"Trash" (New York Dolls)

New York Dolls is one of those bands that pretty much tanked in its day yet influenced a bevy of disciples in the years that followed.
When the band formed in 1971, few outside the Lower East Side of New York really got what the Dolls were all about.  The band's crass, unpolished blend of 50s rock & roll, 60s tough-girl pop, and garish, glittery cross-dressing got it dismissed as a cartoonish, ham-fisted rip off of The Rolling Stones.  In reality, the band was charting its own course and simultaneously setting the cornerstone of everything from glam and punk to 80s hair metal (for better or worse).
The song "Trash" from the band's Todd Rundgren-produced 1973 debut album pretty much summarizes the band in one three-minute burst.  More or less, it's a love song, set in the gutter.  The lyrics—which are barked by one Mister David Johansen (you might know him better as his alter ego, Buster Poindexter)—are purposely vague and full of double entendre: he might be singing an ode to a streetwalker/hustler; he might singing about drugs ("trash" could be synonymous with "junk"); or, he himself might be the hustler, warning his "sweet baby" not to throw her/his love away on him.
Whatever the case, the backing vocal (supposedly provided by Rundgren) that bawls Tra-aaash and coos ooh-ooh-ooh-ooooh's are a dramatic touch that pays homage to groups like The Shangri-Las or The Chiffons, giving the song a kind of tarnished sweetness.
But there's no chance of the song turning too charming with the twin guitars of Johnny Thunders (in your right channel) and Sylvain Sylvain (in your left channel) shredding away.  It's an in-your-face assault that rocks with calculated menace and provides context to what The Ramones, The Sex Pistols, Blondie, The Clash, et al. would be doing by the end of the decade.