(TV) Never paid for "Miller's Tale"

["Leo Casey" <LeoCasey@comcast.net>]

Short interview but interesting comment about "The Miller's Tale" [2nd to last
interview
question near very bottom].

 <http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=Tom%20Verlaine>



Of Tom Verlaine, Patti Smith once said, Tom plays guitar like a thousand
bluebirds screaming.
and to listen to Tom, you know what she means. But also, there is a gentler
side of this
musician, the guy who comes through in songs like Pillow and 4.A.M and
Stalingrad  this is the
Tom Verlaine that I grew to love, long before I knew that he had played with
Patti Smith on
Horses, or so it was rumored, and yes, I knew Tom could belt out a song like
nobdy else, and I
mean, <i>like nobody else</i> because Verlaine has a style and a method all
his own, and its
hard to pin-point precise musical influences, though he reveals some in this
interview.



But the literary influences are far easier. Take the name for instance,
Verlaine, which was
changed from his family name of Miller  and used after the poet and
symbolist Verlaine, whom
Tom has long admired he says. But Tom Verlaine has always been a poet in many
ways. He even
authored a book, long ago, with Richard Hell under the pen-name Theresa Stern.
What ever became
of the book, I cant say for I was unable to track down any copies or even
remnants of this,
but what I can say for sure is that even now, Verlaines work is full of
poetry. Consider one
of my favorites, Pillow, the lyrics below;



<i>What does the dove see,
There at the window?
Two people fast asleep
Oh, you were such a clown,
Out on the balcony,
Time is a stupid thing,
That's what you read to me.
Watching the birdies fly,
You whispered, "I could die",
As I recall it's really nothing.</i>



Pure poetry. For this interview, I printed many of Verlaines lyrics just to
get a glimpse into
who, exactly, he has been  to find whether or not his lyrics would tell me
something of the
man I would to interview and where he was coming from, how it had been and
where he was headed.
What I found, not surprisingly, was a man who was by turns frank and full of
candor and at the
same time, able to maintain that elusive edge that has allowed him his privacy
and a certain
mystique that keeps even the most seasoned fan or journalist guessing.



Interviewing Tom Verlaine I found a man full of surprises  from the child he
once was who was
deeply moved on hearing his first symphony (and if you listen to a lot of
Verlaine, hear the
symphonic like nature of his own work - the long riffs and drifts we are
aparty to) we cant
help but wonder whether or not Toms experience with the classical boxed sets
with which he
grew up had some influence. I also found a man who is gentle yet never afraid
to speak his mind
or ask for anything, at once forthright and at the same time shy; open to
being interviewed yet
somewhere in there, part of the interview felt at times like knocking on a
door repeatedly and
interrupting a man from a great rest.



I was both interrupter and interloper  walking in through Toms door and into
his world and
more, trying to get inside his head, and having been the subject of interviews
myself, even I
can attest that the experience is always a bit unnerving, especially for those
of us who are
perhaps a bit shy, reticent, or even wish to keep a piece of ourselves
private.  Who could
blame him, then, for any reticence <i>he</i> may have had. That said, Tom
Verlaine met me full
on, no bullshit, straight ahead and offered up answers as they came.



Anyone who knows Tom Verlaine knows that his career has been quite prolific
and productive ,
with 6 solo albums (listed here), plus two albums with his band Television
(1976, 1977). Note
that the albums listed here do not include the Television albums or any other
albums, of which
there have been many, that Verlaine played on for various friends and
acquaintances etc. As for
Verlaine himself, the avid fan will know the albums and their song lists, but
for the record,
the albums with their dates are, in order:



"Tom Verlaine" ( <http://www.oldielyrics.com/1979.html> 1979)

"Dreamtime" ( <http://www.oldielyrics.com/1981.html> 1981)

"Words From The Front" ( <http://www.oldielyrics.com/1982.html> 1982)

"Cover" ( <http://www.oldielyrics.com/1984.html> 1984)

"Flash Light" ( <http://www.oldielyrics.com/1987.html> 1987)

"The Wonder" ( <http://www.oldielyrics.com/1990.html> 1990)

"The Miller's Tale: A Tom Verlaine Anthology" (
<http://www.oldielyrics.com/1996.html> 1996)

Other songs
 <http://www.oldielyrics.com/lyrics/tom_verlaine/smoother_than_jones.html>
Smoother Than
Jones
 <http://www.oldielyrics.com/lyrics/tom_verlaine/your_finest_hour.html> Your
Finest Hour

and Richard Lloyd, two records, 76, 77 -- for television



For a song list of each album, you can check Amazon.com and also
www.oldielyrics.com
<http://www.oldielyrics.com/>  ( strange to see our Tom Verlaine considered an
oldie  I
would hardly consider either he or his music that, but with the industry
changing so quickly,
the term is used loosely today).



