Anyone own any Tom Verlaine solo albums?

I think its all a matter of how much you get off on Verlaine's voice. There's a few tracks on the debut I dig and nothing grabbed from later albums I heard. I need to explore further but Television itself has never been my personal motherlode.

But I'd take solo Verlaine over the reunited Television.

Postcard from Waterloo? Is that what you mean? That's on Words from the Front. Great song.

"Did it work?" "Uh, NO."

Hey, anyone like Bowie's cover of "Kingdom Come"? It's both the best sung and worst sung tune of his career.

The only one I currently own is Cover, and the dated production makes it pretty much unlistenable. Even though I haven't heard it in aboot 10 years, I thought Warm and Cool was alright. It's all instrumentals if I recall, so that might help people get past the hatred of his vocals.

I'll step in here with another endorsement for Verlaine bootlegs. For a while now, Verlaine and Jimmy Ripp have been doing some mostly instrumental sets here and there, sometimes as accompaniment to old avant garde silent films, sometimes not. There are some fine recordings of some of these shows floating around--some really beautiful, ahem, "soundscapes" (kind of hate that word, but it fits here). Some surprisingly playful, melodic playing, as well as some darker, noisier stuff.

There were rumbling about a disc of this kind of stuff coming out officially (on smells like records i think?) a few years back but I guess that all came to naught. Veraline seems like he has little interest in maintaining much of a career these days.

Check the 12" "Funniest Thing" with the "Marquee Moon live" b-side. The first place the proper 'ending' was released.

Dr C totally OTM re side 2 of the s/t album. been playing it on repeat endlessly for the last few days. brilliant stuff.

was also curious about the vocalist 'Deerfrance' from Red Leaves. seems she sang for John Cale who then wrote a song for her. sounds a lot like Stevie Nicks.
http://www.mooncaravan.com/dflisten.html

Cover IS gorgeous.

"A Miller's Tale" is just about everything most people would need from Tom, barring a handful of stray tracks. Very well chosen best-of paired with a killer live set.

No "A Town Called Walker," "Funniest Thing," or "Postcard From Waterloo" though.

I added "A Town Called Walker" to my iPod and there's a live version of "Postcard From Waterloo" included.

six years (!) after i posted on this thread raving about tom verlaine solo bootlegs ... here's a pretty fucking fantastic comp of live performances stretching from 1981-2001. recommended.
http://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/post/8834986475/pull-down-the-future-covering-two-decades-of-live

I like all the first four solo albums. But most of all, A Miller's Tale is totally worth getting just for the live disc, one of the best sounding live performances I've heard. Can't imagine any bootlegs touching this.

Just like guys from Pere Ubu/Dead Boys reunited for a tour and album as Rocket From The Tombs, I fantasize about Verlaine, Richard Hell, Lloyd, etc. getting together for at least a tour to play early Television material.

"Weirded Out" on his last album was crazy good, exactly what you'd expect from the title.

I love the song 16 Tulips. Not sure what lp it's on since I had it on the b-side of a 12". It is on the Miller's Tale though.

16 Tulips was slated for the first, "lost" version of what became Flash Light. A wise fella would dig around in Tyler's archives and might just find a lil' somethin...

Tyler, thanks 10 million for this 2CD Live comp! When I saw your post I figured it was going to be the same 'Live Various Years' 2CD which I got off a TV superfan about 5 years ago... but it's not!

By the way, 'Persia' is one of the new Television songs which they started playing live in the late 90s. Word is, they have finally laid down 10 tracks in the studio for the new album. Lloyd left in 2008 for good, so this is gonna be Verlaine/Ripp/Smith/Ficca. Using the name 'Television' for it will rankle many... maybe they should call it 'TV' or something... but fuck it, bring the thing on!

I wanna go on record saying Flash Light simply overwhelms any quibbles about its drum sound and 'of-the-time' production by dint of sheer magic. IMO it's the 3rd best record Verlaine was ever involved with (yeah, I place it ahead of the solo debut by a hair, and ahead of the 3rd Tele album by 1.5 hairs) and, strictly in terms of lyric-writing, Flash Light is second only to Marquee Moon.

