(TV) Richard's comments on the reissues

[Keith Allison <keith@marquee.demon.co.uk>]

Hey all,

This is about to go on Richard's website and I thought that everyone
here would be interested in reading it in case you miss it there.
Very interesting stuff:

>       ---------------------------------------------------
>       To the curious regarding the Television reissues from Richard 
>       Lloyd:

>       I am personally very happy to see the Television records being re 
>       released on CD with improved sound and packaging.  I have been 
>       asked a number of questions regarding the choice of outakes and 
>       so on, and thought it would be good if I wrote a little bit about 
>       it.  This doesn't address every question which might be raised, 
>       but those that came to mind easily. I hope it helps fans to 
>       understand some of the workings of things.
>       -------------------------------------------------
>       On the song Adventure, I play the lead guitar all the way 
>       through. Tom plays the basic rhythm and also piano. It was never 
>       finished.  The version which has been used for the reissue was a 
>       rough mix which was made for me to take home in order to work out 
>       which guitar leads I wanted to do over and to develop ideas.  The 
>       reason it has a double fade is because John Jansen asked me to 
>       tell him where I wanted it to fade, and when I felt it had gone 
>       on long enough I told him to start fading it.  As the fade 
>       developed I heard the lead guitar do some interesting things and 
>       I told him to bring it back up.  That's the reason it goes down 
>       and then back up.  Shortly after that I stopped playing leaving 
>       only the piano.  Later on Tom decided that he didn't want to 
>       finish it, and it got left off the album.  The only reason there 
>       is any version at all is due to this rough working mix.  I don't 
>       know how anyone else got a copy since I was the only one who took 
>       one home.  It might have slipped into the pocketbook of a clever 
>       girl.
>       ------------------------------------------------
>         On the alternate mix of See No Evil, there is lead guitar all 
>       the way through it.  The reason for that is the following: Andy 
>       Johns asked me how I liked to work on doing solos.  He wanted to 
>       know if he should start the tape right before the solo section or 
>       at the beginning of the song.  I told him that it was probably 
>       best if he started at the beginning of the song so that I could 
>       practice along with it to warm up, and then he could erase 
>       everything but the solo.  There might have been two or three 
>       tracks of lead guitar all the way through and I am guessing 
>       either that he forgot to erase the tracks or we didn't need them 
>       for anything else so he just left them to save the time and 
>       effort of erasing them.  In any case, the song was never meant to 
>       be heard with the lead guitar all over it.
>       -------------------------------------------------------
>         The instrumental track which is included on Marquee Moon is a 
>       version of O Mi Amore.  This was a song which we were thinking 
>       might be included but which always seemed to give us some kind of 
>       trouble in recording.  We were all set up in the studio with the 
>       idea that we could re-record the guitar parts if they need to be 
>       redone.  It was really only important to get a good drum track 
>       and hopefully the bass.  There is a funny story which goes along 
>       with this track.  Andy Johns was a real "rock-and-roll child" -- 
>       up all night, sleep all-day type.  I can't remember what time of 
>       the day it was but I do remember that anytime we started a 
>       session, it seemed to be early for Andy.  Anyway, we were trying 
>       to get a basic on this song.  In the middle of the song was a 
>       short guitar solo which I was supposed to play but I was going to 
>       play it later on another track.  That's why there is a hole where 
>       the guitar solo is supposed to go.  Then just as I was going to 
>       reenter with the melodic theme one of my strings broke.  You can 
>       just about hear it right before I do come back in.  As a result 
>       all my other strings went out of tune, so when I do come back in 
>       it is a big mess.  I stopped playing and waved my arms around but 
>       nobody seemed to be paying any attention because we had agreed 
>       that if one person dropped out, the others should continue.  I 
>       looked into the control room to see if Andy had noticed but I 
>       couldn't see him and I thought that he was probably ducked down 
>       fiddling with some knobs or something, so I put down my guitar 
>       and I went to the control room quietly so as not to make any 
>       sounds which would get into the recordings.  When I opened the 
>       control room door I was surprised not to hear anything, and there 
>       was Andy slouched in the control room seat, fast asleep.  When he 
>       heard me open the door he got startled and quickly sat up and 
>       turned on the music and pretended that he had been listening.  I 
>       was very fond of Andy and his shenanigans.  A true 
>       rock-and-roller.
>       ----------------------------------------------------------
>         Clearly artists work hard so that their music is presented in 
>       the best possible light.  Some of these bonus tracks were never 
>       meant to be heard by anyone.  Many fans have lamented the fact 
>       that there are so few outakes and alternate versions of these 
>       songs.  Perhaps I can shed a little light on why this is so:

