Re: (TV) Leo's Gotta fess-up! You win

["Mark G. Ryan" <mgryan@cruzio.com>]

Yes, I noticed the keyboard credits. Very interesting and worth a 
closer listen.  However, in trying to understand Verlaine's musical 
development, it doesn't help much to have examples of his playing
from during and after _MM_.  He style was already fully realized
at that time.

Any recordings or accounts of Verlaine's playing before Television?   
I know I'm asking for a lot: the juvenalia of pop musicians (unlike 
classical composers) is unlikely to survive, unless they are a child 
star (e.g., Stevie Wonder).

Also, I'm baffled as to how piano could have influenced his guitar
playing (besides improving his sight reading and obvious things
like that).  

Lots of people mother's force them to take piano lessons,
but they don't end up sounding like Verlaine when they later take up the
guitar ("You bought a guitar to punish you Ma"--Pink Floyd). It might be
different if we knew Verlaine was studying advanced piano in a particular
style, e.g, jazz.

The piano is a pretty neutral instrument--especially for beginners--and 
it's played in a lot of different styles.  Main thing about the piano is 
that it has lots of polyphonic capabilities, so it lends itself to chords 
and writing in two or more parts.  Also, pitch is completely fixed, 
usually on ET tuning.  Finally, it's easy to modulate between keys.
This may seem like belaboring the obvious, but imaging if he had played 
the harmonica (blues influence! we would all think) or a percussion instrument 
(rhythm!).  Unfortunately, knowing that a musician once played the piano 
doesn't tell us much about stylistic influences.

One side effect of classical training would be to de-emphasize the
importance of melody, except as a basis for harmony and counterpoint.
Of course, this goes against Verlaine's statements in the interviews that
Leo quoted about the importance that melody has for him.  Of course, 
I'm already puzzled about that.  In any case, musician's statements about 
their own development and influences are notoriously unreliable, like all
other autobiography.  Here's where the Mozart/Salieri example is apt.  
Can you imagine what Salieri would have said in an interview if you had
asked him if his composing was influenced by his pupil, Mozart?
Similarly, lots of rock musicians take pains not to admit their most
obvious indebtedness--it's part of the game.

Too bad the sax clue didn't lead to more information (only played 3 years, 
no recording or contemporary accounts from pre-Television, and no statements
by Verlaine as to who influenced him).  It's pretty easy to come with a
short list of great sax players that a beginning sax player might be 
listening to, and they all have distinctive styles.  It's also easy to 
speculate as to how this might influence his later playing of another 
instrument.  Oh well...this case is closed.

Mark

Maurice Rickard <maurice@mac.com> wrote:
> 
> At 5:47 AM -0800 1/29/03, Philip P. Obbard wrote:
> >I don't have the album handy at work, but I believe Verlaine is credited with
> >some keyboard work on MARQUEE MOON, isn't he?
> 
> All keyboards on _MM_ and _Adventure_.  For the solo stuff, there's a 
> Bruce Brody keyboard credit on _Tom Verlaine_ for "Last Night" and 
> none of the others; I expect Tom would have played the occasional 
> keyboards on the other tracks.  (Brody has some credits on 
> _Dreamtime_, too--"Always," "Mary Marie," and the end of 
> "Penetration".)  As there don't seem to be other keyboard credits in 
> the ouvre, I'd assume that where they do appear, Tom's playing them.
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