(TV) Partial transcript of Verlaine's & Hell 's interviews in Robert P almer's PBS Rock 'n Roll PBS Documentary/"So thirsty they were for reali ty"

["Casey, Leo J" <CaseyL@volpe.dot.gov>]

Marque Mooners, 

	Back in late October, I promised to type up the transcript of Verlaine's and Hell's short interviews given during Part 9 of the 12-hour documentary "Rock 'n Roll" (in 1997?) by Robert Palmer and shown on the Public Broadcasting System in the U.S.  Here it is ---better late than never, I guess.  

What follows is a partial transcript but it has the complete separate interviews (albeit very brief)with Hell and Verlaine.  For those of you who don't want to slog through the whole thing I have marked the places where Hell and Verlaine speak in bold.  


Narrator voice over:  By the mid 70's, 20 years after its birth, rock music had begun to take itself very seriously. [ Shots of Emerson Lake and Palmer doing sound check at large football stadium in U.S.] In Britain the predominant trend was 'Progressive Rock' performed in vast stadiums and released as concept albums.  If it wasn't at least 20 minutes long, it wasn't worth listening to.

In America many of the successful musicians of the 60s had by now settled into comfortable Beverly Hills lifestyles playing for the all powerful FM radio. [ On Television screen are shots of LA and on soundtrack the beginning strains of The Eagles' "Hotel California"] Typical of such groups were The Eagles, who came to epitomize the radio-friendly California rock sound.

At it's most powerful rock and roll appeared to offer a way of life; yet, the lavish trappings of mid-70s rock culture suggested it was in danger of becoming just another leisure industry. It needed an injection of energy. [Sex Pistols guitar begins on soundtrack] ----and it got it.   

Part 9:  Punk -- Rock reinvents itself by returning to its roots.  An alienated generation finds it's voice.


[Shots of Jonathan Richman walking through a city park]    

Narrator voice over: The first stirrings of a new direction came from a young Boston guitar player, who wrote short direct songs about love and suburbia.    (an  interview/music segment of 5-7 minutes follows with Jonathan about The Modern Lovers, and songs on appear on the documentary soundtrack,  "Roadrunner" I'm Straight", and Girlfriend")    
Narrator voice over:  Too  eccentric ever to achieve commercial success, The Modern Lovers first album ---recorded in 1973---was enormously influential when it reached New York. Songs like "Roadrunner" reminded people of the Garage bands of 1960s.

(A very short segment on 60's Garage bands like The Kingmen) and [concert footage of them playing their hit "Louie Louie" segues right into a shot of Lenny Kaye sitting on a stool lightly strumming his guitar]  

Narrator voice: A New York rock musician and critic decided to not only reissue some of the 60's Garage  bands' songs, but also  to start playing some of them himself.  [The opening bars of Question Mark and The Mysterians begins on soundtrack]  
Joining Lenny Kaye to play these songs was poet, Patti Smith.  (then follows a 8-10 minute segment/interview music club  footage on The Patti Smith Group and songs "Jesus Died"(?), "Gloria", and "Horses".)

(After 8 minutes on Smith) Narrator voice over: Smith's lyrics--often improvised--drew on the increasing toughness of New York City life.  Other groups would soon do the same.  

[A long shot of Richard Hell, walking from a dilapidated pier on the East River, towards the camera where used tires are stacked up near a crumbling building, the opening chords of "Blank Generation" begin] The live Hell on screen 'talks' not sings the lyrics: 

"I was saying let me out of here before I was even born.
It's such a gamble when you get a face.
I belong to the ....blank.. generation.
And I can take it or leave it each time."  

[ Close-up of Hell standing, television screen has the words Richard Hell -- Television ; The Voidoids under his image]

Hell:  The Hippie culture was what we wanted to replace.  It had failed; it was pathetic.  All these left-over people, who were trying to pretend that handing out flowers was going to defeat Nixon.  chuckle, chuckle, ha, ha,

[Cut to interior close-up shot of Tom Verlaine sitting and smoking in a recording studio, television screen has the words Tom Verlaine -- Television ]

Verlaine:  The New York Dolls and those sorts of glamour groups had long hair.  We decided to forget all that----and the costumes and all that, we hated all that stuff. It seemed like not even pretense to us.  So, we just wore street clothes ---which also just happened to have in some cases - safety pins.

[Cut to Hell again, still standing near pier ]
Hell:  We sure didn't look like any other band in the world, and we were the only band who had short hair - probably in the world.  Ha , chuckle, chuckle.  (Now serious and intense, speaking slowly and deliberately) And everybody worshipped us for it.  They'd crawl into CBGBs; they were stacked up like.... like these tires.  So thirsty were they for reality.  [end of song "Blank Generation " on soundtrack"  "weeeeee   oohhh"]

Narrator voice over:  At first the only clubs that would let Television and the Patti Smith Group play was at the sleazy end of the Bowery.  Another band joined them there... [ Ramones count off "1, 2, 3, 4" next follows a 10 minute or so segment/interview with members of The Ramones and CBGB footage/music of The Ramones --several of their songs, e.g., "I Don't Want To Get Involved With You", in interview Joey Ramone describes their music "...as sick Bubble Gum music."  Then, interview and CBGB footage of Blondie's  members, about 5 minutes; then 12-15 minutes of interviews with and CBGB footage of The Talking Heads]

Finally, 

Verlaine:  (again sitting in same recording studio and still smoking!) Voiced with a thinly veiled mixture of contempt and virulence: [Punk music] to most people in radio it didn't sound as good as The Eagles or Linda Ronstadt so it didn't get played.

Narrator voice over:  It seemed that the punk scene was destined to obscurity---to remain in the privileged possession of musicians in New York and of the odd journalist---an almost private pleasure.  Middle America was too affluent too comfortable for punk's aggressive sound.  [ The beginning strains of The Sex Pistols' "God Save the Queen" starts up at a low volume, but then grows louder and louder]  But in recession plagued Britain it found a very receptive audience.  (Next folows a 15 minute segment of interviews and old club/concert footage of the Sex Pistols, Malcolm McClaren, a shirtles Steve Jones standing in front of a large swimming pool and house in the hills of LA; and interviews with John Lydon.  Then a short segment and concert footage of Souxie and the Banshees; a Reggae/Ska (The Wailers influence on English/American punk, e.g., The Police, and The Pretenders), a musical/interview segment on The Clash. Finally, back to The Sex Pistols.

 

 



  
      

 
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