Television

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!

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.