Buster Poindexter

In the middle of the 1980s, rock vocalist David Johansen created the alter ego Buster Poindexter to front a partly humorous cabaret-style routine. Setting aside the hard-rock solo path he had pursued after fronting the New York Dolls, he arrived at Manhattan’s Tramps nightclub dressed in a tuxedo, fronting a group he called the Banshees of Blue and delivering pop standards, jump blues, and assorted novelty numbers. The routine eventually secured a deal with RCA, although its primary appeal remained its live presentation. Beyond restarting Johansen’s work as a performer, the Buster character also reawakened his long-quiet interest in acting, resulting in co-starring roles in the 1988 films Married to the Mob and Scrooged. Johansen kept the persona at the center of his activities for several more years, releasing the albums Buster Goes Berserk in 1989 and Buster’s Happy Hour in 1994 while also playing a summer 1992 engagement in the Catskills. Following the turn of the century, however, he retired the Buster Poindexter identity and concentrated instead on country-blues performances and recordings with David Johansen & the Harry Smiths as well as on a new incarnation of the New York Dolls.