(TV) Partial PBS Transcript (Verlaine & Hell: NY Dolls)

["Casey, Leo J" <Leo.J.Casey@Volpe.dot.gov>]

[A long shot of Richard Hell, walking from a dilapidated pier on the East
River, towards 
the camera where used tires are stacked up near a crumbling building, the
opening chords 
of "Blank Generation" begin] The live Hell on screen 'talks' not sings the
lyrics: 
"I was saying let me out of here before I was even born. 
It's such a gamble when you get a face. 
I belong to the ....blank.. generation. 
And I can take it or leave it each time." 
[ Close-up of Hell standing, television screen has the words Richard Hell 
-- Television; The Voidoids under his image] 
Hell: The Hippie culture was what we wanted to replace. It had failed; it
was pathetic. 
All these left-over people, who were trying to pretend that handing out
flowers was going 
to defeat Nixon. chuckle, chuckle, ha, ha, [Cut to interior close-up shot of
Tom Verlaine 
sitting and smoking in a recording studio, television screen has the words
Tom Verlaine
 -- Television ] Verlaine: The New York Dolls and those sorts of glamour
groups had 
long hair. We decided to forget all that----and the costumes and all that,
we hated all that stuff. 
It seemed like not even pretense to us. So, we just wore street clothes
---which also just happened 
to have in some cases - safety pins. [Cut to Hell again, still standing near
pier ] 
Hell: We sure didn't look like any other band in the world, and we were the
only band 
who had short hair - probably in the world. Ha , chuckle, chuckle. 
(Now serious and intense, speaking slowly and deliberately) And everybody 
worshipped us for it. They'd crawl into CBGBs; they were stacked up like....
like 
these tires. So thirsty were they for reality. [end of song "Blank
Generation " on soundtrack" 
"weeeeee oohhh"] Narrator voice over: At first the only clubs that would let
Television and 
the Patti Smith Group play was at the sleazy end of the Bowery. Another band
joined 
them there... [ Ramones count off "1, 2, 3, 4" next follows a 10 minute or
so 
segment/interview with members of The Ramones and CBGB footage/music of The
Ramones 
--several of their songs, e.g., "I Don't Want To Get Involved With You", in
interview Joey 
Ramone describes their music "...as sick Bubble Gum music." Then, interview
and CBGB 
footage of Blondie's members, about 5 minutes; then 12-15 minutes of
interviews with and 
CBGB footage of The Talking Heads] Finally, Verlaine: (again sitting in same
recording 
studio and still smoking!) Voiced with a thinly veiled mixture of contempt
and virulence: 
[Punk music] to most people in radio it didn't sound as good as The Eagles
or Linda Ronstadt 
so it didn't get played. Narrator voice over: It seemed that the punk scene
was destined to 
obscurity---to remain in the privileged possession of musicians in New York
and of the 
odd journalist---an almost private pleasure. Middle America was too affluent
too comfortable 
for punk's aggressive sound.  
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