Former and future Amy Haugesag wrote:
> Bill writes:
>
> >I'm with you, which is why I baited the hook that way. (Though "Prove It"
> >does end up as a song I get stuck in my head from time to time) Wondered
> >if any NYC types who maybe saw them back in the day had different ideas.
> >
> the twin
> guitars of Richard Lloyd and Tom Verlaine were revelatory. Patti Smith once
> said of Tom Verlaine, "He plays guitar like a thousand bluebirds
> screaming," and as pretentious and silly as that sounds, it's oddly
> accurate in a way. Television were a band like no other, and the relative
> unevenness of Verlaine's solo output and the reunion record shouldn't
> distract or detract from that fact.
Well, your using that quote and verifying it despite how it sounds is reminicent
of what always bothered me about Television. I was a naive little midwestern high
schooler when those Television/Talking Heads/Ramones shows were happening, and of
course I never even saw Television live. The level of hyperbole always seemed to
me disproportionate to the way the records struck me- unique and unquestionably
talented, but relatively sterile and uncompelling. The level (and the *tone*- like
"bluebirds screaming"<g>) of critical praise given the band was a lot higher than
my esteem for them- I liked MARQUEE MOON, played the heck out of it, but never
fell in love despite trying to. ADVENTURE was even less interesting to me.
Now Talking Heads, well, who'd guess that I liked them sorta OK?
But David Byrne's "Sessions at West 54th" interviews...yow. Makes you long for a
competent interviewer like Charlie Rose or Craig Kilborn...<g>
b.s.
n.p. XTC APPLE VENUS VOLUME 1
