(TV) From the Casey Archives

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

This originally appeared in Pete Frame's 1979 'Rock 
Family Trees'.  Since I can't replicate the trees 
themselves in an e-mail I suggest you check out
Keith Allison's great 'The Wonder' site for his version
of the Television tree. (The Television Tree prose below
has some very interesting quotes from Verlaine,
Lloyd, and  R. Hell.)

	Leo

Page 27, "Out In The Streets"

Early Seventies New York street-rock was born
of two wombs:  the Mercer Art Center (1972-73)
and CBGBs (1974-78).  The Mercer wave, 
characterized by glitter, glamour, cosmetics and
fancy dress, threw up the New York Dolls, Teenage
Lust, Ruby and the Red Necks, Patti Smith, The 
Dynomiters, Luger, Sparks, Wayne County and 
Queen Elizabeth, Milk n' Cookies, Elliot Murphy, 
The Harlots of 42nd Street, and Kiss. Other 
popular venues during this period were the 
Coventry n Queens, 82 Club, Kenny's 
Castaways, and Maxs---- all in Manhattan.

CBGBs spawned Television, The Stilettos, The
Fast, The Miamis, Brats, Star Theatre, Jet Black, 
Another Pretty Face, Palace, Blondie, The 
Ramones, The Shirts, Day Old Bread, Second
Wind, Talking Heads, Heartbreakers, and 
millions more.  Image was visually glitter-backlash 
..... jeans, t-shirts, leather jackets------ordinary. 

Before the Mercer achieved importance, Nobodys 
and Maxs were the hubs of activity.  Maxs, which 
had Warhol / Velvets / Sixties associations, was a 
core of establishment underground[sic].... poets, film
people, artists - whilst Nobodys was, says David
Johansen, "a flash rocker bar where you could pick 
up chicks."  The two factions never intermingled
.... but Johnny Thunders and Johansen patronized 
both establishments through 1971---which is how 
they knew each other and how the Dolls formed.

Lee Childers:  "The Mercer was great !  They would
have Wayne County playing in one room, Ruby & 
the Rednecks in another and the Dolls in another ....
you could just run from room to room and see them
all.  There was always so much happening in that place:
even Roy Hollingsworth had a group that used to play 
there."

The Mercer, renovated so that the decor was an 
amazing mixture of Victorian chandeliers and 
Clockwork Orange style modern, was owned by
a millionaire quite unconcerned with turning a 
buck.  A big welfare hotel (The University Hotel) 
next door collapsed  --- and the Mercer 
collapsed with it.  Last time I was there 
was just a vacant lot, around from 
The Bottom Line.          

This family tree details the emergence of the 
New York Dolls, Television, The Ramones, 
Richard Hell, David Johansen, The Criminals,
and the Heartbreakers.  For the stories of 
Blondie, Talking Heads and Patti Smith please
examine 'Smoldering in the Bowery' Part 
One of this Rock Family Tree, which should
be regarded as companion to this one (the 
connecting link being Fred Smith, who leapt 
from Blondie to Television). 

Formerly a Hell's Angels' hangout, CBGBs was 
transformed into a magnetic rock bomb-shelter
in the spring of 1974.  Richard Lloyd:

"In April, Tom and I were walking down from his
house to the loft of Chinatown, and we passed 
this place (on Bowery Street at the dead end of 
Bleecher), which the owner (Hilly Kristal) was 
outside fixing it up.  We asked if maybe we could
play there---and he told us he was going to call 
the place Country Blue Grass and Blues.  
So we said, 'Yes, we play stuff like that; we do
all kinds of stuff including our original material."  
He gave us  a gig, so we got a whole bunch of 
friends down and convinced him to give us every
Sunday night  for a month.  Soon after, Blondie 
started began to play there----and very slowly the
ball started to roll."  CBGB' peaked in 1975/early
1976, after which it seemed to decline into an 
over publicized tourist attraction characterized 
by copy bands and peacock audiences.

