(TV) VU's "Foggy Notion" as origin of TV's "Breakin'...."!/Bowie+Verla ine+Vaughn

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

I'm a little reluctant to mention this as I don't want to plant any crazy ideas in anyone's heads------but given the recent deluge of Lou Reed postings I thought the list's take on the following might be intriguing:

Most of us are aware how Television used to remove the batteries from Lou Red's cassette when he came to see Television at CBGBs to prevent him from stealing songs (one writer even claimed Verlaine would also deliberately mumble/mangle the lyrics of Television songs when Reed was in the audience).

A Boston "Phoenix/Real Paper" music reviewer in 1984 (I have his actual name and review at home) once claimed that Verlaine had "...pinched [stole] the song "Breakin In My Heart" , in almost its entirety [not including lyrics, of course]) from Lou Reed's/VU's 'Foggy Notion' " [the version on VU (outtakes)].

I've  always been slightly puzzled that a writer as prolific as L. Reed needed (or would want) to 'borrow' ideas from Television's early live performances, but I really believe the Phoenix writer's claim to be totally absurd.  Yes, the songs both contain chunka, chunka rhythm guitar riffs that propel the songs along, yet  the playing is so different (at least, to my ears); moreover, the tone and mood of "Breakin' In My Heart" is so alien to the almost gleeful  "Foggy Notion".  But then maybe I'm biased?
	Leo
PS:  I once saw Lou Reed live in Dec. 72 (or Jan. 73) at The Boston Conservatory on Huntington Ave. in Boston.  He played all of "Transformer" , and a few 'hits' but was backed up by a (local?) pickup band!  
PPS:  The whole thing with Bowie throwing Verlaine out of the studio (sessions for "The Lodger") for obsessing with amps and guitars is almost tragic----tragic because Verlaine would have been great as guitarist on a Bowie tour (ala Alomar or Belew), but more important, it might have given Verlaine the exposure he desperately needed to finally break through commercially.  I told my roommate at the time of the 82/83? Bowie tour that when Stevie Ray Vaughn quit as Bowie's guitarist, Bowie should have hired Verlaine, and/or even had a reformed Television be Bowie's warm-up act!   (By the way, all the accounts I've ever read claimed Bowie---whom I'm a big fan of ---was a real shit to Vaughn about things monetary as well as the length of the warm-up band's --Vaughn 's group I believe--- set.)   



--------------
To post: Mail tv@obbard.com
To unsubscribe: Mail majordomo@obbard.com with message "unsubscribe tv"