Television

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.

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.

the noise guy --> wife guy --> cape guy pipeline

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

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.

He went to school with the guy in the Wailers, Al Anderson, the lead guitar player. They went to the same high school.

Cale & Betsey & cape

https://64.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ltc6qrKVTW1qhyxxwo1_250.jpg

That cape was probably picked up from Dracula in Memphis

The Z-Man comparison is spot on... whoever made it... was it Iggy?

The guard at the front asked me to write a note.

and I asked him how he don't go mad?

Of course it was Iggy.

Cale & Betsey & cape
Awesome, thanks!

More memories of TV at the Strand https://georgeszamuely.substack.com/p/my-memories-of-tom-verlaine
as linked from James Wolcott's LRB blogpost https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2023/february/remembering-tom-verlaine

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

Once Hell was replaced by Fred Smith, a bassist of the stalwart sentry-duty John Entwistle school

Also, a mention of Deerfrance, another Cale connection! Hope she is doing okay.

apparently she is

Solid Wolcott reminscence.

man i love all these reminiscences. that George Szamuely piece was fascinating & very sweet.

keep them coming!

Sometimes I want to dismiss Wolcott as yet another graphomaniac Paulette but he sure can write.

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

i can sort of see why verlaine might have put his book recommendations back on the shelf.

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.

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)

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.

This 87 show is even wilder

https://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/post/126012509202/tom-verlaine-the-ritz-new-york-city-april-26/amp

Thanks so much!
So, the original Horses was reissued with Horses Live, feat. Verlaine: good? Does he play on the whole thing?

"You just sold Tom Verlaine a gardening manual. Things are okay."

https://lithub.com/tom-verlaine-was-the-strands-best-customer/

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.

did you get it inside? going inside is cheating.

Hahaha, no!

https://aquariumdrunkard.com/2023/02/07/guiding-light-a-tom-verlaine-appreciation/

Thanks. Tbh getting a bit tired of the cart stories, especially since I already told mine elsewhere over the weekend.

great stuff. Love Licht's thing about the continuation of guitar rock bypassing the 70s.

Yeah Tyler that’s a wonderful assemblage thank you
I was worried we had now reached the phase where we no longer keep talking about Tom Verlaine every day

Please like and subscribe to my Television/Tom Verlaine podcast PEAK TV

TVOD

Tyler that's really really good.

and thanks so much.

Finally had time to read that. Stellar work as usual.

Also just reread the interview with Tom in Feeding Back and it was even grebter than I remembered it.

Read it whilst listening to The Blow Up which was potentially a risky maneuver but it worked out really well.

Nice collection of tributes here, including from the Clientele's Alasdair MacLean, who based on this and the podcast he did about the Beatles, is very good on talking about other musicians' work

https://aquariumdrunkard.com/2023/02/07/guiding-light-a-tom-verlaine-appreciation/?fbclid=IwAR3zCwYhPvRHNVD4G8ZPJaGUn0pSJWi5O2DwhjzlBFjOEpzH94TWCNtsYRQ

heh, just posted upthread by the fabulous tylerw who did the compiling

very much enjoyed alasdair's perspective, what's that podcast he did on the beatles?

D'oh - sorry missed that!

Alasdair was the guest on the Your Own Personal Beatles podcast back in October 21

https://shows.acast.com/personalbeatles/episodes/alasdsair-maclean

Does anyone have any thoughts on the first line of Venus? Lyrics sites say "It was a tight toy night", which makes no sense to me but who knows? I think I always heard it as "Tight, torn night"

I thought tight torn night

Another site has it as "tight tour night" which I suppose sounds the most literally plausible.

lyric sheet on the album sleeve "tight toy night" ... don't know what it means, but I like it!

So...the only Verlaine album I hadn't paid attention to, Words from the Front, is the weakest? The title track and "Days on the Mountain" are the strongest; the rest just flits away.

The production is very odd — I think even Verlaine admitted that he did not like how it sounded by the time he finished it. I like "Postcard From Waterloo," too, and "Clear It Away" would sound great live in the next few years.