That interview upthread is fantastic. Love the Cale bits, and this:
"Our drummer, though, is real Chick Corea-oriented. Sometime when you come, you should just focus on him for like three songs. He’s really an amazing drummer. I never really listened to him but I was listening to him on our single. He’s really got so many little things going.
He doesn’t drum like a rock drummer.
No. He doesn’t. Not at all. He’s really fantastic.
― change display name (Jordan), Thursday, 2 February 2023 21:50 (one year ago) link
The "Fire Engine" cover was mis-titled "The Blow-Up" on the archival Television live album of the same name.
― an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Thursday, 2 February 2023 21:51 (one year ago) link
And
I like John Cale’s records. His two records on Island. That’s why Patti thought he’d be so good, because the sound on those records is good. Turns out it’s a guy named John Wood, who mixes and engineers them. He’s a real ace. I’d like to get him for a record. He flies over here and only charges $600 a week, which isn’t bad. Producers cost, what? $50,000, $60,000.
― change display name (Jordan), Thursday, 2 February 2023 21:51 (one year ago) link
yeah that was interesting! John Wood could've had yet another total classic LP to his name ...
― tylerw, Thursday, 2 February 2023 21:53 (one year ago) link
Yes, those two things stood out for me as well. Tryiing to remember what Iggy said about Cale in I Need More: he'd come into the room with an aura of mystery and twirl his cape or something.
― And Your Borad Can Zing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 2 February 2023 21:54 (one year ago) link
just remembered that Verlaine is quoted in the Nick Drake Fruit Tree box set liners ...
― tylerw, Thursday, 2 February 2023 21:59 (one year ago) link
Really, what did he say?
― And Your Borad Can Zing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 2 February 2023 22:00 (one year ago) link
Was it anything like
When we started recording, Nico and John Cale used to sit in the booth looking like they were in the Addams Family - Cale was wearing a Dracula cape with a great big collar on it. He looked like Z-Man in Beyond the Valley of the Dolls and he had this funny haircut.
― And Your Borad Can Zing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 2 February 2023 22:01 (one year ago) link
https://i.discogs.com/d-Ah7mx5steyLsVLoAFNwZWVJ7snAGXXw-B8WV_rUcE/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:534/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTExOTQw/MDQtMTQwOTEwNzEx/Ny02MTQ2LmpwZWc.jpeg
― tylerw, Thursday, 2 February 2023 22:03 (one year ago) link
A lot of links. Which one to the Cale bits?
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 2 February 2023 22:03 (one year ago) link
I forgot
And Nico was knitting. Throughout that whole album, she sat there knitting something, maybe a sweater.[
― And Your Borad Can Zing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 2 February 2023 22:03 (one year ago) link
The Trouser Press interview (xp)
― And Your Borad Can Zing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 2 February 2023 22:04 (one year ago) link
John Cale quite likes us. He wants to produce us, but he’s not technically oriented. He’s really good as the guy in the other room to make you go nuts. To really get you to do it in a room, instead of on a stage, but he doesn’t know which buttons to push. He’s always too high to know how to mix, and he’s always like, “Add the guitar, voice louder than…” He’ll have the voice going so loud that it sounds like the drums are inside somebody’s vocal cords or something. Patti had to mix that whole album herself. Have you heard that record?...I like “Kimberly.” There’s an example of Cale, man. They had this fantastic four-part harmony at the end of that song, it goes from “the palm trees” , and there’s like this Tahitian harmony, like “palm trees fall into” … and Cale just wiped it off. It was just fantastic, too.
― change display name (Jordan), Thursday, 2 February 2023 22:07 (one year ago) link
Reminds me of that line about Cale producing several epochal debuts but was rarely called back for sequels.
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 2 February 2023 22:09 (one year ago) link
Re: John Wood. I think Tom's claim not to have heard Fairport Convention until after Television split up is looking a tad more dubious.
