriptions of growing up in Cairo and then France and immigration life in general.
Please read.
But Sylvain's story is more interesting for his descriptions of growing up in Cairo and then France and immigration life in general.
Please read.
October 10, 2018
In the autobiography by Jorma Kaukonen (Jefferson Airplane, Hot Tuna), I learned about every instrument he ever owned and the basis for a lot of his lyrics. In Wayne Kramer’s (MC5) autobiography about songs, touring, drugs and incarceration. In Sylvain Sylvain’s autobiography? Clothes!
August 25, 2025
I was far too young to have seen the New York Dolls play back in the early 1970s. The same thing is true with regard to the MC5. I ended up getting an amazing sort of consolation prize, though, because when I was about nine years old I ended up living roughly a block down the street from the little house where Wayne Kramer & Johnny Thunders were rehearsing the short-lived band they had together, which was called Gang War. It must have had more of an effect on me than I realised at the time, because I spent the rest of my childhood and the first decade of my adult life essentially following in their footsteps...
Many years later, I was lucky enough to see Sylvain Sylvain play twice; once with the New York Dolls in 2007, and then in 2014 on the acoustic tour he did with Glen Matlock (the original bass-player of the Sex Pistols).
When I saw the New York Dolls (at "Tastefest" here in Detroit), I was with my wife and my late friend Eric Bennett. Even though it was still full daylight, they played their asses off and it was a great show. At that time, Sami Yaffa was their bass-player. He had been in the extraordinarily great Finnish band Hanoi Rocks during the late 1970s & 1980s, and had an enormous influence on me when I was a young musician during the 1980s & early 1990s. That was the only time I have ever been able to see him play, so consequently, as much as I love the New York Dolls, I was paying more attention to him than anyone else on the stage.
When Sylvain & Glen Matlock came around in 2014 (it was called the "Sex Doll" tour if I remember correctly), they played at Small's in Hamtramck, which conveniently is a 5 minute drive from my house. They each played a fairly long acoustic set (it was sort of like an "MTV Storytellers" type of scenario), and they did a shorter set together. Most of the audience were musicians (mostly my contemporaries from the late '80s/early '90s Detroit punk scene) or others who had been there with us back in the day, so we were all absolutely thrilled to see those guys play. Glen played his heart out, and turned out to be a surprisingly good guitarist and vocalist. He really impressed everyone- not exactly an easy thing to do when you are playing to a bunch of Detroit musicians! Sylvain played and sang well also, of course, though he was a bit subdued during his solo performance; he seemed to really come alive at the end, however, when they played together. Afterwards, both men hung out for a bit while we all in turn thanked them and told them what a great influence they had had on all of us as musicians, both collectively and individually, and on the scene we had all been a part of. We were all even more impressed by the fact that both of them were such nice, gracious gentlemen.
Reading this book has reinforced my impression that Sylvain Sylvain, through no fault of his own (or even anyone else's, usually), and often for no apparent reason, was throughout his life often overshadowed by not only his bandmates (or former bandmates), but sometimes others as well. This is not only unfortunate, but more than a little bit unfair. After all, he was a great songwriter, a very good guitarist, a decent singer- and he almost always looked cool, too, because he had such an amazing eye for style. Sadly, this sort of thing is not usually preventable- once the pattern is established, it simply happens, for this or that reason, or some other reason entirely. This is particularly true for musicians. More often than not, even when a young musician is just starting out, it is really easy to spot whether they have that extra charisma that will inevitably make them the center of attention. It is almost as easy to spot the ones who don't, but will nevertheless keep trying day after day, week after week, year after year. Sylvain Sylvain was one of those poor guys who were in the latter category. Me too, sadly, but I didn't have the strength or even the stubborness to keep on going for all those years, no matter what happens, the way he did. You have to respect & admire that. I mean, it isn't his fault (or mine, really) that, as a bass-player, I just naturally have a greater affinity for other bass-players; the result, however, was that like so many others I ended up paying less attention to him. I felt a little bit bad about that in 2014, and I still do.
This book was both interesting and well-written. It probably doesn't quite merit the four stars I gave it, but I am happy to spot the author a few fractions to make up the difference, for his massive influence on so much of the music I have listened to throughout my life and just for being pretty damn cool. The only thing I didn't like about it was that it did not go on to cover the rest of Sylvain's career from the late 1970s to the 2010s. Like most people, I am considerably more familiar with the his career as a member of the New York Dolls up to 1975-76 than with his subsequent career. The story of the New York Dolls, after all, has been written about quite a lot by many different people. Getting the perspective of one of the central figures in that story is, of course, quite fascinating, but as a musician I am just as interested in how he managed to deal with the fact that his band had broken up, how he picked up the pieces of his life and career and began attempting to put them back together in a different pattern, and the details of how he kept on doing that again and again for decades...
