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Re: (TV) Q: Helium at Old Waldorf?/ Ficca on "Last Night"?



--- "Casey, Leo J" <CaseyL@VOLPE.DOT.GOV> wrote:
> A question related to Philip's below (I've asked this of a few people
> off-list last year but have never got an answer):  On the 1978 San Fran
> Television bootleg (at the Old Waldorf), Tom's vocals sound  like he's on
> helium and all of the tracks sound really sped up.   Isn't it likely that the
> person making the original cassette of this taped at too slow a speed or made
> copies at too slow a speed so on playback it sounds really rushed and pitched
> too high.  

That's interesting. There's several CD bootlegs of this show, and as I recall
they come from TWO different tapes of the show - both have cuts in "Marquee
Moon", roughly 45-minutes into the show (perhaps when the respective tapers
flipped their cassette tapes), but the cuts aren't in the same places! The
sound quality between the two tapes is also slightly different, too. I did an
analysis for Howard and Steve a few years ago, comparing the two; I'll try to
dig it up.

So, if the show was taped/copied/bootlegged at the wrong speed, I would be
surprised if BOTH had the same problem. I only have the LIVE ADVENTURES
bootleg; could someone out there do a comparison with the PORTABLE ELECTRICITY
bootleg (which I believe comes a different tape)?

I'd love to see an official release of this show from the radio station's
tapes... fat chance, I know. 

> by the way, yesterday on same liner
> notes I noticed for the first time that the song, "Last Night", gives a
> production credit to John Jansen---does this give more credence to M.
> Carlucci's old claim that TV used Ficca's  drum track from earlier Adventure
> sessions on the 1st solo album version of "Last Night"?)

Right. John Jansen, who produced ADVENTURE, only has production credits on a
single track on TOM VERLAINE, and it's for "Last Night". That track also has a
drummer named "Tom Thompson" who does not appear elsewhere on that album, nor
on any other Tom Verlaine record. Seeing as how several tracks on that record -
"Grip of Love", "Breakin' My Heart", "Red Leaves" - had their roots as
Television songs, I wouldn't be surprised if "Last Night" had been a physical
studio leftover from the ADVENTURE sessions. The evidence is compelling.

Could someone on the list ask Fred Smith (who played on TOM VERLAINE) or Billy
Ficca (who would be able to recognize his own drum work)? That would help
resolve this. Alternately, is there really a drummer named Tom Thompson? Could
Verlaine have worked with him briefly during/around the same sessions that
produced ADVENTURE, while Jansen was still around to produce?

--Philip


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