David Johansen, from Max's Kansas City to Cafe Carlyle

New York Dolls founding member David Johansen talks about his music career and his current engagement as his musical alter-ego, Buster Poindexter, at Café Carlyle, through February 21. Johansen transformed himself from a lipstick-smeared proto-punk hero into an urbane blue-eyed soul man and finally into the tuxedo-clad lounge lizard Buster Poindexter. He joined his first band, the Vagabond Missionaries, in his mid-teens. Arthur Kane extended an invitation to Johansen to join his band Actress. After changing their name to the New York Dolls, the group began building a notorious reputation for their menacing, edgy music, drug-fueled lifestyle, and outrageously campy, drag queen-inspired glam image.