Many years later, I was lucky enough to see Sylvain Sylvain play twice; once with the New York Dolls in 2007, and then in 2014 on the acoustic tour he did with Glen Matlock (the original bass-player of the Sex Pistols).
When I saw the New York Dolls (at "Tastefest" here in Detroit), I was with my wife and my late friend Eric Bennett. Even though it was still full daylight, they played their asses off and it was a great show. At that time, Sami Yaffa was their bass-player. He had been in the extraordinarily great Finnish band Hanoi Rocks during the late 1970s & 1980s, and had an enormous influence on me when I was a young musician during the 1980s & early 1990s. That was the only time I have ever been able to see him play, so consequently, as much as I love the New York Dolls, I was paying more attention to him than anyone else on the stage.
When Sylvain & Glen Matlock came around in 2014 (it was called the "Sex Doll" tour if I remember correctly), they played at Small's in Hamtramck, which conveniently is a 5 minute drive from my house. They each played a fairly long acoustic set (it was sort of like an "MTV Storytellers" type of scenario), and they did a shorter set together. Most of the audience were musicians (mostly my contemporaries from the late '80s/early '90s Detroit punk scene) or others who had been there with us back in the day, so we were all absolutely thrilled to see those guys play. Glen played his heart out, and turned out to be a surprisingly good guitarist and vocalist. He really impressed everyone- not exactly an easy thing to do when you are playing to a bunch of Detroit musicians! Sylvain played and sang well also, of course, though he was a bit subdued during his solo performance; he seemed to really come alive at the end, however, when they played together. Afterwards, both men hung out for a bit while we all in turn thanked them and told them what a great influence they had had on all of us as musicians, both collectively and individually, and on the scene we had all been a part of. We were all even more impressed by the fact that both of them were such nice, gracious gentlemen.
Reading this book has reinforced my impression that Sylvain Sylvain, through no fault of his own (or even anyone else's, usually), and often for no apparent reason, was throughout his life often overshadowed by not only his bandmates (or former bandmates), but sometimes others as well. This is not only unfortunate, but more than a little bit unfair. After all, he was a great songwriter, a very good guitarist, a decent singer- and he almost always looked cool, too, because he had such an amazing eye for style. Sadly, this sort of thing is not usually preventable- once the pattern is established, it simply happens, for this or that reason, or some other reason entirely. This is particularly true for musicians. More often than not, even when a young musician is just starting out, it is really easy to spot whether they have that extra charisma that will inevitably make them the center of attention. It is almost as easy to spot the ones who don't, but will nevertheless keep trying day after day, week after week, year after year. Sylvain Sylvain was one of those poor guys who were in the latter category. Me too, sadly, but I didn't have the strength or even the stubborness to keep on going for all those years, no matter what happens, the way he did. You have to respect & admire that. I mean, it isn't his fault (or mine, really) that, as a bass-player, I just naturally have a greater affinity for other bass-players; the result, however, was that like so many others I ended up paying less attention to him. I felt a little bit bad about that in 2014, and I still do.
This book was both interesting and well-written. It probably doesn't quite merit the four stars I gave it, but I am happy to spot the author a few fractions to make up the difference, for his massive influence on so much of the music I have listened to throughout my life and just for being pretty damn cool. The only thing I didn't like about it was that it did not go on to cover the rest of Sylvain's career from the late 1970s to the 2010s. Like most people, I am considerably more familiar with the his career as a member of the New York Dolls up to 1975-76 than with his subsequent career. The story of the New York Dolls, after all, has been written about quite a lot by many different people. Getting the perspective of one of the central figures in that story is, of course, quite fascinating, but as a musician I am just as interested in how he managed to deal with the fact that his band had broken up, how he picked up the pieces of his life and career and began attempting to put them back together in a different pattern, and the details of how he kept on doing that again and again for decades...
January 18, 2021
Like the Stooges and the Velvet Underground before them, the New York Dolls didn't sell many records during their active years, but it seems like everyone who did buy one formed a band. Syl's book is a well-written and enjoyable account of life in a band that went on to achieve legendary status through, as Syl puts it, "just being the Dolls".
Too young to have been there in their pomp, I count myself lucky to have seen them in 2005 (sadly just after Arthur 'Killer' Kane had passed away), and to have seen Johnny and Jerry in the Heartbreakers in 1984. The Dolls ignored outside influences, thereby eschewing short-term success in order to stay true to the music they wanted to make, and I think that's why we're still talking about them now, in the 21st century.
