Re: (TV) On the other hand/Blasphemy

[Jesse Hochstadt <Jesse_Hochstadt@brown.edu>]

At 9:35 AM -0400 4/13/01, Leo wrote:

> If anything Tom's too modest, in 1992-93 reunion he literally gave 
> Richard the spotlight.  But don't think for a moment that Tom 
> couldn't play circles around Richard if he wanted/was motivated. 
> Don't let me be misunderstood;  I love Lloyd's playing, he can be 
> fantastic (e.g., "Ain't That Nothin'"; "1880 or So") he has great 
> technique, but he's not in the same league as Tom--- nobody plays 
> with as much feeling and subtlety as Tom.

I certainly haven't seen anywhere near as many 
Television/Verlaine/Lloyd shows as Leo: Television once, at the 
Academy in NY on the '92 reunion tour, Tom once on tour at the 
Paradise in Boston in 1980-81, Tom doing the instrumental thing with 
Jimmy Ripp at the Middle East in Cambridge a couple of years ago, and 
_I think_ I saw Richard with John Doe's band in NY (at Ron Wood's old 
club?). But based on those experiences, my impression is that 
comparing Tom and Richard really is a case of apples and oranges, or 
at least tangelos and oranges, no matter how closely allied they are 
as players. In '92 Richard blew me away; he was a technically 
stunning guitarist, virtuosic and a real firebrand. I too realized 
that I'd given Richard too little credit over the years. Tom was more 
meditative and thoughtful; his playing seemed to concentrate more on 
the attack of a single note, less on speedy runs. I don't remember 
much about Tom in '80-81 (just that I was happy to see him play), but 
the same attitude seemed to characterize his playing at the Middle 
East. Listen to "Warm and Cool," and you'll know what I'm talking 
about.

> As long as I'm going to be punished and verbally pummeled I'll throw 
> in something else to really piss people some off:  Jay Dee Daugherty 
> on Tom's solo tours was a much superior drummer to Billy Ficca--- 
> those solo tours rocked like no other music I ever saw/heard, and a 
> lot of that was due to Jay Dee.

This also strikes me as an unfair comparison: if "superior" means 
"rocked harder," then I've no doubt you're right. But by that 
argument, Buddy Miles was a better drummer with Hendrix than Mitch 
Mitchell was, which is not my opinion at least: Jimi _swung_ a lot 
more with Mitchell. Billy's always been a relatively light, even 
jazzish (I wouldn't go so far as to say jazzy) drummer, which has 
served very well on a lot of Television tunes. (Who was it who said 
that Television's sound was the sound of Billy Ficca's high-hat?)

By the by, this is my first posting to this list, which I joined when 
I heard news of the TV reunion shows. I've been on the Richard 
Thompson and Mekons lists for many years; I recognize Joe Hartley's 
name from one of those lists.

- Jesse
--------------
To post: Mail tv@obbard.com
To unsubscribe: Mail majordomo@obbard.com with message "unsubscribe tv"