This evening, while searching around the web for rare recordings by one of my all-time favorite bands – Television… in an attempt to ensure that my new son, like his sister, stays forever out of touch with his generation… I stumbled across the fact that Richard Lloyd leaves comments on YouTube. I’m not sure why I find it so fascinating, but I like knowing that Lloyd is out there, correcting people when they make incorrect assumptions as to who’s playing what on various early bootlegs. Anyway, here’s a live recording of the band’s song, Double Exposure, captured at CBGB’s, in 1974. It’s what Arlo finally went to sleep to tonight, as he curled up in my lap.
If you liked that, just click here for more. Or, if you don’t have it already, buy their absolutely indispensable album Marquee Moon
Speaking of Television and CBGB, I’m reading Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk
RICHARD HELL: We used to take the bus down Second Avenue or Third Avenue or something to get to Chinatown to go to our rehearsal loft. Verlaine and Lloyd were apparently walking to a bus stop to go to rehearsal and they spotted CBGB’s. They went in and talked to Hilly Kristal, the owner, and asked him if our idea appealed to him.
RICHARD LLOYD: Hilly was like, “What kind of music do you play?” We said, “Well what does ‘CBGB-OMFUG’ stand for?” He said, “Country, Bluegrass, Blues and Other Music for Uplifting Gourmandizers.” So we said, “Oh yeah, we play a little of that, a little rock, a little country, a little blues, a little bluegrass…”
RICHARD HELL: The scene definitely started snowballing. CBGB’s was clearly where things were happening, from the very first time we played there. We were really unique. There was not another rock & roll band in the world with short hair. There was not another rock & roll band with torn clothes. Everybody was still wearing glitter and women’s clothes. We were these notch-thin, homeless hoodlums, playing really powerful, passionate, aggressive music that was also lyrical. I think we were the best band in the world that year. Well, for the first four or five months… I don’t remember wearing the Please Kill Me t-shirt, though I do remember forcing Richard Lloyd to wear it. I was too much of a coward. ..
13 Comments
Was “Alro” a mere typo, or was it your subconscious mind revealing that you really wanted to name your son after Al Roker?
The first few seconds after reading the headline I was trying to figure out how the steel company fit in with CBGBs.
“Please Kill Me” is one of the best books ever written in the English language. If I’m not mistaken, there’s a part in there where a woman talks about Lou Reed asking to eat her shit. Or, on second thought, maybe he was asking her to eat his shit. Wild times in NYC.
I have a friend who’s a photographer for Car and Driver. He was in NYC in the early seventies and played bass for The Mumps. He one day picked up my copy of Marquee Moon, looked at the cover picture and asked where is Richard Hell? He dropped out of the music scene when Patti Smith took The Mumps drummer. He had no clue what happened after. He recently found out that he is actually on records. His memories were of touring with the New York Dolls and playing shows with Captain Beefheart.
Andy, can you or Mark interview the guy for the rest of us? If so, I have questions to suggest.
A very good read, Mark. Am surprized you had not read it long ago. Speaking of reading, I am nearing the end of “I Want My MTV” – an oral history of the first ten year of the network. Just as good. In so many ways, video did really kill the radio star.
Television doesn’t get enough credit for what they did to get that CBGB’s scene started. I suppose it could be argued that it would have just happened somewhere else, given the intense energy of the time, in wake of the New York Dolls and the Velvet Underground, but they really had a vision, and worked to see it come about.
Mark, I’m surprised you are technically able to correct the title of a post. I’d be really surprised if you could correct the URL of the post, which still mentions “alro”[ker].
My technical abilities know no bounds, Matt. And, Andy, if you think he’d be up for it, I’d love to interview your friend… that is, if you don’t want to do it yourself.
Mark, if your purported technical abilities know no bounds, why does it still say “alro” in the URL for this page?
http://markmaynard.com/2012/01/putting-alro-to-sleep-with-television-live-at-cbgbs-in-1974/
Mark must have his reasons. Who are you to question?
You won’t get me to give up my anonymity that easily, A. M.
Any book about eating shit has to be good, right?