(TV) Important Correction From Richard Lloyd / The Cover Does Matter

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

It turns out that The Cover Does Matter:

 

See Richard's e-mail below:

 

From: Lloydxxxxxxxzzz@aol.com [mailto:Lloydvvvvv@aol.com] 
Sent: Saturday, October 20, 2007 8:28 AM
To: LeoCasey@comcast.net
Subject: correction from Richard Lloyd

 

Dear Leo,

 

I do occasionally read through the posts on the Marquee Moon mailing list
and recently I saw your post which included a quote from the Tim Mitchell
book which is completely wrong with respect to the color Xerox version of
the front cover of Marquee Moon.

 

After we left Terry Ork as our manager (because we were getting too
successful for him to handle all of the details -- and he started trying to
find a co manager, none of which we liked or worked out), we signed with
Wartoke management company which was run by Jane Friedman, who also managed
Patti Smith and after she signed us she also signed John Cale, so these were
the three main acts that she managed for a time.

 

Wartoke's offices were in midtown Manhattan in what used to be the Brill
building.  There was a small rehearsal/storage room which we rehearsed in --
the same room in which we recorded three songs for our first independent
self released single "Little Johnny Jewel" on a four track tape machine.
After the Mapplethorpe session in which we took photographs for the front
cover he gave us the contact prints so that we could pick out the picture we
wanted to use.  We picked the one that became the cover but still had
several others we were contemplating.  Tom asked if anyone in the band would
be willing to go have some copies made so that we could all have copies to
think about.  I volunteered, and took the print out to find a place with a
Xerox machine.  Remember that this was 1977 and that there were not that
many places with Xerox machine, which were the only color copiers in
existence back then.  

 

After some searching I found a place across Broadway on Times Square.  I
took the print in and asked the guy behind the counter to make me some
copies.  He went in the back and shortly returned and told me that the color
was mis-set and that the prints were coming out strangely and that it would
take a little time for him to adjust the three colors (yellow, red, magenta)
so that the prints would come out correctly.  Because I had lived with Terry
Ork when he was one of the printers of Andy Warhol's silkscreens, and that
they printed in different colors, I became excited and asked the guy behind
the counter to please show me the prints that had come out fucked up.
Although he was reluctant to do so (because it showed that he could not do
his job correctly), he brought out the prints.  To me they looked incredible
with the colors askew, so I asked him if I could go behind the counter and
turn the knob's to get even more strange combinations.  He told me that this
was not allowed, so I instructed him to make several more prints of the main
portrait while turning the knobs with his eyes closed.

 

He brought me 10 or so of these weird colored versions of the front cover of
Marquee Moon, as well as several which were correct.  I was very excited and
told him I would buy them all.  He charged me for the correct versions as
well as for the ones he printed under my instruction but gave me the first
five were printed by mistake.  Even though the band was very frugal, I felt
it was worth the extra money and figured that if the band refused to pay the
extra, I would foot the bill out of my own pocket and keep the strange
versions for myself.

 

I brought all of the print copies back to the rehearsal room and excitedly
showed Tom and the rest of the band all of the different versions.  True to
what my intuition had told me, these skewered versions excited everyone and
after going through them all (some of which were very weird), we chose one
of the manipulated versions to use as the front cover. The original print,
which is extremely gorgeous as was much of Mapplethorpe's photography, is in
the possession of Fred Smith who has it framed and has kept it since.

 

Thus I was responsible for the colorized versions of the front cover of
Marquee moon.  Tom had nothing to do with it except for choosing between
them.  I am in the middle of writing my memoirs which are going to be
extensive and not just a tell-all about Television and CBGBs etc..  Charles
M. Young is working with me as my co-writer.  So I will be forwarding him
this reply to your erroneous post -- you may also post my reply to your post
to the MM posting group if you should so desire.  I hate erroneous
information which is based on conjecture and speculation -- I much prefer
the truth.  It is always stranger and more interesting than the fiction
invented by writers who haven't even interviewed the actual participants.
Neither Tom nor myself spoke with Tim with respect to his book.

 

Sincerely yours,
Richard Lloyd




  _____  

From: Leo Casey [mailto:LeoCasey@comcast.net] 
Sent: Monday, October 22, 2007 9:49 AM
To: 'Lloydzzzxx@aol.com'
Subject: RE: correction from Richard Lloyd

 

Hi Richard,

 

Thanks for setting the record straight on the origin of the MM cover.

 

It must be extremely frustrating to read such wrong information about the
band-and I'm sure the MM cover story is just one example of many you've
encountered over the years.  

 

I'm very excited about the publication of your memoirs.

 

I've seen you play several times in various non-Television incarnations over
the years in both NYC and Boston---most recently this past May at TT, & The
Bears, but also at The Rat during your 1985 'Field of Fire' Tour and at the
Ritz in mid-1980's when you covered 'Tom Thumb's Blues' .

 

I also once called you up while you were being interviewed on MIT's WMBR by
too very young woman DJs who couldn't stop giggling and goofing around to be
able to ask you an intelligent question.  I actually called the MIT station
and spoke with you briefly but I was too nervous to be coherent. 

 

Your cover story makes me wonder how many other 'facts' that I've posted to
the MM List might be wrong.  So, thanks for pointing out the mistake in
"Sonic Transmissions".

 

Sincerely, 

 

Leo
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