Also the live version of "Days On The Mountain" on the Miller's Tale obsoletes the studio version for all time. I actually think Words From The Front is a weak record except for the title track which features perhaps my all-time favorite guitar solo.

yeah, i've heard rumblings about a new television record sans lloyd. which is weird, but what the hell. they definitely have an album's worth of material they've been playing live for the last decade or so. and "persia" is awesome, just a really dark, eastern-y groove, with verlaine playing slide (i think).

and jon, if you love that solo on words from the front, you're going to love the live version on that comp. intense! really some amazing playing throughout.

Give a holler if you ever come across a live recording of the 2006 Tom Verlaine Band tour for Songs And Other Things. Those songs were SO amazing live and all I gots is a thin-sounding radio session. I thought something would eventually turn up, but it ain't...

yeahhh, i'll upload the bowery ballroom show i've got. let me dig it out. pretty strong, though there's a part where a disgruntled fan shouts "you SUCK tonight!" har.

DUDE I WAS AT BOTH OF THOSE SHOWS I will worship you forever.

(wonder if the "you suck" was bcuz of all the lyrics TV dropped-- he kept getting absorbed in his guitar playing and forgetting a verse was coming)

heyyyy jon (and anyone else): http://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/post/8957456383/all-weirded-out-heres-an-addendum-to-last-weeks
might just go all-out verlaine this week and post another bowery show from 98, which is amazing.

:D :D
*blows gasket*

har, let me know if it lives up to your memories ...

FINALLY got my chance to sit down and listen properly to this. Halfway through. THANK YOU so much Tyler. Man, TV's solo on 'Documentary' is short but amazing. And 'Shingaling' really shreds! Oh man 'Words From The Front' is comin' on--

in case anyone's interested (jon probably!) just re-upped this great verlaine live set from 1987. http://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/post/11664881076/souvenir-from-a-dream-repost-from-the-archives

Hiya!!! Can't access tumblrs from work-- is that Rouen or Frankfurt or something else?

Frankfurt! Got it already?

Yes. But you're right, it's great! People should check it out!

How's it compare to the "Miller's Tale" live disc?

it's better!
well, i dunno, it's different -- great versions of tunes from Cover, Flashlight etc. Sound quality is mostly excellent, think it's an FM broadcast. Ridiculous guitar playing.

I miss Dreamtime! I'm going to download it now.

