(TV) anecdotes re. Tom Verlaine from Larry Butler's(of Warner Bros.)book,via Lefsetz

[Bob Beatty <bobjb2002@yahoo.ca>]

Music & music biz opinionator Bob Lefsetz mentioned this in yesterday's
edition of his Lefsetz Letter he sends out free by email:
http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2012/07/15/lying-2/
QUOTE: "Ibm reading Larry Butlerbs book. 'Larry Butler, whobs that?' Mr.
Butler was an artist development guy at Warner Brothers forever, when it
 was
still the WB we knew and loved. And before that he was a musician, 
he opened
for the Stones! Well, Ibm getting ahead of myself. You see thatbs a story
Larry tells in his book. Itbs full of nuggets.
 The basic concepts are not
new, but itbs a fun read, to find out Hilly 
Kristal was an unwitting
beneficiary of Tom Verlainebs inability to find
 anywhere to feature
Television. Yup, Verlaine asked Hilly to play at 
CBGB, a relatively dead bar,
on a dead night, Monday, and Television 
played to the usual suspects, a dozen
friends of the band. But amongst 
that group was a reporter for the "Village
Voice". Who concocted the 
story that Liza Minnelli had been seen there, back
when she actually was
 a scenester, and the venue filled up the following
week. And eventually
 Hilly asked Tom if he knew of any other acts that could
play. Tom said 
Blondie, the Ramones, Talking Heads, Patti Smithb&and the
rest is 
history."

-Then Lefsetz published an interesting response
http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2012/07/15/lying-2/
from Talking Heads'B  Chris Frantz after Frantz read the above passage about
Tom Verlaine.

CHRIS FRANTZ QUOTE: "Greetings from France, Bob. I remember Larry Butler well.
We visited 
many a radio station and record store together promoting Talking
Heads. 
Hebs a good guy and I look forward to reading his book. Let me just
say 
one thing about Tom Verlaine, though. I donbt think Tom ever
recommended
 any band to play CBGBs and certainly not Talking Heads. I was the
one 
who approached Hilly on our bandbs behalf. As far as I know, Tom
Verlaine has never done a single favor for anyoneb&not even himself.
Cheers,
Chris Frantz"
-That last line Frantz wrote's an "ouch" zinger ("...not even himself")!
Before reading Frantz's response, I didn't think Butler's account sounded
right either, as I'd never heard or read anything before suggesting Tom
recommended other bands to Hilly Kristal in the early days. And I recall from
the Ramones doc. "End of the Century", Joey Ramone explaining how they first
found out about CBGB from seeing an ad in the Village VoiceB  advertising
Television playing there. He didn't say anything about Tom acting on behalf of
the Ramones to help get them gigs by recommending them to Hilly. As we know,
Dee Dee Ramone had once auditioned as a bass player for Television, I guess it
was before Hell joined.
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