Re: (TV) Interview from 87: Back to Walker

[Rex Broome <rexbroome@gmail.com>]

This reminds me...
 Recently I've been reminded that The Animals recorded a song-- might well
be traditional or a cover, certainly sounds that way-- called "Gonna Send
You Back To Walker". It's hardly obscure, at least in their version: it's
right there on "The Best of The Animals Vol. 1"-- and the Walker in question
is definitely a town. The singer is sick of his girlfriend and wants to send
her back home. Anyone know anything about that song and how it does or
doesn't relate to Tom's tune-- which, I must add, is to my mind his primary
shoulda-been hit single?
 Curious...
Rex

 On 9/18/05, Claudia <razoomyyy@yahoo.de> wrote:
>
> Hmm, hope anyone will enjoy reading this.
>
> The Tom Tom Bomb
> Sounds, Feb 21 1987
>
> One of the great seminal figures of modern rock, Tom
> Verlaine talks to Robin Gibson about his excellent new
> solo LP, Flash Light.
>
> Talking to Tom Verlaine comes in two parts.
> Part one is where you catch yourself wishing youd
> dropped your car keys down a drain. Surely an
> afternoon on your knees with bent coathanger and a
> muddy arm would prove easier than trying to prise
> pearls of wisdom from these clenched, nervy lips.
> But part one only lasts about half-an-hour.
> Hell say things like another year, another album
> with a cynical, if good-humoured detachment. Hell
> talk about the importance of relative parts in his
> approach to musi-making. Rather drily, hell profess a
> love for the true use of the language of music in the
> symphonic tradition and a disregard for current rock
> n roll use of what he sees as rhetoric.
> Basically, hell confirm your suspicions about his
> artistic intensity  and hell chainsmoke into the
> bargain.
> If part one is going to depict Tom Verlaine as some
> sort of dull, worthy, tasteful old fogey, then its
> not worth dwelling on. But its worth rescuing this
> A lot of it is very spontaneous for me. Describing
> any process sounds cold, because it becomes
> reflective. It somehow leaves out all the
> emotionality, and even the physicality of it. Its
> like, I cant really reproduce these guitar solos. I
> listen to em and I realise, Well that goes there and
> this goes herebut I dont really know what the notes
> were
> You try to surprise yourself, I think. Sometimes it
> works, sometimes it doesnt. Maybe its down to the
> mood youre in that day.
> Tom Verlaine has been making records with Fender
> guitars, bass and drums for ten years or so. He must
> be in a pretty good mood most of the days he makes
> one.
>
> Part two is where he opens up, chomps thoughtfully on
> a croissant, occasionally forgets where he started
> (mainly because he enjoys leaping off at outrageous
> tangents) and generally seems to explain things for
> his own benefit as much as anyones.
> He takes quite a childlike delight in discovering
> things as he talks; he takes care not to give too much
> away about himself.
> Flash Light is his fifth solo album. If 1981s
> Dreamtime with its dense, frenetic climax was the
> logical end to the style of grand guitar drama that
> the first Television album Marquee Moon ushered in,
> then even Flash Light is a natural descendant of his
> last LP, the brilliant Cover.
> Cover was a masterly redirection of his resources,
> featuring some of his calmest, most spacious, subtly
> orchestrated and adventurous songs. And though Flash
> Light zigzags less than Cover, housing nothing as
> exploratory as Travelling or as perversely
> picturesque as Swim, it contains plenty of great
> moments.
> Songs like Bomb and Cry Mercy Judge are as taut
> and thrilling as anything hes done; The Scientist,
> One Time At Sundown or At 4am as beautiful and
> intriguing as any classic Verlaine.
> Like all of his music, it sounds unique and it
> describes the vision of someone whose approach to rock
> music has always been unique. Its electric and
> exciting, but somehow it sidesteps the crudity,
> baseness or craziness that is implicit in the term
> great rock n roll.
> Mmmbut there is something crazy in it, he argues.
> For lack of a better word, theres something
> irrational in a lot of it. It seems to surface more in
> the guitar solos and the vocals and lyricsthe subject
> matter of the songs, which isnt conscious at all,
> really. They seem to explore either very high-spirited
> moments, or some kind of dangerous moments where
> peoples live are at stake.
> There often seems to be a sense of elation in
> Verlaines songs; but in something like A Town Called
> Walker, the new single, the tone seems to be one of
> reflection.
> Well, that is actually a very tragic song. Its about
> this very naove girl whos going back to someplace,
> this town, and shes making excuses for it, and for
> the people thereit is a very B-movie sort of thing.