kind of hilarious remembrance of verlaine from steve kilbey

when i was a kid
i was scouring all the music rags
looking for the next big thing
i read a small article on a band called television
in a mag called rock scene
it was written by patti smith
she wrote about this guy tom verlaines hands
how he was the kinda guy you’d wanna lose yer virginity to….
over the next few years there were tantalising references constantly
all of em saying how this band were incredible
johnny jewel a single (kinda strange but intriguing)
and bits and pieces until in 1977 the first album came out
of course it was called marquee moon
and verily it was all they said it would be
an incredible record
34 years later today
i got an email from some guys watching televisions current progress
co guitarist richard lloyd is out
and some other guy jimmy rip is in
theres a whole argument going down on youtube
richard lloyd weighing in slagging off tv
funny that people are interested in these ancient clashes
i met tv in 1988
he was opening for the church and peter murphy
he wanted to borrow my acoustic guitar
it was a black guild ..it got stolen n broke my heart
as soon as he played one note you could hear it was him
a totally unique approach dare i say virtuoso
pk sometimes has this effect like a total understanding
anyway tv was sposed to go on murphys bus
but within one second tv had some falling out with murph
and ended up on our bus for a whole tour
he started the night with a 30 minute set
alone with an acoustic he was kinda ordinary
he was very jokey in a bizarre way on and off stage
he was a total caffeine and nicotine man too
he was always wired tho he eschewed all other substances
television had been a huge influence on us all
we were all quite surprised n impressed to have tv with us
he treated me a bit like an annoying kid and i probably deserved it
i blabbed on to him all day about television ..why i liked them…
but he was bemused and sent me up a bit
we played monopoly for real money once on the bus
and tv bickered over the fuckin’ rules and argued the toss
eeerrr kil-bee lets see uh this triple double in jail rule
uh i think this is an uh english rule and uh i aint goin’ to jail..
how bizarre to be arguing monopoly rules with verlaine
somewhere in dakota or wherever as we sped thru the night
as the tour progressed tv would come out each night and play with us
we did :you took and cortez the killer with 3 lead guitarists
3 of the very best you can get too
offstage however
tv was an incredible stingy miser arguing over every last cent literally
eerrr uh kil-bee uh you should pay an extra 75 cents for your share of the fries
this was one of the complaints on the you tube vids toms meanness
he was never very complimentary about richard lloyd either
lloyd didnt have anything to do with it if you listened to tv
he downplayed the guy right outta existence
it was unnecessary i thought to be so ungracious….
one day off in houston we went to this place
it was 1988 and you could record your vocal over a cassette backing
i sang my vocal over i left my heart in san francisco ( for DT)
tv got some old country n western track n giggled n whispered n muttered
he played it back to us convinced he’d found some new direction
one night the phone rang in my room
eerr kil-bee eerr uh i’m down here in the bar with some divorcees
and i was ah wondrin’ if uh you could uh take one off my hands …
he was very charismatic and quite the ladies man
every night different women would seek him out backstage
strangely none seemed too bizarre for his taste
he had a little sweetie in every town
one morning we checked in some place early on the east coast
it was winter and snow lay on the ground
tv suggested a walk
and we hiked up this hill with a reservoir at the top
it was 630 in the morning and we interrupted something
cos suddenly about 10 big black guys were chasing us
baying for our blood
tv and i ran downhill into the woods
tv was like a thoroughbred horse leaping thru the trees
it was weird to be in such a pickle with a one time idol
anyway the stuff that happened onstage when he joined us was magic
he could coax a million sounds from a guitar trains and birds
and doppler effects and helicopters and guns ..anything..
but you could never see exactly how he did it …he was a true genius
we vaguely planned on recording together but his heart wasnt in it
we bickered over the financial details and that was it
i dont believe it would have worked out anyway
tv had some essential suspicious jokey sarcastic ny schtick
it was hard to get through it
he insulted lembo who was trying to manage him
and lembo couldnt see the financial gain
as opposed to the grief n pain that managing tv would bring
he was ungrateful in spades and just incredibly penny pinching
like a scrooge from brooklyn or something
it was an unnerving mixture
we drifted apart after the tour i never saw him again
marty played on on of ’is solo records
and the church did an insipid uninspired version of friction
funny seeing tv on that show in portugal just filmed lately
that same old cagey grin that same old tom cat jive
jesus what a character
ha ha

<3 <3 <3

(except the downplaying Lloyd bit)

(but that's a two-way street innit)

Also

uh i think this is an uh english rule and uh i aint goin’ to jail..

Could fit RIGHT INTO the spoken part on "Souvenir From A Dream".

loved this bit
eeerrr kil-bee lets see uh this triple double in jail rule
uh i think this is an uh english rule and uh i aint goin’ to jail..
how bizarre to be arguing monopoly rules with verlaine
lol xp

the spoken bits from those souvenir from a dreams are so great.

My favorite t verlaine spoken bit:

Outside, there's a tree so white
I can barely stand to look at it

Just picked up the first two solo albums on CD as they're creeping up in price. Holy crap is "Dreamtime" Fantastic! I'd heard bits on the Miller's Tale but as a whole this is an amazing album.

For some reason I always forget to listen to dreamtime. Stupid of me cause its always fucking great. The only Tom v solo albums I don't love are words from the front and the wonder. But the title track of wftf might be my favorite Tom v solo of all.

Flash light is a good one, too. "Song" in particular.

listened to dreamtime last night - so good! great songs, great guitar playing. i feel like if it had some epic guitar song on it, it might be more well known, but the songs are mostly pretty compact. rhythm section might be a little bit mechanical, but hey it was 1981. interesting that verlaine is best known for "marquee moon" but he's never really written another guitar epic along those lines. maybe the new "persia" fits the bill to some extent. and i have some bootlegs where he stretches out "kingdom come."