Too young to have been there in their pomp, I count myself lucky to have seen them in 2005 (sadly just after Arthur 'Killer' Kane had passed away), and to have seen Johnny and Jerry in the Heartbreakers in 1984. The Dolls ignored outside influences, thereby eschewing short-term success in order to stay true to the music they wanted to make, and I think that's why we're still talking about them now, in the 21st century.
July 15, 2020
A much better than expected rock memoir. So well written I can forgive the fact the the Dolls don't fully enter the story until halfway through the book. So well written that I can forgive the fact that he never explains the title of the book. Seriously. Kept waiting for that anecdote to appear - never does!
July 9, 2022
Illuminating, fun, at time poignant, really evokes a time that I just barely missed and am very mad about missing. Cool unexpected cameos, too, including Brigitte Bardot and Mike Oldfield. The title is never explained (unless I missed something) but New York Dolls adepts will recognize it as Killer Kane's rationale for ice cream being his favorite food. I THINK...
November 13, 2018
Tackles the dark stuff, but doesn't dwell there; Syl recounts his childhood to Dolls' bust years with a certain amount of affection and humour. Interesting childhood he had, too.
March 19, 2023
Sylvain Sylvain lived an interesting life, but the story feels muted here.
November 1, 2019
To this day the New York Dolls evoke an image of craziness and excess that ranks with the best (or worst) of what rock & roll is capable of. Along with the Stooges and the MC5 they were the “holy trinity” of the pre-punk era in the early 1970’s – when punk came along a few years later it was virtually a commandment that every punk band would include the Dolls, Stooges and MC5 as their influences. Along with the Stooges and MC5 the New York Dolls put out a couple of albums that almost nobody bought, appealed to almost nobody outside of their hometowns and crashed magnificently into the cliffs of “squandered opportunities, bad luck and lots of bad choices”.
As a founder and one of the two surviving members of the New York Dolls Sylvain Sylvain brings his own perspective on the Dolls and rewards us with his story on the band that Creem Magazine readers voted as the “best” and “worst” band in the world in the same year. The band doesn’t actually appear in this book till after the first hundred pages, but Sylvain’s background and early days are fascinating – growing up in Egypt his family’s comfortable life is disrupted by a political uprising and they are forced to flee to Paris and eventually wind up in New York City. Sylvain quickly becomes involved in music and fashion and somehow manages to both meet Brigitte Bardot and go to Woodstock. In fact, much of this book resembles a rock & roll-type Forrest Gump trip through the 1960s and 1970s as he manages to always be at the right place at the right time. Eventually, he returns from England and helps form the New York Dolls.
The story starts becoming more familiar as we have seen it happen so often; the Dolls click and start portraying both an image and musical style that is completely at odds with everything else happening in the world. They have an attitude and a look that makes them stars in NYC, but their playing ability never quite catches up to their hype. We all know the story – they get signed to Mercury Records after everybody else passes on them; nobody quite knows what to do with them, they start doing way too many drugs and the whole juggernaut comes crashing to a halt. David Johannsen builds a thriving career as a musician and an actor, while Sylvain keeps performing and growing his own reputation as a skilled musician and songwriter. The other Dolls are all gone now – their second album title “Too Much Too Soon” is an appropriate farewell.
But of course years later, the Dolls did return spearheaded by Sylvian and Johannsen (and briefly Arthur Kane) and played in front of thousands of adoring fans who understood what they really mean to music. The book ends on a high note and lets us appreciate what the New York Dolls did manage to do and why they are still so important.
There were two things that really struck me about this book. The original drummer of the NY Dolls, Billy Murcia, was a childhood friend of Sylvain and his early death really changed the dynamics of the band. The other point was that Sylvain never got writing credit for any of the Dolls’ material even though he wrote and co-wrote many of the songs. As of this writing Sylvain is battling cancer and I was thrilled to attend one of the many shows organized to help him out with his medical bills. Just like Wayne Kramer with “Hard Stuff” – Sylvain Sylvain has done us a great favor by writing this book – it’s time to pop that NY Dolls record on the turntable and listen to how rock & roll should sound!