> But Ive seen people do this in their lives, its
> very real. Theyll come to New York and complain, this
> place is too crazy, its too fast, and go back to
> their hometown or whateverand in a way, its worse.
> They find they have to continually adapt to a bad
> environment  which has, in a sense, been known to be
> the root of all disorder. When you find yourself
> having to adapt to bad situations, you become part of
> the situation yourself.
> The story sounds straightforward, but terming it
> tragic lends a certain romance to the telling of it,
> I suggest.
> Well, I like the term straightforward, he goes on,
> completely disregarding my second point. This is
> precisely what I tried to be on this record. For
> instance, Annies Tellin Me had a very, um,
> thoughtful  quote, unquote  lyric. But I thought, I
> dont really want this, the person to the song is
> dealing with doesnt talk like thisshe talks!
> So I ended up using clichis, using these things where
> the character is just put before the public. On this
> record, though the characters are creations or voices
> speaking through a song, there was a sense of allowing
> them to be themselves, to be dumb. Just allowing them
> that existence, without trying to be clever about it.
> The other thing thats come up over and over again is
> a theme of corruption. Like, the corrupt judge on Cry
> Mercy Judge; Say A Prayer, which has this guy
> deciding the world is on the take and thinking
> immediately, Well, this is how it is, Im corrupt as
> well; and again in Walker, the girl going back to a
> corrupt place, naively.
> Now, none of this conflict is really resolved 
> whether it is corrupt, or not. Song is about these
> people who cant seem to talk to each other; and then
> again in The Scientist, the guy writes a letter, and
> its obvious he adores the woman hes writing tobut
> what does he write? He tells her these nothing little
> facts, and theres a whole feeling of being unable to
> communicate
> In Sundown, he continues, the guy is trying to,
> ah, retrieve something. Going back to pick up what he
> dropped. The literal metaphor would be somebody
> dropped a valuable jewel, or object, or a personal
> charm. Its this naove belief in a holy grail, or
> something that is actually nothing but a signifier of
> either a state of consciousness, or elation, to use
> your word.
>
> The half-eaten croissant is reclining forgotten in his
> lap. He lights a cigarette from the end of his last
> one.
> I just found this whole theme of either
> inarticulateness or corruptionI dont know how or why
> all this stuff surfaced, though
> Are these your obsessions?
> Ummaybe theyre symptoms of an obsession, he
> smiles. But I dont know what that obsession might
> be. It is curious, because its basically a very
> upbeat record. Yet the lyric themes are dealing with
> difficult things.
> Difficult for you?
> Well, not difficult for me, because to me theyre
> expressions of something. But, he wonders, Im not
> sure what theyre expressions of! In a simple way,
> theyre releases of tension, or relaxations of tension
> that isnt essential.
> Yet the obvious way to describe what Verlaine does
> might be to say that its creating a tension which is
> essential
> Yeah, well, that might be the paradox. Ones creating
> it to resolve itthe snake biting its tail, sort of
> effect. There is, perhaps, an attempt in this record
> to explore the inability to say what one means
> Have you ever tried any other means of expression
> apart from music?
> Well, I used to draw a lot, In fact, I used to paint
> between the ages 12 and 15. I did quite a bit. And I
> always kept notebooksthis was how I learned to write.
> I started to write little, terrible poems, usually
> about monsters. The first things I ever wrote were
> about King Tut and Godzilla. I had a great boyhood
> thing about monsters.
> I used to have the same, about dinosaurs, I remark.
> Actually, I used to have all these little plastic
> dinosaurs. I used to go and rake leaves on peoples
> lawns, in the fall, after school theyd give you
> about 50p, I guess, and these dinosaur things were
> about 90p
> Verlaine looks more like the sort of person who still
> spends his time raking leaves than the sensitive,
> poetic type he is. His uncertain twitches, his heavy
> hands, right down to his big workmans boots: none of
> it seems to correlate with his music.
> Is the attention to detail in his records as much a
> characteristic of the everyday Tom?
> Ahhahaha! I dont knowI mean, the apartments I live
> in, unless some woman is coming to stay there, are a
> complete mess. Usually before someone shows up I have
> to work on it for eight hours to make it look like
> something other than a bear lives there. So if
> neatness and detail have a relation, Im not a very
> neat person. Its interesting. Id never thought of
> applying that word to this before now.
> Someone was asking me about the title of this album,
> which is very deliberately supposed to be two
> wordsand actually, what has been an obsession with me
> is this idea ofyou know, the traditional flash of
> light in which something becomes known.
> The light bulb over the head?
> Right. I was thinking of this kinda dream, about
> walking in a room or a completely dark space, and the
> light comes on very quick, and goes out very quickand
> what did you see?
