On Wednesday, the 13th, Sylvain Mizrahi’s long battle with cancer came to an end. He is now far from pain’s reach; he’s now at peace. His body is buried in New York City, though his music and soul will forever live.
As Mrs. Mizrahi said, “Thank you, Sylvain, x2 for your heart, belief, and the way you whacked that E chord. Sleep, baby doll.”
Mizrahi was born in Cairo, Egypt, and moved to France in the 1950s. However, his family later settled near Rego Park, Queens, in New York. Before joining the band New York Dolls, Mizrahi was a member of the band Actress that featured people like Billy Murcia, Johnny Thunders, and Arthur Kane. Shortly after, the last standing members of the band, Mizrahi and Billy, created the New York Dolls.
The band was practically created from their mother’s lame pants, their girlfriend’s makeup, their brother’s leather jackets, and their profound obsession – and talent- for rock and roll. Their name had even come from a toy repair shop in NY called New York Doll Hospital.
Mizrahi loved rock and roll; he was an icon joining the canyon between punk and glam. And he was inspired by artists like the Stooges, David Bowie, and the Rolling Stones. Mizrahi was an absolute outrage on stage; his talent and love for the music was unbelievable. He was the guitarist for the first albums titled New York Dolls and Too Much Too Soon though he later went on to play piano and assist while writing lyrics.
The New York Dolls were practically the core of rock and roll, they were a landmark; they were glammed-out punkers with masses of character and musical ability.
“A group is made up of people who start out there in some basement,” Mizrahi told the Quietus. “They’re bored of what life is, and then all of a sudden, someone says, ‘Let’s have a show!’ ‘What are we going to do for a stage curtain?’ ‘I’ll use my mother’s bedsheet.’ … I think it comes down to performance. Performance is what all these musicians are about.”
When the band first went to Jack Douglas with their song Personality Crisis, he had said, “it was already an important song. It was Sly who decided to add the piano- even then, he was a very decent player. It definitely gave the song more edge. “
However, the band later broke up. During that time, Mizrahi worked on an immense amount of solo projects teaming with Bobby Blain, Michael Page, and even Tony Machine. He debuted his works, Syl Sylvain and the Teardrops and Sleep Baby Doll. The band later reunited in 2004. In the “reunion,” we saw Mizrahi co-write and play guitar for One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This, Cause I Sez So, and Dancing Backwards in High Heels.
After living in Atlanta for numerous years, Sylvain relocated to Nashville in 2015. On April 27, 2019, Sylvain proclaimed that he had been fighting cancer and published a GoFundMe to gather money to help pay for treatment. He passed of cancer in his home on Wednesday, at age 69.
To see both Billy and Mizrahi pass away was devastating, but knowing he is no longer battling cancer is comforting. The two will never never be forgotten. As O’Kelly Mizrahi said, “please crank up his music, light a candle, say a prayer, and let’s send this beautiful doll on his way.”
