(TV) Splash! / Pretentious Psychedelic Caterwaul

["Casey, Leo J" <CaseyL@VOLPE.DOT.GOV>]

-----Original Message-----
From: eric gregory 
Sent: Thursday, March 07, 2002 11:17 AM
To: tv@obbard.com
Subject: Re: (TV) Echo 
>..& "my kingdom " is a beautiful song (as is the rest of "ocean rain", 
>probably the bunnymen's high point)....sergeant is always worth a listen 
>& even tho he's been playing the same 3 or 4 variations on one guitar lick,
>it's a fucking great one. anyhow, point here is that the bunnymen up to the 
>best of (say, 85 or thereabouts ...basically up until pete defreitas split 
>the band) were a major fuggin band. *i wouldn't hesitate to say that 
>"crocodiles" & "ocean rain" & choice cuts off the other recs stand up to 
>& are superior to) alotta verlaine solo... dive in, leo....*
--------------------------------------
Hey Eric, them's fightin' words!  

I'll probably offend all the Echo and the Bunnymen fans on list (and maybe even 
some who aren't fans), but what the hell that's never stopped me before.  Could 
you define "alotta verlaine solo" for me?  If you mean stuff like "Yonki Time", 
"Present Arrived", "Kaliedescopin'" or even "Warm & Cool", then maybe you're right 
(and Will Seargent's certainly a talent); however, IMHO, Echo and the Bunnymen's 
"Crocodiles" and "Ocean Rain" can't hold a candle to the quality of the first 
two Verlaine solo records' songwriting, sheer originality, guitar prowess, 
and, most remarkable of all, the emotion and feeling expressed in Verlaine's 
playing. 

Moreover, E & the B from their trendy, little, neo-psychedelic niche wouldn't 
have known where to begin to create songs like "Postcard From Waterloo", 
"5 Miles of You", "4 AM", "Scientist Writes a Letter", "Anna", "Words From the 
Front", "Oh Foolish Heart", Prayer", "Annie's Telling Me", etc.  

"Word was these erstwhile-and-futurist popsters had transcended songform, so I gritted my teeth and tried to dig the 
texture, flow, etc.  Took the enamel clean off.  I hold no brief against tuneless caterwaul, but tuneless psychedelic 
caterwaul has always been another matter.  Ditto for existential sophomores.  And, need I add, Jim Morrison worship. 
... In a desperate attempt to market Ian McCulloch's crumpled shirts and skin problems (two of the most likable things 
about him, I'd say), Warner's pulls two top cuts off 'Porcupine'.  Revealingly, they're the two worst things here, though the 
'The Cutter' is a pretentious dog (quills sticking out all over the little bugger), 'Back of Love' is merely more histrionic 
than the competition.  Suggested motto:  'Do It Clean', which here builds to a casual vocal rave-up in a seven-minute 
concert version that could almost make you believe these spaced-out student existentialists were rock-and-rollers. 
... It also includes a lyric sheet, which taught me nothing I wanted to know."[From: Robert Christgau's Record Guide:The 80s] 

Verlaine: "I'm not real familiar with all these new groups that come pouring out of 
England. I heard Echo and the Bunnymen; there was a lot of Television stuff in there, 
and I was real surprised. I try not to just hear a riff and go play it. When I hear a 
band who's heard a riff and played it backwards or maybe even put it so that instead 
of being in the first measure it happens in the second, I'm surprised, 'cause I don't 
work that way. I'm used to hearing that crap on the radio, the billionth generation of 
some riff in a Top 40 song. I'm not used to hearing something that I may have come up 
with, and it strikes me as kind of odd." [From TROUSER PRESS January 1982, No. 69 
'TOM VERLAINE' by Toby Goldstein]

And in the interest of fairness and equal time:
"This vanguard foursome---at its inception, a trio plus Echo the drum machine---emerged
from the ostensible Liverpool renaissance with a debut album striking in its starkness 
and power.  Unlike alsorans with the same ideas, Ian McCulloch's specter of Jim Morrison
vocals are no mere pilferage; where Morrison would have ordered you on your knees, 
McCulloch does it himself, alternately writhing in resistance or slumped in 
resignation to the agonies of a whole'nother decade.  On'Crocodiles', the scratchy yet 
ringing guitar and unhurriedly relentless, pounding drums set the sonic scene for 
McCulloch's sometimes ambivalently delivered existential crises."  
[The New Trouser Press Record Guide, Ira Robbins & Jon Young]   

I could be disingenuous and tell you that I'll give "Ocean Rain" another listen tonight, but I already did yesterday and 
this morning and I must report:  that record does not have a soul;  it is completely devoid [pronounced as the non-French 
'Voidoid' (or 'android')] of feeling with the exception of affectation.  I have met/heard the Bunnymen and thy music is 
called prententiousness.  "Ocean Rain" is a fuggin' abomination---even the string orchestra sounds cold and 
sterile---the equal to Marquee Moon, my arse.  [Jay, you'd better bring your boxing gloves to NYC on the 19th :-)    ]

Summing up:  I like Television's & TV's music; I don't like E & the B; I respect the fact that some will agree with 
those opinions, and that some will disagree, but I will defend to the death---if necessary---your right to have 'em.  


	Leo   :^)
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