I guess the live manifestations of 'Days on the Mountain' were epic and pictorial in their own very un-MM way?

haha, yeah, those things are kind of grueling! in a good way I guess. doomy synth epics. i guess after you've written "marquee moon" you may feel like you're done with writing guitar epics. you've succeeded!

"Cover" just got reissued and includes a b-side and an extended version. Yeah, the gated drums and synths don't quite fit but his guitar playing makes up for it. I think there's 3 distinct guitar lines on "Five Miles Of You" and each one is interesting.

Since my 2011 comment I have since picked up Tom's first four solo albums, which are mostly great.

Cover is a weird sound pallette but has some super essential stuff on it. It's kind of like he did a whole album in the vein of the weird live arrangements of Days on the Mountain

Extended 5 Miles of You slays

who reissued it?

Wounded Bird Records. It also fixes the cold ending of "Five Miles Of You" found on the original CD, restoring the proper fade.

ah good, i would expect that at a minimum! The Miller's Tale was well worth it for a lot of reasons, but one was getting the unfucked version of 5MoY.

RIP Tom

"At 4 a.m." off Flash Light is awesome and hilarious. Sounds like Verlaine doing his best Stones imitation and it works for me.

Man I love that song

"A Town Called Walker" and "The Funniest Thing" are the best Flashlight tracks; the latter's gotten stuck in my head since he died.

Richard Hell posted this:

Tom (13 Dec 1949-28 Jan 2023).

This is the song of his I love, as available at a Japanese "2nd hand record store" called Sweet Nuthin'. Use headphones or earbuds rather than streaming through computer or phone speakers though, please.

It's called "The Scientist Writes a Letter" and it's on Flash Light (1987).

I can't write about him yet; too soon.

--Richard

https://www.richardhell.com/

All the trax on Flash Light are “best tracks”

will definitely be interesting to get Richard Hell's thoughts whenever he's ready ...

All the trax on Flash Light are “best tracks”

"Bomb" is not very good. I'm especially fond of the ballads "Song" and "One Time at Sundown".

Also, “Pillow” on “The Wonder” is a jewel.

will definitely be interesting to get Richard Hell's thoughts whenever he's ready ...

Was the man in thrall to INXS or Prince when he made The Wonder? "Shimmer" is pure pastiche.

Been listening to 'Around' and 'Warm and Cool', on youtube, both absolutely great. Wonder if they'll get reissued.

There's an excellent fan-made compilation on Slsk called "The Night Is Brief (1991-2011)" that has 11 tracks culled from various sources. A nice final statement, ILXmail me for a copy if you can't find it:

The 62
Fever
The Hawk
Joshua Fought the Battle of Jericho
Cold Irons Bound
Leaves
Plant Jam
Spiritual (with the Kronos Quartet)
Mistakes (with Television)
Only
Meadow

Never knew Tom Verlaine had a solo career. Listening now. Cover is really quite good. Sounds dancy, New Wavy, Cure-ish, all in a good way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yF45FirgZFo

Wow, thanks Tyler!

what is the TV record with ... the least amount of reverb on the drums?

The original mix of his eponymous album - it was accidentally released on the very first pressing of the Collector's Choice Music CD reissue. This was corrected on a re-press, and IIRC the rare first pressing was only shipped (accidentally) for pre-orders that were made directly with Collector's Choice.

I should say I *think* it has the least amount of reverb of any Verlaine album. I haven't compared it to the others, but the mix Bob Clearmountain made for the same album after Elektra rejected Verlaine's original mix definitely had more reverb.

How can you tell which CD is which mix? Discogs entry is vague.

The artwork wasn't changed, so you actually need to look at the pressing or mould code displayed near the hub of the disc itself, which kind of makes it a pain.

I don't hear Verlaine as beholden to a lot of reverb on the drums, but he obviously liked a snare sound that snapped.