> This may even have something to do with a childhood
> memory that I havent quite unlocked yetthat
> something very significant was seen in that bright
> moment, that somehow still remains nebulous, cant
> quite be incorporated into your daily lifestyle. Im
> not quite sure how that is involved with the people on
> the albumbut it could be that thats exactly whats
> missing from the whole thing.
> I often think, in fact completely believe, that
> people whatever theyre working in are feeling their
> way in the darkthat its not important to know what
> youre doing. I mean, yeah, you can set up a method
> for yourself.
> Apparently mystery writers work this wayin the first
> chapter introduce the crime, in the second the motives
> and in the third the possible suspects. So you develop
> a structure, fill it in and theres your thing. Ive
> never been able to work this way at all
>
> Even after ten years, a Verlaine single like A Town
> Called Walker only reluctantly strays into commercial
> territory  and anything hes recorded seems
> incredibly tasteful and unpretentious in the shadow of
> the Def Leppard sleeves that adorn the wall of the
> Phonogram office were in.
> Right. But the artificiality of thatfor some people
> it becomes a whole number. Im thinking of David
> Bowie, who is always pulling this, pulling that from
> here and there. People who are manipulative seem to
> have got further in the last ten years, quicker. Im
> also thinking of people like Madonna, who has chosen a
> whole set of ready-made images. Ive never been able
> to find myself liking something which is only the
> product of pure ambition, he decided, wincing as he
> recalls a recent, extraordinarily vacuous Patsy Kensit
> interview on The Tube.
> Which makes me think  involuntarily  about something
> else Verlaine has previously cited as an obsession:
> sex, massive amounts of which, hes said, have seemed
> apparent to him, on reflection, in his music.
> Pushed on this, though, his talent for tangents
> ascends to an even higher level.
> Yeahbut sex is a world where all sorts of other
> things get placed, somehow. What springs to mind are
> some of these so-called sexual perversions, like
> 55-year-old businessmen who hire girls and go through
> the most bizarre practicesbeing pissed on, or
> whatever. When you study it, that sort of behaviour
> has nothing to do with sex whatsoever! I mean, what is
> this guy really enacting??
> When I was playing clubs in New York the kinda stuff
> that used to go on was incredibleI mean, an
> apparently enormous amount of sexual activity and
> innuendo and attempted seduction all the time. And
> yet, so much of it not really having anything to do
> with sex
> I used to get the most bizarre propositions playing
> these clubs. I was packing up a guitar one night and
> this girl came up to me and completely
> matter-of-factly said, Had I ever beat up a girl
> before? And I said, No and she said, Well Ill pay
> your 200 dollars to come over to my house, tie me up
> and beat me up! She had a whole design in mind, this
> whole thing. I did not find this exciting at all, he
> mutters wryly. In fact, I was incredibly
> flabbergasted!
> Anyway, someone I knew actually took her up on it,
> apparently
> Ah well, Tom Verlaine always did seem more sensible
> than most of his contemporaries.
> I think though, he says eventually, this thing
> about sexthe sexual element of all rock n roll is
> always there. Its just the kind of thrust the stuff
> has and refuses to be drawn any further.
>
> Tom Verlaine has been living, or at least based in
> England for two-and-a-half years now, and hes aware
> of  though not unduly concerned by  just how much
> hes perceived as a seminal figure.
> After all of this and after the consistent excellence
> of his solo work, a huge amount of interest in him is
> centred around his status as just that, and
> Televisions in particular. It might be unjust but
> even in my house its more likely that Marquee Moon
> is being aired than his solo albums.
> Well, yeah I hear the guitar stuff all over the
> place, Ive been hearing that for years. But Ill tell
> youthis girl called me up and said, Have you heard
> this guy Lloyd Cole? And I said, No. And she said,
> Well, this is the first time Ive ever heard someone
> try to sing like you. And I thought, Oh, no, it cant
> be!
> But I didnt hear it. And then when I signed to
> Phonogram, this guy in the office put on this Lloyd
> Cole record. And I couldnt figure out what it was,
> but I knew that stuff sounded really familiar in the
> weirdest way, and this guy says, Yeah, Hes totally
> copped your vocal style! I thought, Come on, but he
> says, No, its trueI know this guy.
> And later on, I ran into him. And he asked me for an
> autograph. I was just lookin at this guy thinkin,
> whats this all about?
> He might well ask.
> Meanwhile, we should be thankful that one of the last
> great innocents abroad in rock n roll is still one
> of its greatest craftsmen and originators too.
> Autograph hunters this way
>
>
>
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