Re: (TV) Tom Verlaine's great but unavailable songs -- The Miller's Tale 2?

[mike <mikeez@earthlink.net>]

> Mike e wrote:
>> AAAARRRGGGHH! Dissolve/Reveal and Rotation before "Present Arrived" and
> the
>> studio versions of "Postcard from Waterloo" and "Clear it Away"?! As much
> as
>> I like the tracks from Cover, they are but fluff pieces compared to the
>> intensity of the latter tracks. Sure you can't play them at a party (well
>> maybe "Postcard" if you can stand the snickers) but playing these tunes in
>> the privacy of your own home is like an E-ride for your ears.
> 
> Fluff pieces? Correction: They are masterpieces. Just because they don't
> have the "power chords" of earlier albums doesn't mean that those songs lack
> quality. With Cover, Tom was moving into new territory, and he did it very
> well. There's a light touch there, and it's incredibly sensitive and
> beautiful. The complexity of the music is disguised, almost dissolved.
> "Dissolve/Reveal" in particular has so much musical inventiveness, building
> up right through the song, that I rate it among Tom's very best.
> 
> "Present Arrived", "Postcard from Waterloo" and "Clear it Away"?! I'll allow
> that I might be dismissing them too readily, and that there's a case for The
> Miller's Tale 2 to have a second CD. But I'm convinced that the quality
> would suffer, that the second CD would come across as "for completists".
> 
> Mike, would you find fault with "The Scientist", "The Funniest Thing", "1880
> Or So", "Rhyme", "This Tune", etc, for lack of "intensity"?
> 
> --JoeT
> --------------

To hear one's favorite tunes described as fluff must be bitter indeed. I
suppose that I too was a bit quick to cast criticism since ironically, I
would argue strenuously to a TV neophyte that "Dissolve" is a magnificent
construction that requires one's full attention. I understand that WFTF is
not a favorite of Tom's few fans and my response was more of a defense
mechanism against the harsh reality that I enjoy the least loved songs of a
hardly loved artist.

Musical intensity can be very dynamic. I would call songs such as "Rhyme"
and "The scientist Writes a Letter" as quite intense. The part where
Scientist breaks into "the snow is so white..." is pretty wild.

Tunes such as "The Funniest Thing", "16 Tulips" and "Leningrad", while maybe
lacking in intensity relative to some of Tom's other efforts are some of the
the best pop songs of the last 20 years but unfortunately, we're the only
folks who know it.

Mike e 
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