Television

Which is a good reason of course. Anyway, listening now, sounds good.

finally got a copy of that rhino/RTI pressing from over a decade ago in the mail today, this just blows away the CD/streaming version

obv Verlaine and Lloyd are amazing, but Fred Smith's bass playing on this record is just perfect, as big an influence to me as the guitars

Some cool Hell and Verlaine interview in this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dwb9FWSTt_k

https://500songs.com/podcast/pledge-week-youre-gonna-miss-me-by-the-thirteenth-floor-elevators/

The album’s liner notes were written by Hall and had a large amount of advocacy for the use of psychedelic drugs — as did the music itself, though some of this was a little more subtle, like the song “Fire Engine”, where the line “let me take you to the empty place” was meant to sound like “DMT place”, DMT being a psychedelic drug

Xpost

Scientist writes a letter was the one that made me cry this Sunday

This one is slow-release for me. I was too stressed out and numbed out by other stuff when I heard, only last night and this morning am I starting to really feel it. I don’t think of myself as the biggest Television fan, not because I am not a fan but because there are obviously bigger fans like Tyler, to name just one. Also maybe gave into the ancestral instinct to take sides and ended up taking Richard’s side in the TV Wars. But now I am starting to just be reminded of what I always knew, how original Verlaine was, hopefully not in some tired Cult of the New Originalities way but in the sense of really hearing something else in his head and finding ways to express that without being constrained by any of the myriad cliches associated with his instrument.

Also made me really happy to see what somebody like Rob Sheffield wrote about him.

For those looking for more from TV, I offer this gem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4QFgbZBNFY

Damnit, it's a Youtube upload of the 'lost' 1986 album.

Revisiting Songs & Other Things, his last vocal album — really strong stuff! Great guitar sound, some really good songs. Worth discovering if you haven't checked it out.

It has been clear tah Fire Engine was a cover of a 13th Floor Elevators song hasn't it?

Also I saw a few photos of the band over the last while and wondered how out of step with then current fashion the band seemed at the time. Seems to be a level of thrift shop- chic going on, not sure how much of a focus there has been on that. I know a lot has been said about Richard Hell ripping clothing and using safety pins to keep things together. But the way the rest of teh band looked surely isn't current to the time is it? Wonder to what extent it was noticeable to the man in the street.
They seemed to do it well so it looks somewhat iconic now but I wonder about then.

I got reminded of a couple of episodes I saw of Starsky & Hutch where coworkers were mocking them for wearing clothing way out of date and wonder if those who saw these on the street had similar ideas.

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.

The "Fire Engine" cover was mis-titled "The Blow-Up" on the archival Television live album of the same name.

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.

yeah that was interesting! John Wood could've had yet another total classic LP to his name ...

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.

just remembered that Verlaine is quoted in the Nick Drake Fruit Tree box set liners ...

Really, what did he say?

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.

https://i.discogs.com/d-Ah7mx5steyLsVLoAFNwZWVJ7snAGXXw-B8WV_rUcE/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:534/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTExOTQw/MDQtMTQwOTEwNzEx/Ny02MTQ2LmpwZWc.jpeg

A lot of links. Which one to the Cale bits?

I forgot

And Nico was knitting. Throughout that whole album, she sat there knitting something, maybe a sweater.[

The Trouser Press interview (xp)

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.

Reminds me of that line about Cale producing several epochal debuts but was rarely called back for sequels.

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.

haha yeah — trying to remember where I saw that quote ...

The Fire Engines named themselves after Television covering the 13th Floor Elevators.

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.

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.

No doubt John Cale learned a lot about producing from Tom Wilson.

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!