Hey Tyler, a while back you posted a previously uncirculated soundboard recording from 1981, and track 8 was listed as "unknown." I believe that's "Shemp," which was played at other shows - here's an example from 1982 where it was introduced as a new song:

https://soundcloud.com/tom-verlaine-1982-nyc/03-shemp

"Like many NYC booksellers, we knew Tom from the dollar carts at the Strand — always courteous, friendly, and fastidious in his ritual book hunting. His taste and scope were all his own, and he would gladly hand over titles he thought others could use, just as he would graciously accept finds that other eyes scouted for him. In hopefully the same collegial spirit, it is our distinct pleasure to announce the first of many waves of his massive (50,000) book collection being redispersed to the readers and dealers of his city at our monthly garage sale this weekend — and to accommodate the sheer volume, we have doubled our hours, staffing, and space for the occasion — teaming up on the whole affair with @capitolhillbooks and renting our neighboring garage at 541 Greene as an additional sale space for this weekend only. Prices will be LOW and discounts HEAVY for those looking to wheel away books by the box. There will be much more of this collection to follow, and hopefully Tom’s books will populate many of our fellow bookstore’s shelves as well as ours soon — stay tuned for more announcements and events as we whittle away at this mountainous collection."

https://www.brooklynvegan.com/tom-verlaines-television-massive-book-collection-being-sold-at-nyc-garage-sales/?fbclid=IwAR3olOunPq64L-5qB7HUD0OQZ24PlWfpqhCVZhF0Qul4nmfla_oAzq7JDGI

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/09/arts/music/tom-verlaine-television-archives.html

Nice!

Wonder what they are doing with the 72 amps?

Thx loved that

very cool, hopefully some of the unreleased stuff will be put out properly... a television rarities set seems like a no brainer.

I understand artists desire not to release unfinished work but I still shuddered when they said they destroyed most of the tapes.

Granted, the tapes themselves you own them. But the magic on those tapes?

so TV's final album is withheld from the archive but not destroyed? what is its status exactly?

The in-progress fourth Television album? I think Verlaine never recorded vocals.

i'd heard that too. i'd still love to hear it.

Some notable items found by Koether and Derivaz are not being transferred to the library, like recordings from Television’s unfinished fourth album from around 2007 — Verlaine was not satisfied, and eventually lost interest in the project.

main thing I'm hoping to hear are the 1976 demos Television recorded for Arista (produced by Allen Lanier of BÖC!). Never been bootlegged afaik.

While I understand that this is consistent with how Verlaine was, it was still sad to read this -

Koether said she first noticed signs of frailty around 2019. Although she and Verlaine lived in separate apartments in the same building in Chelsea, Koether was working in Germany early in the Covid-19 pandemic, when he complained of an unspecified illness. When she saw him again in summer 2021, he was “like a skeleton,” Koether said, and he grew too weak to play. He avoided doctors.

“He was in terrible pain and total denial,” Koether recalled.

So, Verlaine had family money, yes? Publishing or whatever couldn't have sustained him all those years.

Discussed somewhere (possibly in this thread) but he may have received large advances in the 80s which funded an apartment purchase. These were the days when labels were hurling money around like confetti so it's an entirely possible scenario.

Did he release any albums of instrumentals other than Warm & Cool? I liked that one.

If so, how are they?

Around is instrumental and in the same vein as Warm and Cool. I like it!

https://www.discogs.com/master/173079-Tom-Verlaine-Around?srsltid=AfmBOoqXIntkvHzb_0GiNcA-kWBZZ8aLLLT0_h_x9snRw0WW6-g4D_VQ

Verlaine probably netted some decent paydays off Bowie's cover of "Kingdom Come" on Scary Monsters.

Yes, that would have earned quite a bit.

Pretty sure he owned that place in Chelsea outright, a smart move taking care of that when he was younger. Those apartments are worth close to a million bucks now.

richard hell also bought his apartment back then. those tv guys were on the ball.

One of the guys involved in this is Kevin Parks, curator of the Music and Recorded Sound Division at the Library for the Performing Arts. I talked to him very briefly over the summer at Lincoln Centrer on Library Day about the recent acquisition of the Wayne Shorter collection. Later on I looked him up and saw that he was a composer in his own right and had previously been a music professor.

Does anyone have a gift link for the nyt piece?

just add the link to archive.ph