Doom & Gloom Dispatch #18: An Eternal Adventure

Petal Motel, Lou Reed, Richard Hell & The Voidoids, Television, Wayne Shorter

compassion: a petal motel compilation for human rights

Great music, great cause. What more could you possibly need? Bandcamp Friday hits again today — March 3, 2023. Make sure to add this one to your cart.

Petal Motel has been a trusty source for cosmic sounds over the past several years and this wondrous compilation is a perfect representation of the blog’s impeccable taste. There are plenty of familiar favorites (Scott Hirsch, Golden Brown, Bobby Lee, SUSS) alongside new-to-me jammers like Duncan Park, Lifted River and Ernie Francestine — the latter’s beautiful instrumental rendering of the Dead’s “Bird Song” is one of the comp’s many high points. compassion sprawls out at more than two hours; there are plenty of wide open spaces in which to drift through. And, yeah, proceeds are going to the National Network of Abortion Funds, which is very much worth supporting.

Lou Reed - The Bottom Line Soundcheck, February 1983

Friends, I’m back on the Jokermen podcast this week to discuss Lou Reed’s Robert Quine-assisted 1983 double LP Live In Italy. Listen in! Always a pleasure — hopefully my stabs at humor and/or profundity are not incredibly annoying. Initially only released across the pond, Live In Italy still feels like a bit of a hidden gem in the Louevre; not sure if Lou just forgot about it entirely or decided it wasn’t something he wanted included in that big RCA box that came out a while back. If you haven’t checked it out or need to revisit, it’s a killer, definitely an essential chapter in the all-too-brief Reed/Quine saga. Easily accessible via streaming services, I think.

Less easily accessible is this Bottom Line tape of Lou, Quine, Fernando Saunders and Fred Maher warming up before their first live shows a few months before invading Italy. A cool document, with some interesting rarities and arrangements; songs like “The Day John Kennedy Died,” “Vicious Circle” and “A Gift” wouldn’t be played much (or at all) after ‘83. The energy level isn’t quite as high as it would get with an actual audience present, but it’s pretty high all the same. And even though Quine and Reed’s relationship was already pretty fractured at this point, it doesn’t stop Lou from praising his guitarist. “Damn!” he exclaims at the end of Quine’s typically tortured “Waves of Fear” solo. You’ll likely say the same thing when you hear it.

Richard Hell & The Voidoids - PUNK Magazine Benefit, CBGB, New York City, May 4-5, 1977

Let’s keep it Quine-y for a little while longer. Here are two short-but-sweet sets (the first one intro’d awkwardly by none other than David Johansen) from Richard Hell & The Voidoids, showing their support for the fledgling PUNK Magazine at CB’s back in 1977. A lo-fi tape, but it’s got plenty of life in it, as the twin-guitar spike of Quine and Ivan Julian propels Hell into fits of wild abandon down at the rock n roll club. If this isn’t enough time on the Bowery for you, here are Blondie’s sets from the same nights …

“At CBGB my accomplishments were known and I was a leader of the new sensibility,” Hell wrote later in his memoir I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp. “I was full of shit in many ways too, and self-important, and uneven musically, but I had endless ideas and vision that had been central to shaping everything that went into making up the culture and style, musical and otherwise, of CBGB, and naturally that music and culture excited me, since I had been responsible for originally expressing a lot of it, and just as naturally that culture liked me back. I sometimes felt like the king of the Lower East Side.”

Hey, did you know that Ivan Julian has a new record out? Swing Your Lanterns! Pretty good stuff, definitely some Voidoids-y moments (plus a lot more).

Television - The Bowery Ballroom, New York City, December 30 / December 31, 2017

From the Bottom Line to CBGB to the Bowery Ballroom — we’re taking a little tour of NYC venues past and present this week. Here, we’re headed back to TV Land with two of Television’s last New York City performances! Historic stuff. Previously uncirculated tapes, too, courtesy of longtime friend of the blog Daniel Bourque. Thank you, Dan! These shows are full of cool/interesting playing, long jams, some unusual rarities and a generally lively atmosphere — the New Year’s Eve gig in particular. Take it away, Dan!

Dan’s show notes:

These shows were meant to close out 2017 and ring in the New Year, and I have always wondered how they happened since Tom and Television were not exactly known for the jovial atmosphere they brought to the stage, nor were they – how do I put this? A party band. “Hey, you know who knows how to have a good time? Tom Verlaine!” Nevertheless, the shows were sold out and everybody seemed to be having a great time; I certainly did.