― Maggot Bairn (Tom D.), Thursday, 2 February 2023 22:11 (one year ago) link
haha yeah — trying to remember where I saw that quote ...
― tylerw, Thursday, 2 February 2023 22:19 (one year ago) link
The Fire Engines named themselves after Television covering the 13th Floor Elevators.
― dan selzer, Thursday, 2 February 2023 22:21 (one year ago) link
There was some similar Cale sorta shade in the Bob Mould book:
That September, after Hüsker Dü played a show with Dead Kennedys in Chicago, John Cale appeared backstage, offering his production services. He was intoxicated and kept trying to hug us and lift us off the ground. Despite his undeniable influence on the previous two decades of modern music, we politely declined his kind offer, as we were a little surprised and unnerved by his behavior. But the fact that Cale had heard about the band was surprising, and it signaled how quickly our reputation was spreading.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 2 February 2023 22:28 (one year ago) link
Feel like there may be more dry ice and cape-swirling stories involving The Modern Lovers and/or Patti Smith but lots of luck finding them.
― And Your Borad Can Zing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 3 February 2023 02:07 (one year ago) link
No doubt John Cale learned a lot about producing from Tom Wilson.
― And Your Borad Can Zing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 3 February 2023 02:08 (one year ago) link
Cale was married to a clothes designer in the late 60s. I thought by the mid 70s he was dressing a lot more casually verging on the downbeat.
I was remembering a reference to a producer tied in with the Fairports or similar era Britfolk but couldn't think who was being refered to or where. But it would male sense it was in the Fruit Tree box set liners. I only had the box for a short time cos I found the sound really sibilant. Sounded like Drake was lisping on every letter he could. I don't think I have heard that on later masterings, not sure if I had a duff copy of the box.
― Stevolende, Friday, 3 February 2023 07:39 (one year ago) link
Betsey Johnson. He talks about that relationship and at least one other in What’s Welsh For Zen. Don’t recall whether she bought or designed the cape or not but that first Stooges album was produced around the time they were married.
― And Your Borad Can Zing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 3 February 2023 11:54 (one year ago) link
the noise guy --> wife guy --> cape guy pipeline
― mark s, Friday, 3 February 2023 11:57 (one year ago) link
The guard at the front asked me to write a note. I did and explained who I was. Verlaine came out, looked at me with that inscrutable stare/glare
― And Your Borad Can Zing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 3 February 2023 12:05 (one year ago) link
Jonathan Richman works too. Maybe they could have bonded discussing the Cale production method, but Jojo probably wouldn’t have wanted to talk about it.
― And Your Borad Can Zing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 3 February 2023 12:08 (one year ago) link
He went to school with the guy in the Wailers, Al Anderson, the lead guitar player. They went to the same high school.
― And Your Borad Can Zing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 3 February 2023 12:24 (one year ago) link
Cale & Betsey & cape
https://64.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ltc6qrKVTW1qhyxxwo1_250.jpg
― Piedie Gimbel, Friday, 3 February 2023 13:33 (one year ago) link
That cape was probably picked up from Dracula in Memphis
― a (waterface), Friday, 3 February 2023 13:37 (one year ago) link
The Z-Man comparison is spot on... whoever made it... was it Iggy?
― Maggot Bairn (Tom D.), Friday, 3 February 2023 13:39 (one year ago) link
The guard at the front asked me to write a note.
and I asked him how he don't go mad?
― Vast Halo, Friday, 3 February 2023 13:56 (one year ago) link
Of course it was Iggy.
― And Your Borad Can Zing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 3 February 2023 13:57 (one year ago) link
Cale & Betsey & capeAwesome, thanks!