As a founder and one of the two surviving members of the New York Dolls Sylvain Sylvain brings his own perspective on the Dolls and rewards us with his story on the band that Creem Magazine readers voted as the “best” and “worst” band in the world in the same year. The band doesn’t actually appear in this book till after the first hundred pages, but Sylvain’s background and early days are fascinating – growing up in Egypt his family’s comfortable life is disrupted by a political uprising and they are forced to flee to Paris and eventually wind up in New York City. Sylvain quickly becomes involved in music and fashion and somehow manages to both meet Brigitte Bardot and go to Woodstock. In fact, much of this book resembles a rock & roll-type Forrest Gump trip through the 1960s and 1970s as he manages to always be at the right place at the right time. Eventually, he returns from England and helps form the New York Dolls.
The story starts becoming more familiar as we have seen it happen so often; the Dolls click and start portraying both an image and musical style that is completely at odds with everything else happening in the world. They have an attitude and a look that makes them stars in NYC, but their playing ability never quite catches up to their hype. We all know the story – they get signed to Mercury Records after everybody else passes on them; nobody quite knows what to do with them, they start doing way too many drugs and the whole juggernaut comes crashing to a halt. David Johannsen builds a thriving career as a musician and an actor, while Sylvain keeps performing and growing his own reputation as a skilled musician and songwriter. The other Dolls are all gone now – their second album title “Too Much Too Soon” is an appropriate farewell.
But of course years later, the Dolls did return spearheaded by Sylvian and Johannsen (and briefly Arthur Kane) and played in front of thousands of adoring fans who understood what they really mean to music. The book ends on a high note and lets us appreciate what the New York Dolls did manage to do and why they are still so important.
There were two things that really struck me about this book. The original drummer of the NY Dolls, Billy Murcia, was a childhood friend of Sylvain and his early death really changed the dynamics of the band. The other point was that Sylvain never got writing credit for any of the Dolls’ material even though he wrote and co-wrote many of the songs. As of this writing Sylvain is battling cancer and I was thrilled to attend one of the many shows organized to help him out with his medical bills. Just like Wayne Kramer with “Hard Stuff” – Sylvain Sylvain has done us a great favor by writing this book – it’s time to pop that NY Dolls record on the turntable and listen to how rock & roll should sound!
September 5, 2019
I feel like I’ve learned the true origin of punk rock, or at least English punk rock and the Sex Pistols. This is a great read, a firsthand account of one of the original members of the band that helped plant the seeds of new wave and punk. Well worth reading. I have a renewed interest in, and respect for, the two LPs I’ve owned, but largely ignored, for decades.
August 11, 2024
I read Arthur's book a couple of years ago and it's good to hear another Doll tell their version of events.
Stupid title does the book no credit.
A detailed biography of Sylvain]s life.
Fashion and clothing were important to him.
He seems to have liked everyone and respected many other performers.
Arthur had a lot of issues with Johanson but Sylvain doesn't go there at all.
A good yarn despite the dumb title.
Stupid title does the book no credit.
A detailed biography of Sylvain]s life.
Fashion and clothing were important to him.
He seems to have liked everyone and respected many other performers.
Arthur had a lot of issues with Johanson but Sylvain doesn't go there at all.
A good yarn despite the dumb title.
August 14, 2018
Gratifying on so many levels - timely, as its the story of an immigrant coping, hustling and having an outsized influence on so many in so many ways. Sylvain and The Dolls will never lack for fans as they will be rediscovered as long as people have eyes and ears.
December 2, 2021
I loved hearing everything sylvain had to share...I wish he had continued on. I would have loved to hear about his solo career and his personal growth as times changed. An absolute joy and makes you listen to the Dolls in a whole new way.
May 3, 2021
an enjoyable read and very detailed!
September 18, 2021
This is a great book.
The New York Dolls changed the world of music for good!
Thank you.
The New York Dolls changed the world of music for good!
Thank you.
April 30, 2023
This is a pretty good telling of the New York Dolls story. Sylvain Sylvain was there from the beginning, and his book is readable and interesting.
March 4, 2024
This book is so good but why the hell is the print so small ! Just admit this is a fat book and make more pages.
February 25, 2025
Really nice surprise, great stories ! Great insights into the era and punk culture!
April 11, 2019
New York Dolls are a favorite of mine and I’ve always thought Sylvain an incredibly interesting character. The reader gets a bit of everything here-from his childhood, teens and of course his time with the Dolls, to a little after. I found his recollections to be heartfelt and the depictions of his band mates, tender. From the reading you get the sense that these guys formed a family and an amazing two albums-deserving of all the praise. Their debut will always be in my top five, playing in my house and bouncing along in my thoughts.
May 11, 2024
Covers Sylvain's childhood and the initial phase of the New York Dolls, mentions a few later events. It was interesting as they were hyped for a few years and never made it.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews