RE: Some semi-organized thoughts on Tom, RIP

[<howard@howardwebb.com>]

This is excellent Phil

 

From: tv-owner@obbard.com <tv-owner@obbard.com> On Behalf Of Phil Obbard
Sent: 29 January 2023 21:29
To: tv@obbard.com
Subject: Some semi-organized thoughts on Tom, RIP

 

I wrote this last night, playing Warm & Cool, Dreamtime, and some live Television as I did. Feel free to skip/delete - it's a bit long and very rambling. Just wanted to get it on paper.

 

 

Tom Verlaine, nee Miller, 1949-2023.

The other day, I was thinking back to an article I read 15+ years ago that gave the most compelling explanation I’ve ever read for why, as adults, we remain so emotionally connected to the music, books, films and people we first encountered somewhere between the ages of 15-22 or so. In short, the article argued, it’s an impactful age where we are figuring ourselves out as people – what we like, who we like, where we fit in – and as a result everything takes on a magnified significance, both at the time, and in our memories. Things imprint on you more easily at that age. It distorts your perspective later in life. 

So I always get annoyed when people say the music today isn’t as good as when they were younger – I think there’s more music out there for you to discover and love than you can possibly hear in a lifetime (and I’d say the same for books, art, film, and people too) – but the fact remains that for me, the summer of 1993 is when I first “discovered” the early New Wave/punk bands (mid/late 1970s) and it remains my favorite era of music to hear and explore, even now. I wore-out the discographies in Jon Savage’s England’s Dreaming and Clinton Heylin’s