(TV) Dorian mode/Edge on Television//Moby on TV

["Casey, Leo J" <CaseyL@VOLPE.DOT.GOV>]

I stumbled across these snippets during a Google "Tom Verlaine" search, and thought they might be of some interest.  
At the risk of re-opening the "who's the 'better' guitarist can of worms",  Richard Lloyd aficionados, especially take note of Edge's first comment on Richard's contribution to the sound of MM.
(Can any of the myriad guitarists on the list tell the few of us who are not musicians more about what effect using a Dorian or Mixolydian mode gives Television's sound----or send me a message off list if you think this is too esoteric?)  Leo
Edge to an Interviewer:
"A lot of Tom Verlaine's and Richard Lloyd's stuff had this very unusual feeling. It gave their work a stark, beautiful quality. I particularly admire the work that Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd produced for Television's first album, Marquee Moon.  Hearing that record at the end of the Seventies was just such a throw-down to me. The electric guitar had really become such an unoriginal-sounding instrument. Marquee Moon is a very uncomplicated record sonically. No pyrotechnics, no histrionics, no trickery. It's timeless because there's nothing in it -- a very simple drum sound, a bass and two guitars, and Tom's voice. __*Verlaine got a lot of the credit for putting it together, but in pure guitar-playing terms, I think Lloyd did some of the finest work on that record. __*
Subsequently, I discovered in some of the works of Country Joe and the Fish connections with Television, and I realized years later that a lot of what Television were doing was actually __*working in the Dorian mode on top of regular rock & roll rhythm sections, and that was why a lot of their stuff had this very unusual feeling. The Dorian mode goes back to the earliest forms of vocal choral music, and you don't normally hear it in guitar music. It gave their work a stark, beautiful quality. And, of course, because no one is used to hearing that scale, it sounded completely original and fresh."__* The Edge http://www.angelfire.com/il/zoomart/RSEdge.html                                   "... the only guitarist I heard who was saying something musically. . . . I was very influenced by Tom Verlaine-not stylistically, but in terms of approach and tearing up the rule-book."
Jon Pareles, "Where the Wild Things Are":
"Instead of redoubling the bass riff for maximum impact, he'll [Verlaine] 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. ......."

Moby to (a different) Interviewer:
ATN: Do you feel like you're not worthy? 

Moby: I like the records that I make, I just never really expect other people to like them, and I'm always a little surprised and quite humbled when other people like the music that I make. I always feel like I owe them something, like a debt, like I should take them out shoe-shopping, or clean their bathroom. 

ATN: With this particular category ... are you a fan of any of these particular guitarists - Eric Clapton, Santana? 

__*Moby: "Guitar-wise, to be honest, I don't really like any of them. I have some guitar heroes - my all-time guitar hero would be [former Television guitarist] Tom Verlaine. I don't believe Tom Verlaine was ever nominated for a Grammy. I really like Dr. Know from the [hardcore reggae-rock band] Bad Brains. Greg Ginn from Black Flag. But Steve Vai, Jeff Beck, that type of guitar playing has always left me really cold. *__

ATN: It seems like the people you've mentioned were all artists who did things on the guitar that were unusual, even in their own genres. Despite your stated desire not to seek out innovation. 

Moby: Also, from a guitar perspective, a lot of the Adrian Belew stuff is done - like with the Talking Heads on Remain in Light, and [David Byrne and Brian Eno's 1981 collaboration] My Life in the Bush of Ghosts - where it doesn't even sound like guitar. __*I think my favorite guitar player of all time, though, would be Tom Verlaine. 

ATN: What is it about him that grabs you? 

Moby: It's the fragile beauty of the way he plays guitar. From a technical perspective he's very good, but more than that, just the emotional ... the quality of pathos to the way he plays guitar."*__  http://www.addict.com/issues/6.02/html/hifi/Cover_Story/Moby/page_5.html



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