New York Dolls: Live in NYC-1975/Red Patent Leather (1992)

As guitarist Syl Sylvain aptly remarks in the liner notes for Live in NYC-1975/Red Patent Leather, the New York Dolls ''confused everyone...but our fans thought we were the greatest rock n' roll band in the world.'' Expanded from a European import, this rough-but-right live document of the notorious glam-punk group's final days crackles with the energy of the late Johnny Thunders' snarling guitar and David Johansen's camped-up vocals. More than just evidence of the Dolls' live magic, this set of vintage standards (''Dizzy Miss Lizzie,'' Eddie Cochran's ''Something Else'') and the band's own febrile inventions (some of which, like Johansen's ''Girls,'' reappeared on post-Dolls solo albums) is a punk-rock Rosetta stone, a salvo of attitude and aggression from the band that cocked the Sex Pistols' trigger. B+