(TV) Young's vs Verlaine's playing/styles/Ms Secret X please weigh- in on Young/Flash Light vs 1st solo record

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

At the risk of sounding like I'm bashing Neil Young and starting a brouhaha----I'm not, I like "Zuma", "On the Beach", "American Stars and Bars" ('It's a cold bowl of chili when love let's you down.'), and other of his records---it has always amazed me how many people think that Young's and Verlaine's guitar playing are very similar.  (Over the years I have never read anywhere in my fanatical/voluminous collection of Television/Verlaine articles, where  Verlaine talks about Neil Young as a guitar influence (or even mentions Young, even when the interviewer brings up Young's name), and I'm not sure, but I'd guess there's a chance Neil doesn't know Verlaine even exists. 

Verlaine in the rare instances where he even discusses guitar influences(?)--maybe guitar favorites/influences is a more accurate phrase---usually has mentioned people like Keith Richards, Garage bands of the Nuggets era (e.g., The Chocolate Watchband), the Kinks' Dave Davies, the Yardbirds, the Byrds, Mike Bloomfield, John Lee Hooker(!), and jazz people such as: Coltrane, Ayler, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Miles Davis, Eric Dolphy, and Ornette Coleman---and finally classical guys like Pablo Casals and Sibelius  

I find Verlaine's playing much more improvisational and cerebral, whereas Neil's solos--- although quite good---are very similar to one another sonically and in structure---and even at times repetitive---at least to me.   (Yikes!  I can actually hear the beginning clatter of MMlist members' fingers as they furiously type at their keyboards to tell me I'm a fool who's got lousy ears. Just remember I like Neil; it's just that, in my humble opinion, his guitar playing is not in the same league as Verlaine's--but then nobody else is either.)

Ms Secret X, can you give the us any info on whether Neil influenced Tom's playing, and/or Tom's opinion of Young's guitar  playing?


Those of you who detest music critics especially those you describe Verlaine's playing as a hybrid of Keith Richards and Coltrane, read on at your own peril.

Stephen Holden, The New York Times:

"Tom Verlaine has matured into one of rock music's very finest guitarists by steering a course that is only distantly related to the virtuosic blues oriented tradition of the rock mainstream. Mr. Verlaine's surreal dream songs, with their hypnotic, repetitive phrases usually set in minor keys, are essentially rock tone poems, in which the implications of his stark surreal lyrics are elaborated in majestic, exquisitely colored guitar solos. This stark solitary lyricism is not likely ever to earn a mass audience, and it's power has never fully been captured on record, because Mr. Verlaine's albums emphasize the raw strangulated singing voice ... The group's chunky, visceral arrangements, with their martial rhythms and passionate guitar tanglings between Mr. Verlaine and Mr. Ripp, reminded one at times of Neil Young and Crazy Horse, but the arrangements had a grander sense of structure and a more precise articulation. Mr. Verlaine and his band may very well be the most accomplish!
ed guitar-oriented rock quartet in America today."  

Although I love Flash Light, I would second Phillip's recent preference for Verlaine's 1st solo record over Flash Light (and for me Dreamtime is second):

"Verlaine's solos have always been prolonged teases, indefinitely postponing resolution, taking daring circular detours and abruptly changing direction, avoiding the note you're waiting for. The beautiful solos on 'Last Night' seem to rise and fall simultaneously, a tight maze of dead ends miraculously transcended, like Coltrane's unaccompanied sax excursion on the Selflessness live version of 'I Want To Talk About You' with its devastating barrage of false endings. The 'Breakin' in My Heart' solo is equally static, riding Verlaine's best groove since 'Marquee Moon', gradually adding notes to the same riff without going anywhere-another Coltrane dynamic. On the same song, and also on 'Red Leaves' and 'Kingdom Come', . . .Verlaine introduces a new guitar hook on the final choruses, pushing near-perfect cuts a step further." (John Piccarella, 'Tom Verlaine Wakes Up Dreaming', The Village Voice) 

And last but not least:  Jon Pareles, 'Where the Wild Things Are', The Village Voice: 

"He's one of a handful of players who can still hear the electric guitar as a fantasy instrument, a dream: a guitar that can hit harder and sustain longer than any acoustic version bound by physical laws. Most guitarists who reach a certain level of agility use the fretboard like a keyboard, forgetting the visceral, while the best noisy plunkers-Keith Richards, for instance-have no use for lyricism. But Verlaine's dreamscapes demand both extremes: when things get too ethereal, he digs in blues licks like pitons sharpened with John Cipollina's trebly vibrato; if the bottom gets too gritty, he floats a time-stopper out of Miles Davis. Verlaine is no guitar hero-just the opposite. Instead of redoubling the bass riff for maximum impact, he'll play a counterpoint; when a chord progression threatens too tidy a conclusion, he'll shift into modal scales (Dorian instead of minor, Mixolydian instead of major) that dissipate the momentum. And when he does build a crescendo, as he does in!
 'There's a Reason' on Dreamtime, he can toss off a sequence that, for its lift and sculptural proportions, might as well be spun-steel bridge cable." 

	Leo, the Pack-rat
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Greg Grant [mailto:GGrant@scdhb.sk.ca]
Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2001 11:43 AM
To: tv@obbard.com
Subject: RE: (TV) On the Beach


On the Beach is pretty good but I'm not into Marky Mark ;-)

Greg

-----Original Message-----
From: tv-owner@obbard.com [mailto:tv-owner@obbard.com]On Behalf Of Billy
Ancell
I promise this is the last on Neil

Anybody out there into On the Beach? MM and this have
to be my two favourite records. 

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