I Was Hearing/Hearing Something Else
Tom Verlaine always sounded like he was hailing from the psychic beyond.
RIP to the great Tom Verlaine. From the rapturous psychedelic punk of Television to his solo work and contributions to recordings by Patti Smith, Ric Ocasek, The Waterboys, and Violent Femmes, Verlaine always played like he was in touch with something just beyond hearing, ringing somewhere in his head, on just the right frequency through his body, flowing out of his Jazzmaster:
“Now what I see in the long twilight
A star falls down on a hill so white”
Thankfully, we’ve still got Richard Lloyd, Verlaine’s one time guitar partner in Television, hanging with us here at
, where he posts Gurdjieffian missives like this recent one: “We need to make a practice of accepting what is, exactly as it is. Then only can we do anything positive.”For a more distilled dose of Lloyd, we had the pleasure of speaking with him about his solo work, youthful run-ins with Hendrix, Television, and more at Aquarium Drunkard in 2018:
Richard Lloyd: It’s like centripetal and centripetal forces. Equal and opposite reaction. What is country music? It’s always driven by heartache. Rock & roll on the other hand, often exudes a kind of celebration of rebelliousness and debauchery. But what comes after debauchery? Agony. You can’t have one without the other. They call that big angel, big devil where I come from.
A plug: I don’t think Jon Douglas (vocals/guitar), Cavan Noone (drums), Zane Gillum (bass), or myself (guitar) would be bothered by you classifying this recording as “Television Worship”:
In closing: We had James McNew of Yo La Tengo on Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions on to discuss the new YLT album This Stupid World, his work in hip-hop, covering Prince, and more. Over on Click Vortex on WASTOIDS, Sam Means (The Format) and I sat down for a ramble about Beatles esoterica with my dear pal Mary Papenhausen of Zia Records.
There is nothing on Richard Lloyd's Substack. It's blank. No entries as of 1/30/23.