Being a child of the 80’s, I first discovered David Johansen when he doing work under the name Buster Poindexter — probably first seeing him acting in “Scrooged”, a criminally underrated Christmas movie if there ever was one. Bobcat Goldthwait for life! But I digress.
They’d play Buster Poindexter stuff on the Dr Demento show and various MTV specials; I can vaguely remember seeing the video for this a few times.
It wasn’t until later (probably some time in high school) when I discovered his work with The New York Dolls, and various solo records under both his real name and Buster Poindexter.
David Johansen has what I consider the perfect type of career in entertainment. He works in a variety of mediums and projects, and seems to do so happily, yet he’s not so famous as to need extra security and other craziness in his regular day to day life. I’d be shocked if he’s got paparazzi hanging outside his home 24 hours a day. He has a hit single (“Hot Hot Hot”) but doesn’t rest on that has his main career bullet point. He creates fun things, some larger than others, he reinvents himself from time to time. He has people that know certain aspects of his career but have (either intentionally or not) ignored the others.
David Johansen / Buster Poindexter might be one of the more underrated artists of our time.