Tom Verlaine (born Miller in New Jersey moved
to Wilmington, Delaware at 3) took yup guitar 
at 16 after trying piano and saxophone.  
Uninspiring education peaked when he and 
schoolmate Richard Hell (then Meyers) ran 
away (only to return 3 weeks later after 
setting fire to woodlands in Alabama) and 
culminated when he moved to Greenwich 
Village in August 1968, age 17.  He stayed
with Richard Hell, who'd arrived a year earlier 
and "was doing a poetry magazine", and took
a job at a bookstore (The Strand, where Patti
Smith was also employed).  He read a lot and
took drugs.  Richard Hell :  "We were dropping
acid---and he would really open up then; he 
more or less revealed that he had this 
fundamental belief in his absolute inherent 
superiority to everyone else on earth."
Verlaine:  "I approached drugs deliberately; 
they help to confirm intuitions and open you up.
I didn't use them a lot, because drugs tend to
uproot you."

NEON BOYS [a few weeks in 1971]  
Verlaine:  "None of the existing New York rock
bands interested me, and the possibility of 
forming my own seemed pretty unrealistic---but
eventually I tried."  Ficca, a school friend from 
Delaware, arrived and Hell was taught the 
rudiments of bass-playing.  After various 
rehearsals and some crude tapes they split---
never having gigged .  Ficca joined a Boston 
group; Verlaine and Hell waited for their next 
opportunity.

TELEVISION #1 [Dec. 1973 to April 1975]  
Guitarist Richard Lloyd, who had arrived in New 
York "after the usual  sort of vagabond 20 year 
old trip around America" was introduced to 
Verlaine by scene-man Terry Ork.  Their meeting  
took place at Reno Sweeneys, a New 
York night club where Verlaine was attempting
to make an impression as a solo act, on audition 
night.  (This was November 1973, and Richard Hell
was then acting as Verlaine's manager.)  Retrieving 
Ficca from Boston, the quartet began rehearsing as
Television and played their first gig at the 88-seater 
Townhouse Theater on 46th Street on March 2, 
1974.  Due to composition of audience (critics/arty 
types) they acquired an immediate reputation 
though the show was "a real disaster" (Verlaine).  
Demos for Island (produced by Eno) and Arista 
(produced by Alan Lanier) failed to entice contracts.
Richard Hell bass/vocals slit over musical/personal 
differences.

TELEVISION #2 [May 1975 to August 1978]
Recruiting Fred Smith from Blondie (see their family
tree) , Television recorded "Little Johnny Jewel" (Ork 
81975) - 1075) before signing with Elektra, for whom
they cut two albums:  "Marquee Moon" (K52046 - Feb
77 and "Adventure" (K52072 - April 1978). Toured UK 
twice:  8 dates in May 77 (with Blondie supporting) 
and 7 dates with in April 78.  After a series of 6 
sell-out shows at The Bottom Line in late August
1978, they split up:  "there was a full moon on the 
night we broke up.  Moby Grape broke up on a full 
moon, so we wanted to as well."  Verlaine and Lloyd
intend to make solo albums.   
    
As you might imagine none of the bands detailed
here had more than marginal / local success in 
the States, which appears to be geared to 
expensive stereo systems and expensively 
produced MOR albums which will sound nice and
undemanding when played through them.  The 
American record buying public are, generally, 
passive, pretentious, pear-shaped, predictable,
and sheep-brained. to the point of being 
completely blanded -out.  The Yanks always 
preferred Pat Boone to the real thing, and 
nothing has changed in 20 years -- so any of 
the band's shown here would obviously cause
them grievous discomfort.  

Television -- far too good to be washed up after 2 
albums --- could barely gig in the States:  in the
year between April 1977 and April 1978 they did
only 3 U.S. gigs.  "I think a lot  of the rock that's
happening in the States  right now is just 
sickening ...... really sickening.  The main trend 
on the radio is to play the softer kind of music 
because the deejays who were there in the 1967
are still there.  They've grown older and their 
nervous systems don't allow them to go for a 
more inspiring kind of music.  They go for a more
relaxed kind of sound -- and that's what's 
happening in the States right now, " complained
Tom Verlaine.

Television's first album reached #28 in the UK 
chart, and the second peaked at #7.  Neither 
got into the US top 200!  Additionally, 
Television had 3 top-40  singles in the UK:
 "Marquee Moon" (#30), "Prove It" (#25), and
"Foxhole (#36).  None charted in USA.
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