Night 1: The set is fairly standard for live performances by the band during their final years and heavily focused on songs from Marquee Moon with “1880 or so” the only song from the eponymous reunion album and nothing from Adventure. “Little Johnny Jewel,” the band’s first single, is played as an encore. Both “Persia” and “I’m Gonna Find You” which were never (as far as we know) recorded by the band appear, as does “The Man In The Backyard,” a true rarity only played a couple of times live, both solo by Verlaine and with Television. After “Persia” is played, the band pause for one of their lengthy (and frequent!) tuning sessions during which Tom comments: “Our old manager said don’t bother tuning because nobody can ever tell. But I disagree with him.”

Night 2: Tom is unusually talkative during this show after having hardly spoken to the crowd at all the previous night. Maybe it’s the just the holiday but he seems in a positively cheerful - even playful - mood much of the time. Early on he archly complains about the lights “Time for a private conversation with the lighting director” and after “1880 Or So” promises to teach the crowd a dance (!) shortly before midnight. Then during “Torn Curtain” (which is a bit messy as a result) he calls for security when a rowdy inebriated fan down front passes out, and comments afterwards “I think our unfortunate super celebratory stoner is gone.”

Like the previous night the set is very heavily weighted toward songs from Marquee Moon, with "1880 Or So” off of the eponymous reunion album the lone exception. Mid-set the band start “Friction” only to stop it abruptly then play it later as an encore. Just before midnight Tom recites a poem, then after counting down to the New Year the band play a loose cover of “Auld Lang Syne” with Eleanor Friedberger joining the band onstage and contributing some vocals. Hendrix playing “The Star-Spangled Banner” it certainly isn’t, but it’s a unique one-off and fun to hear the band play it in their very distinctive style. This is also as far as I know (maybe Patti Smith?) the only Television performance with a guest appearance by another artist. This is followed by a ragged version of “Psychotic Reaction,” a cover the band have played many times over the years. There are also a couple of unreleased songs, “Persia” and “I’m Gonna Find You” and late in the set the band play another new song, “The Eel,” which is a bluesy rocker. This, Tom points out is what he meant when he said he was going to teach the crowd a dance!

Wayne Shorter Quartet - The Village Vanguard (or Slugs?), New York City, May 1965

Another great one gone — Wayne Shorter passed away this week, and the world is a lesser place for it. A truly brilliant musician, and judging from various interviews I've read a truly brilliant mind.

"It's no great mystery about why things are the way they are," Shorter told Ben Ratliff. "Doubt, denial, fear, trepidation reinforce the artificial barriers to the real, the barriers that keep us from going into the real adventure of eternity. If you don't believe we have eternity, it doesn't matter; it's there. You'll never be bored. I think you'll always be you, and I'll always be me. When you say 'what is life?' — well, life is the one time you have an eternal adventure. Sounds like a contradiction. The one time you have an eternal adventure. I like that! It rubs against itself; it makes sparks. To me those sparks are fuel."

Yeah! Anyway, listen to some Wayne Shorter music today. There's a lot of it! I always go back to those mid-60s Blue Note sessions, which in many ways are the gold standard Blue Note sessions to me. Adventurous, soulful, experimental, groovy. And weird! Fellow musicians fondly called Wayne "Mr. Weird" — a nickname Shorter apparently liked so much that he had it stenciled on his instrument case. Here's a little rarity from that fertile period, featuring his Second Great Quintet compadres Herbie Hancock and Tony Williams, plus bassist Gary Peacock taking us into the eye of the hurricane. The Plosin site calls the recording quality "execrable" but it's not actually that bad. So long to the Newark Flash!

Photo: Francis Wolff

From The Doom & Gloom Archives

Alex Chilton - Richard Frey’s Loft, 246 Bowery, New York City, November 1, 1977

Editor’s Note: Even if you grabbed this before, this is a new transfer — much clearer!

Here’s something unusual — and uncirculated, perhaps — to get your day started. An audio verite document of the one and only Alex Chilton playing records late into the night at a pal’s loft back in ‘77. The pal was Richard Frey, a CBGB scene fixture — he hit “record” on his tape machine and captured the moment, as Chilton spins Sam the Sham, the Mindbenders, the Beatles, the Beach Boys and many more! He even plays many of the same songs twice (this may be a function of the record player, we’re not sure). It’s basically like hanging out with one of the greats for an hour or so; I enjoy the bit where Alex searches in vain for a Dylan bootleg, referring to the classic (and then very unreleased) “She’s Your Lover Now” as “the best thing he ever did.” The guy was an aficionado! Thanks to Richard for his tape and to Sebastian (you may know him for his awesome Double Decker Music Series) for digitizing this little slice of Bowery history. “Chilton blew a few fuses …” 

Also very much worth digging into — Richard’s CBGB-centric zine Tuesday Night, which was often handed out for free outside the club before and after shows. The entire run has been scanned and digitized for your reading pleasure, presenting a unique fan’s eye view of the NYC “punk” scene. Extremely cool, obviously. 

Currently Reading: This Sweet Sickness by Patricia Highsmith