Tom Verlaine - s/t (1st album)

twentysixdollars · Post by **twentysixdollars** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 12:58 am

Any thoughts? Just got this. Sounds awfully dated - quite a disappointment after two excellent Television LPs and Richard Lloyd's Alchemy.

angelsighs · Post by **angelsighs** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 11:50 am

Dated in what way?
I've never heard any Television apart from the virtually flawless Marquee Moon.

MUFCSPACEMAN · Post by **MUFCSPACEMAN** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 11:57 am

angelsighs · Post by **angelsighs** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 12:38 pm

MUFCSPACEMAN wrote:
angelsighs wrote:I've never heard any Television apart from the virtually flawless Marquee Moon.
Get "Adventure". It's just as good. And you need to hear "Little Johnny Jewel", too. The performance of it on "The Blow Up" live album is amazing.

I've got Little Johnny Jewel, its a bonus track on my version of MM. Not so keen on it to be honest, but i have had my eye on The Blow Up for a bit, it looks brilliant- extended version of Marquee Moon? covers of Satisfaction and Knockin on Heavens Door? I'm there!

MUFCSPACEMAN · Post by **MUFCSPACEMAN** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 12:59 pm

ro · Post by ro » Fri Jun 22, 2007 1:37 pm

MUFCSPACEMAN wrote:Get "Adventure". It's just as good.

do you really think so?

I see it this way. Some songs on it are just as good or better as some songs on MM..
but as a whole I don't think it stands up nearly as tall.

I often think of MM as like Lazer G.M. in that it all goes together so well as a complete entity.
Whereas I'm happy just taking Dream's Dream + Fire off of the other one!

angelsighs · Post by **angelsighs** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 3:24 pm

MUFCSPACEMAN wrote: Is that the single version of LJJ? Never bought the MM reissue.

Yup. Its definitely a reissue worth buying- its also got some alt. takes with significantly different guitar solos on, and the remastering job is superb.

twentysixdollars · Post by **twentysixdollars** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 3:38 pm

angelsighs wrote:Dated in what way?

Mainly in the sleazy echoey eighties drum sound, but also in the plodding tempos, and the overslick tone quality of the guitars and keyboards and backing vocals.

I like Adventure a lot, but I would never go as far as saying that it's better than - or even equal to - Marquee Moon. It's not as carefully constructed, and it has a lot more (at this point still tolerable) New York tomfoolery; and the album version of "Ain't That Nothin'" is disastrous (the single version, actually the same take sped-up and cut down with a new vocal, is much better). I actually think the title track - actually an outtake that became Verlaine's "Red Leaves" - is one of the highlights of the reissue. "The Dream's Dream" is suitably oneiric and the rest is enchanting in an easy-listening sort of way. (Don't forget "Glory", the greatest Cheap Trick song ever.) A couple of the songs were better done live, but the album versions are more than respectable ("Foxhole"). And "Days" and "Carried Away" are better than anything the Rain Parade ever recorded.

"Little Johnny Jewel" is more audacious than it is exciting, but the joined CD version is worth having for the way it builds momentum towards the off-kilter guitar bridge. Trivia note: it's about Iggy Pop (d/b/a James Newell Osterberg - i.e., "Little Jamie Newell").

A saint · Post by **A saint** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 6:06 pm

I agree with twentysixdollars on Adventure. It's got its points, though it ain't Marquee Moon.

I'm not sold on the first Verlaine solo album either, but it's a keeper for "Breakin' In My Heart," which is one the best songs he wrote and would've (does) seem to me as good as anything else he ever recorded.

Otherwise, meh. But what a great song!