Well, they say you are as old or as young as you think you are and
interviewing Verlaine was
like being met with all of the excitement and positive energy of one who has
retained a
youthful spirit and who still can see the world as a somewhat magical place.
Tom Verlaine
brings with him a refreshing, almost sparkling, honesty and personality that
just makes you
want to get on whatever train it is he is on, because whatever he is talking
about, he makes it
sound interesting and lively.  Tom Verlaine has influenced some of the biggest
names in rock n
roll, including  Dave (The Edge) Evans of U2 who said of Verlaine, [he is]
the only guitarist
I heard who was saying something musically... I was very influenced by Tom
Verlaine - not
stylistically, but in terms of approach and tearing up the rule-book."



For all of the <i>No, youll never get Tom in an interview</i> stories I heard
before I got to
T.V. himself who said simply Yes, I can tell you every bit of the leg work
was worth it for
this series of interviews.  Tom Verlaine made even deepest darkest winter and
Lent seem bright.
No surprise from the man who has songs named Shimmer and Glimmer and
albums called
Flashlight and Dreamtime  there is something wonderfully bright and clear
about Tom
Verlaine here I present you with <b>Part One</b> of my interview with Tom
Verlaine; more to
follow soon:





Thanks for listening in,



Sadi Ranson-Polizzotti

February - March, 2005





<b>Tom, I've listened to and read your lyrics and listened to your songs for
years now,
probably most of my adult and young adult life, and I can't help to think that
so much of what
you write sounds like poetry. Would you agree with that?</b>



<b>TV</b>Well Im not sure: What does poetry "sound" like? Dylan Thomas has
great sound but the
sense...   a lot of it is psycho-sense or something  and Lewis Carroll also
sounds good in many
places  and his sense is really great, somewhere beyond foolosophy-comment.
and  all the Frank
O hara types  seem to have very little sound stuff going...its so chatty or
something,
although its kinda smiley-likeable in the informality- lack-o- big-statement,
which functions
as a comment as well i guess. Actually Emily D (Emily Dickinson). has great
sound and sense. I
wonder what all those Chinese poets sound like in Chinese. I like their
distilled quality.
Anyway, I am not sure I can answer the question --  Which is quite not
unusual!






<b>Have you in the past or are you now working strictly on any poetry? I know
I'm harping on
this, but that is because I see this so much in your work and it seems like a
natural
progression - that perhaps a book deal would or could be in the works if you
wanted it to be,
the way Michael Stipe from REM did a <I>Haiku Year</I>, you could do something
similar but so
much better I think. Do you have any plans in this direction?</b>



<b>TV</b> Not strictly" working on poems...no. Theres always a notebook
around or scraps of
paper in the pocket, since I was 14 or so. Its mostly nothing-squiggles.
Whats really fun is
to write under different names. Not sure if they are "personae" or whatever.
This is maybe why
personae was such a big discovery a while back, and the persona "atmosphere"!
if such a term
isnt passi...its not easy reading really... for me at least.



<b>Why did you pick the name Verlaine out of all of the French  Symbolists and
poets and
surrealists, why the poet Verlaine in particular?</b>



<b>TV</b> Well it was strictly for the sound...that name... not any
associations. In retrospect
it would have been better to have picked "Johnson" or something, since 30
years later folks
still ask about it!



<b>So I think Verlaine was a great name change for you. But then you did this,
I think, really
clever thing when you released The Miller's Tale...</b>



<b>TV</b> (interrupts)It wasnt me who released it, or named it. One record
company bought
another and hired a bootlegger jive critic to rummage the vaults to make some
cash back. Never
been paid for it, of course...nor have the musicians on the live CD.





<b>Did you always know you'd be a musician? I always knew I'd be a writer -
for example. For
me, it was always a sort of "calling" or ministry, I say. I wore too much
black, smoked too
many cigarettes, took a vow of poverty and crossed myself three times and
hoped for the best.
Was music like that for you? A calling in a way, or was it something you found
yourself in and
were somewhat surprised to find yourself there? I know that sounds odd, but a
lot of musicians
I interview are surprised to find themselves where they are today - so how is
it for you?</b>





<b>TV</b> In the 50s you could buy records at the supermarket...super
low-priced boxed sets of
classical favorites and compilations of movie themes. I remember first hearing
some symphony
and being totally transported...a big universe of sound and a kind of
orgasm!!! Amazing. I
dont know if this linked in anyway to wanting to play music but it may have
something to do
with wanting to then create which led to piano lessons which then led to
wanting to learn to
write symphonies, but all the piano teachers said "No you must wait for that"
and started
throwing ultra complicated exercises for piano my way and I got really
discouraged, I guess,
and within a year, discovered jazz...<i>instant composition</i>...and took up
sax. I reckon
this transpired between the ages of 10 and 14, not sure exactly. The
soundtrack-themes
compilation records probably had a lasting effect in that a "record" became
something with a
lot of contrast, from cut to cut, a record is wildly different from piece to
piece. Or rather
that was the initial definition - made without, of course, realizing it.





* * *

 From:   <http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=Tom%20Verlaine>
http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=Tom%20Verlaine






"He did what we all do.
He went about his dull routine
as if all the days in the world
were still to come".
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