Television

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.

I mean, yeah, that whole "except for vocals and Tom's guitar solos" significantly reduces my interest in hearing them.

I'd like to hear them at least once!
I said way upthread that their Rhino Handmade CD of Old Waldorf and download were both OOP, but Amazon digital says otherwise (also still has equally splendid RH of Beefheart at My Father's Place, I'm Going To Do What I Wanna Do, so hopefully the Handmade Fugs as well), also OW with first two studio albs as The Complete Elektra Recordings. WLIR My Father's Place show back once again as Live...Long Island 1978.

Speaking of the Yardbirds, this is from Greil Marcus's eyewitness report (Brixton, '66), posted by birdwistheword on the Jeff Beck thread):

They were both explosive and careful, anarchic and precise. It was an unstable combination of values and it seemed to make every song feel like a risk, where anything could happen.

compared *Verlaine's* and/or Lloyd's sound, that is.

patti's tribute:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/02/13/he-was-tom-verlaine

maybe this has already been posted but i hadn't seen it before...

sorry, i can’t help recommending this italian interview tonite – sorry if you already know ithttps://t.co/K3xnItSFd5

— ms2 (@marco_ms2) January 30, 2023

p.s. the second half of that clip is a live marquee moon and is an absolute treat for people who wanna watch what tom's hands are doing

also the wire are making alan licht's 2006 interview with him available for free for the next month...

Tom Verlaine (13 December 1949–28 January 2023)

Tom Verlaine died on 28 January aged 73. Read Alan Licht’s 2006 cover story on the Television guitarist and singer free in our online library:https://t.co/tZTGj33b4c

— The Wire Magazine (@thewiremagazine) January 30, 2023

Oh that patti piece
Tears are streaming rn

goddammit patti <3 ;_;

yeah, that Patti piece is a tearjerker. When she's good, she's good! wow.

really moving, wow

In his final hours, watching him sleep, I travelled backward in time. We were in the apartment, and he cut my hair, and some pieces stuck out this way and that, so he called me Winghead. In the years to follow, simply Wing. Even when we got older, always Wing. And he, the boy who never grew up, aloft the Omega, a golden filament in the vibrant violet light.

"Winghead" is in "Little Johnny Jewel", how about that?

That interview / performance .

nice piece by dean wareham:
https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/01/31/encounters-with-tom-verlaine/

I think that's a picture of Lloyd in Couterpunch article. It's a nice read though.

His friend Patti Smith said somewhere that Verlaine “plays lead guitar with angular inverted passion like a thousand bluebirds screaming” — but that says more about her than it does about him.

lol ouch

Yes and no

Time is a crashing thing
That’s what the old book said
One day you’ll be a saint
I’d better make my bed
I know the ink is dry
I know they do not lie
I’d better make my bid

Lol. Love Dean W.

Yeah, an educational essay (and his own memoir, written well before the trend began, remains a favorite).

fun memoir. good insight into Stan Demeski's humor, which prepared me for my oft-repeated anecdote where the night I met him he simply walked up to me, shook my hand and said "were are my royalties, motherfucker."

I also enjoy reading Damon Krakowski these days, but can't say Dean's book didn't color my view.

Dean's memoir is a blast. "We were dogs but we weren't pigs" (On Luna refusing to allow the lighting guy to scout for attractive women to invite backstage)

I remember one incident he writes about related to that about his "rock and roll slip" that was really well-described.

good insight into Stan Demeski's humor, which prepared me for my oft-repeated anecdote where the night I met him he simply walked up to me, shook my hand and said "were are my royalties, motherfucker."

I met Stan last year and he was very nice, but immediately turned to my friend and growled "Take that fuckin Mets hat off!"

Sometimes Verlaine's guitar did sound something like that, and even if it hadn't DW's music police comment says more about him than her.

hearing police, commentary police, something objective, no doubt.

well, she did use "angular"

True.

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

― Thus Sang Freud, Monday, January 30, 2023 3:58 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Depending on the angle of the dangle.

"angular" in 1974 tho: critical first-use klaxon bid?

That's what I was gonna say, is there an earlier documented use?

Gonna go add that to the Patti Smith wiki. "First known use of 'angular' to describe Tom Verlaine's guitar playing."

also first known use of "bluebirds" tbf

here's the whole thing, fwiw:
http://www.thewonder.co.uk/rckscene.htm

"languid" and "angular" within a couple sentences of each other.

Burn witch burn
xxxp No! Stephen Stills! "Bluebird" singular, because it's an absolute!---ly killer track, grunting aside on that other take.

hmm did not want to give the impression i was taking down patti, if that's how it read.

No prob with your observations, but I'm maybe gonna sic Tar on DW when she gets back.

i think i will see Tar after i am aloft the omega.

Don't see it 'til you can see it for free, seriously! Check thread for details (Spoiler: we of ILE were not too thrilled.)

did no one use angular on the velvets

I think of the Velvets as more of a square wave.

Regardless, I always thought there should be more geometry in music criticism.