SYLVAIN SYLVAIN

guitarist with rock band the New York Dolls

“A lot of people don’t know this, but Sylvain is an immigrant. I was born in Cairo, Egypt in 1956. By 1958, my family was exiled out of Egypt for being Jews, and we first immigrated to Paris, France. I always spoke French. All the North African Jews speak French anyway from Lebanon all the way to Morocco.

“So anyway, my first records when I was growing up in France were basically by Johnny Halliday. I think the first one was ‘C’Est ma Fete (Et Je Plue si Je Vieux),’ which is ‘It’s My Party (And I’ll Cry If I Want To).’ They were all knock-offs, as we would say in the rag business, of American hits by Leslie Gore and all those kinds of people.”