Television

In recent years I've returned most to the 1992 Television album, which has this sharp crystalline sound like clear skies through huge windows in winter,

yes! Been promoting this album for years

nice comment on times obit:

Book Seller
NJJan. 29
When I moved to New York several years back, I became a daily fixture outside the Strand Bookstore browsing their $1 and $2 books. I would sit along the wall reading and talking with others under the awning watching hours pass as frantic city life continued in the background. Quickly, I got to know everyone who would put in the same amount of hours perusing the book carts (Tom Verlaine was one of them).

I noticed him right away: a tall, commanding presence dressed always in black, often obscured by plumes of cigarette smoke. We would talk more and more and eventually grew to spending hours and hours outside talking to pass the time while waiting for the new arrivals. I had no idea the celebrity he was (just that he was a musician), and never did it come up. Another acquaintance finally let me in on the secret one day, after Tom and I had already shared countless months of near daily conversations.

He was warm, brilliant, and engaging. Always curious about me (with no reason to be) and just curious in general. Oh, and an excellent bookman in addition to his many more obvious talents.

To imagine passing by the Strand and not seeing him is nauseating. He will be sorely missed, and I loved the time we spent together.

<3

Ah, New York...

Ah, humanity

That is fucking wonderful

Good day to dig into the solo albums which I never bothered to go deep into, despite really liking the first one. Penetration on Dreamtime is next-level brilliant.

Wonder if Tom Verlaine bought any books with David Markson's name in them.

Oh Dan you have such riches ahead of you my god

i saw david markson give a talk at the strand once.

Personal ranking:
Flash light
Tom Verlaine
Cover
Dreamtime
‘Lost album’ 1986 (key tracks are on The Miller’s Tale comp)
Songs and other things
Words from the front
The wonder
[ashamed to say I haven’t spent enough time with the two instrumental albums - warm & cool and Around]

The only one there that I consider a dud is the wonder but that might change

Also the live disc appended to The Miller’s tale would probably fall in second place above

Cover and Dreamtime would be a tie

As of today's listen I'm liking Dreamtime more than the first album.

I think that is the consensus fave solo album nowadays

big fan of Words From The Front - 'True Story' and 'Days On The Mountain' are both amazing! the former has a strange post-punky groove that reminds me more than anything of peak period Simple Minds, and the latter is this epic thing that doesn't really sound like much else but the electronics + guitar do make me think of Bill Nelson

I remember an old girlfriend of mine having "Dreamtime" (and one other I think?) and I remember liking it a lot ... that was a long time ago though!

Vote here for Warm & Cool, which in its way was almost as formative to me as MM (I heard them both around the same time in 93-ish)

i think verlaine's solo career mimics lou reed's in that, as much as critics praised their early bands' work for its experimentalism, they just wanted to play with super-competant musicians who would do what they asked them to do. for better and worse. which is to say that all his solo records would be better as tv records, but you can't hold that against them.

oh great i misspell competent

You substituted an A for Angular.

haha that's one of those words that makes me stop reading a review. unless patti smith says it or something.

Xpost days on the mountain is really fucking cool on the live CD2 of The Miller’s Tale

Also the title track of words from the front is top 5 verlaine with a holy shit guitar solo

BLIINNNNDDD
(shreds)

oh shit yes! how could i forget

Upon the ridge they're dug in deep
We move in waves as if asleep
And there they lay, 4000 men
The general orders, "Attack again"

One of my all time favorite lyrics

Loving the sister ray vibe of the Ain’t that nuthin’ run through on the Rhino compilation.

"A Town Called Walker" boasts "It's not their tricks that I mind/it's just the way they say 'We' all the time," another killer.

My favorite later song of his is "All Weirded Out".

From that album, I think I have to go with documentary, nice actress lovebird asylum seeker and the earth is in the sky

It’s basically an excellent 10 track album that has more than 10 tracks

The solo from The Dream's Dream has been running through my mind all weekend and still won't shift. That's OK.

loool

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— Marc Masters 🌵 (@Marcissist) January 30, 2023

loool

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— Marc Masters 🌵 (@Marcissist) January 30, 2023

amazing!

Well yeah.

lol
funny thing is that Verlaine probably hated being lumped in with "punk" as much as he did with the Dead.

was he a Dead fan? I see people say that they were influenced by the Dead but Deadheads basically claim everything was influenced by the Dead...I always thought some of the further out jams of Quicksilver Messenger Service feel way more proto-Television

of course he might have been a Dead and just got sick of the comparison

Richard Lloyd was definitely into the Dead, he said he saw them a bunch at the Fillmore East in the early 70s. Verlaine, I kind of doubt it, he always said he didn't really have "rock" influences (which is slightly bullshit, but I think it's true that he was more of a jazz guy).

he liked the yardbirds. and 50s tunes with cool production and sounds. a friend once saw him walking down the street holding an album and ventured "hey tom, what record you got there?" tom murmured "everly brothers" and kept walking.

yeah — this WFMU show with him DJ-ing is worth a listen: https://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/17652

(maybe someone already posted it here)

thanks that all scans lloyd vs. verlaine in terms of the dead as well as the yardbirds and 50s stuff

did he ever say whether he liked fairport or not? things like the solo in 'sloth' are some the most proto-television moments i can think of

i think he did end up liking Richard Thompson but professed not to having heard Fairport until after Television broke up. Adventure definitely has some Thompson-esque moments.

Flipping through my social media feeds this weekend, there was a point where I started to feel like I was the only American who didn't run into him book shopping.

Seriously though, the outpouring of love and appreciation was really nice to see. Always kind of held out hope for another Television record someday. Ah well.

should also probably mention the Richard Hell comp Spurts which has two Neon Boys songs, one being an early version of "Love Comes in Spurts" in which you can really hear the VU/Electric Dylan influences at the fore

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvvh1UZFB68

there allegedly is one in the can, or at least jimmy rip has said something to that effect, but i am not sure what stage of completeness it is in and which guitarists do or don't play on it.

i think some recordings existed before richard lloyd left.

the way i understand it, all that was left to do for a 4th television album was for Verlaine to write lyrics / record vocals. Don't think he ever did, sadly, but I'd love to be proven wrong. On those latter-day tunes that were performed live, you can tell he's singing placeholder lyrics a lot of the time.

i wish jimmy rip had a different name

yeah this is someone on the hoffman forum:

My recollection is that Lloyd kept bothering Tom to get going on recording but Tom resisted. In 2007 both sides had finally had enough.

Ripp replaced him immediately, and suddenly Tom became interested in making another Television album.

In about 2008 the tracks were recorded. They were "complete" except for vocals and Tom's guitar solos. The lyrics and melodies were never actually finalized, let alone recorded.

And that's where the project has been stalled ever since. All there is, is about a dozen backing tracks that probably no-one would be that interested in hearing twice.