>       First of all, Television waited longer than just about any of the 
>       other bands at C.B.G.B.s to sign with a record company.  Both 
>       Talking Heads and the Ramones signed and record albums before we 
>       did -- both with Sire records.  Sire records also wanted to sign 
>       Television but they're recording budgets were too small.  We 
>       wanted to at least have a chance to make a good sounding record, 
>       so we waited.  When we finally signed with Elektra, even though 
>       the recording budget was better than we would have gotten with 
>       some other labels, it was still not a lot of money.  It would 
>       have been foolish to try to record too many songs with the money 
>       that we had to spend.  Recording costs were not cheap.  It was 
>       felt that it was much better to spend the money on the songs 
>       which were going to have a chance to get on the record.  Even 
>       though I wanted us to record extra material and even brought it 
>       to the bands attention that it would be good to have something 
>       for future needs just like this, I could not argue if it meant 
>       that the songs which were actually going to be on the record 
>       would suffer.  The other reason why Television decided not to 
>       record additional material in the studio has to do with the way 
>       record company contracts were written.  The contract stipulated 
>       that since the record company was paying for the recording costs 
>       (out of monies which eventually might be due to the artist), the 
>       record company would own anything recorded with this money, in 
>       perpetuity.  Basically this means that if you fart or sneeze and 
>       it gets recorded, the record company owns the recording of it.  
>       This doesn't necessarily mean that they can put it out and sell 
>       it to the public without your consent but it does mean that they 
>       own recorded versions of your songs.  Those facts are probably 
>       the most important reasons why there is so little extra 
>       recordings sitting around waiting to be discovered.  When Rhino 
>       told us that they were going to search for outakes and unreleased 
>       material I wished them all the very best of luck, even hoping 
>       they would find something that we didn't know about.  Usually 
>       rough mixes, unfinished and unpolished basics and abandoned works 
>       in progress are reserved for release after an artist has died and 
>       can't do anything about it.  Rhino did send us the material they 
>       intended to put out, and I think we all agreed that some of it 
>       was interesting and worth letting people hear even for the 
>       imperfections.
>       --------------------------------------------------------------------
>         Lastly, I ought to say something about the packaging.  Some 
>       people have complained because there is no jewel box.  The band 
>       had very little to do with the structure of the packaging, but: 
>       We did approve of Alan Licht to write the liner notes and we all 
>       spoke to him.  We also approved of the photography and changed 
>       some of the photographs in the booklet.  Some of the photographs 
>       used had never been seen publicly and are quite nice.  Now, it 
>       ought to be realized that both Marquee Moon and Adventure were 
>       released on vinyl in cardboard sleeves.  Rhino seems to have done 
>       everything possible to make the reissue conform to the original 
>       look and wishes of the band.  I myself think that the packaging 
>       is terrific.  You access the CD just like you would have accessed 
>       the vinyl record.  I personally prefer this in every way to a 
>       plastic jewel box which tends to crack and which, being made out 
>       of plastic, is less biodegradable than the cardboard.  The lyrics 
>       were originally printed on the inner sleeve on the vinyl release.
>         These inner sleeves were made out of paper and tended to get 
>       lost or destroyed. Here they are past of the packaging itself.  I 
>       personally think that Rhino has done a commendable job with these 
>       reissues.  



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