― And Your Borad Can Zing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 3 February 2023 14:01 (one year ago) link
More memories of TV at the Strand https://georgeszamuely.substack.com/p/my-memories-of-tom-verlaineas linked from James Wolcott's LRB blogpost https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2023/february/remembering-tom-verlaine
― Piedie Gimbel, Friday, 3 February 2023 16:59 (one year ago) link
some sweet Verlaine rarities this week (including a previously uncirculated SBD tape from 1981): https://doomandgloomfromthetomb.substack.com/p/doom-and-gloom-dispatch-14-souvenir
― tylerw, Friday, 3 February 2023 17:03 (one year ago) link
Once Hell was replaced by Fred Smith, a bassist of the stalwart sentry-duty John Entwistle school
― And Your Borad Can Zing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 3 February 2023 18:17 (one year ago) link
Also, a mention of Deerfrance, another Cale connection! Hope she is doing okay.
― And Your Borad Can Zing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 3 February 2023 18:19 (one year ago) link
apparently she is
― And Your Borad Can Zing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 3 February 2023 18:26 (one year ago) link
Solid Wolcott reminscence.
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 3 February 2023 18:37 (one year ago) link
man i love all these reminiscences. that George Szamuely piece was fascinating & very sweet. keep them coming!
― werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 3 February 2023 18:46 (one year ago) link
Sometimes I want to dismiss Wolcott as yet another graphomaniac Paulette but he sure can write.
― And Your Borad Can Zing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 3 February 2023 19:09 (one year ago) link
George Szamuely is a character himself: "Szamuely was arrested by the New York Police Department on October 5, 1999, for having 570 overdue library books from the New York University campus library, many of them rare or out of print, which he stored inside 29 bags in his apartment, and which he refused to return after repeated warnings. His fines ran up to $31,000, although this was allegedly the cost of replacing them."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Szamuely
― birdistheword, Friday, 3 February 2023 19:54 (one year ago) link
i can sort of see why verlaine might have put his book recommendations back on the shelf.
― Thus Sang Freud, Friday, 3 February 2023 20:06 (one year ago) link
Oh hi. I just went through this whole thing of wondering why I never saw him outside The Strand to realizing I probably did see him and have one of these interactions.
― And Your Borad Can Zing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 4 February 2023 16:55 (one year ago) link
some sweet Verlaine rarities this week (including a previously uncirculated SBD tape from 1981): https://doomandgloomfromthetomb.substack.com/p/doom-and-gloom-dispatch-14-souvenir― tylerw, vrijdag 3 februari 2023 18:03 (two days ago)
― tylerw, vrijdag 3 februari 2023 18:03 (two days ago)
Been listening to some of these the past two days (thanks!), they're all amazing but holy shit @ the second half of the 1987 show - the versions of "Marquee Moon" and "Psychotic Reaction" in particular are otherwordly.Scored this 12-inch a couple of years ago, it also contains a great 1987 live version of "Marquee Moon". Not sure where it was recorded.
― willem, Sunday, 5 February 2023 20:30 (one year ago) link
This 87 show is even wilder
https://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/post/126012509202/tom-verlaine-the-ritz-new-york-city-april-26/amp
― tylerw, Monday, 6 February 2023 01:35 (one year ago) link
Thanks so much!So, the original Horses was reissued with Horses Live, feat. Verlaine: good? Does he play on the whole thing?
― dow, Monday, 6 February 2023 04:44 (one year ago) link
"You just sold Tom Verlaine a gardening manual. Things are okay."
https://lithub.com/tom-verlaine-was-the-strands-best-customer/
― Thus Sang Freud, Tuesday, 7 February 2023 12:41 (one year ago) link
I don't know how I ever managed to buy this classic American poetry anthology there for $1.99. Either it eluded his grasp or he just didn't do anthologies.
― And Your Borad Can Zing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 7 February 2023 13:08 (one year ago) link
did you get it inside? going inside is cheating.
― Thus Sang Freud, Tuesday, 7 February 2023 13:10 (one year ago) link
Hahaha, no!
― And Your Borad Can Zing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 7 February 2023 13:11 (one year ago) link