New York Dolls – "Trash" (1973)

Trash, won’t pick it up

Take them lights away

In 1950, James Hampton rented an unheated brick stable in downtown Washington, DC, for $50 a month.

Hampton – a black man who had grown up in rural South Carolina – eked out a living as a short-order cook and janitor.  When he died in 1964, his landlord came to the stable intending to clean out whatever Hampton had left behind so he could rent the space to a new tenant.

But when the landlord opened the door to the stable, he found more than 180 pulpits, lecterns, altars, and other items that Hampton had constructed from thrown-out furniture, burned-out light bulbs, used aluminum foil, and other discarded items.

James Hampton with his creation

Hampton had hoped to found a church where his creation would be housed, but he died before he was able to do so.  He also had hoped to find a “holy woman” to assist him in his labors, but he was unsuccessful in that quest.  (Been there, done that!)

It’s surprising that Hampton’s creation survived his demise.  The landlord thought about just hauling it all away to the dump, but he felt that would be wrong.  “You can’t just destroy something a man devoted himself to for 14 years,” he later told a newspaper reporter.

  

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Hampton’s “The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations Millennium General Assembly” was eventually acquired by the Smithsonian Institution, and it has been displayed in the Smithsonian’s American Art Museum since 1970:

The government agency where I went to work after graduating from law school in 1977 was only a few blocks from that museum.  I saw Hampton’s work soon after I started that job, and I’ve been taking visitors to view it ever since.

I think that the author Shelley Pearsall put her finger on what makes Hampton’s “Throne” so special: 

[F]or more than a decade, Hampton had labored alone, without fanfare, to create art for art’s sake – a nearly impossible concept to grasp in today’s world of rampant social-media sharing and instant celebrity.

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There’s a scene in the television series Daisy Jones & the Six where a talented young musician who is visiting a Greek island talks to an award-winning poet at a party.

She has just heard the poet say that he is still composing poetry but has stopped publishing it.  That shocks her – “Isn’t the whole point of making stuff for it to be seen, heard . . . you know, shared?” she asks the poet and his friend – an artist.

“No, no, the point is in the making, my dear,” the artist answers.  “That’s where the joy is.  Everything else is just applause.”

The poet agrees with him.  “He’s right, you know,” he tells the young musician.  “Never let other people tell you whether your work has value because then they own you.  Now I write for myself – for my friends . . . . It’s more pure.”

I’m not as pure as the poet.  I’m eager to hear words of praise for 2 or 3 lines from my friends and family members.  I think I’d continue to write it even if only a very few people read it. 

But if no one at all read my blog, would I continue to churn out 2 or 3 lines posts every week?  I’m not sure.

  

(If you write a blog and post it to the internet and no reads it, does it make a sound?  I suspect not.) 

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I took my grandson Tommy to see “The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations Millennium General Assembly” a few days ago. 

Tommy is only six, but he’s spent a fair amount of time in museums looking at paintings and sculpture.  Before we saw Hampton’s magnum opus, Tommy’s concept of what art is didn’t include an alcove crammed full of items constructed from flotsam and jetsam plucked out of trash cans.  

But by the time we left the museum to head home, Tommy was beginning to understand that just about anything can be made into art . . . and that just about anyone can be an artist.

Click here to learn more about James Hampton and “The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations Millennium General Assembly.

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Our last stop before hopping on the subway was the museum gift shop, where I bought a large postcard of “The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations Millennium General Assembly” for Tommy to take home and show to his father.  (Tommy didn’t know that I had taken his dad – my oldest child – to that same museum to see Hampton’s “Throne” thirty-odd years ago.)

Tommy, who is fascinated (if not obsessed) with American presidents, also asked me to buy a postcard of “Shimomura Crossing the Delaware,” a 2010 painting by Japanese-American artist Roger Shimomura that's based on the famous depiction of George Washington's crossing that river on Christmas night, 1776:

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“Trash” was the first track on side two of the New York Dolls’ eponymous debut album:

It was also released (along with “Personality Crisis”) as a double A-side single.

Dolls frontman David Johansen is the subject of “Personality Crisis: One Night Only,” a new documentary by Martin Scorsese.  It’s an odd little movie, but interesting.  I just wish it had included more footage of the Dolls performing.

Click here to listen to “Trash.”

Click here to buy the song from Amazon.