Richard Hell's "Time"

 

Richard Hell's Time

Tosh Berman on Richard Hell's "What Just Happened"

 

Tosh on Richard Hell's "What Just Happened"

"I Had A Perfectly Wonderful Evening, But This Wasn't It" by Tosh Berman

 

"I Had A Perfectly Wonderful Evening, But This Wasn't It" by Tosh Berman

My Favorite Albums of All Time (Part 2)

 

My Favorite Albums of All Time (Part 2)

Tom Verlaine by Tosh Berman

 

Tom Verlaine by Tosh Berman: read it here.

The Important Albums from 1977 for Tosh

 

1977 was my most miserable year, yet, the music was fantastic.  There was a division between older rock music and the current music of that year.   I was totally into ground-level Zero, in that 1977 became Year-One for my music.  -Tosh Berman

"Peter and the Wolves" by Adele Bertei (Smog Viel)

 

ISBN: 9780578639437

This small gem of a book is superb.  Adele Bertei's memoir of her brief life with (now) legendary Cleveland musician Peter Laughner is a very heartfelt look at their friendship. Bertei, after this time, became a member of the original No Wave band The Contortions and worked with Tears for Fears as well as Whitney Houston.  Laughner was in the classic band Pere Ubu and a key figure in the music scene out of Cleveland, Ohio.  One of those present that is felt through the music and the intensity of those times.  Bertei, in this brief but powerful writing, captures the essence of discovering music, narcotics, and social drinking.  At the time, she was a fellow musician and a member of Peter's band, 'Peter and the Wolves.' There are no cliches, only the strong characterizations of Laughter and the introduction to the world of CBGB's - all captured by Bertei's stark but descriptive prose.  Ninety-three pages long and not a wasted word. Along with Patti Smith's "Just Kids," Richard Hell's "I Dreamed I Was A Very Clean Tramp," Chris Stamey's "A Spy in the House of Loud," Richard Lloyd's "Everything is Combustible." Duncan Hannah's "Twentieth-Century Boy, you can add "Peter and the Wolves" as another classic literature regarding the punk years.  

Tosh's Journal: October 2 (Richard Hell, Wallace Stevens, Jack Parsons, ...

TOSH’S JOURNAL (Richard Hell, Wallace Stevens, Jack Parsons, & Graham Greene)

October 2

“I’ve had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn’t it.” This evening was me wandering around the ground floor of the Shinjuku station with my eyes closed and just having the crowd pull me in the direction of not my choice. For once, I didn’t want to be conscious of where I was going, and closing my eyes at the point when everyone is leaving the station after the trains arrived was an excellent way to look for direction.

I opened my eyes at the staircase that leads one to the east exit of the station, and I felt “human nature is like water. It takes the shape of its container.” So this is where I’m, and this is the direction I should take. I walked up the stairs and came upon a series of neon lights. It was close to 8 in the evening, and I found myself at the Kinokuniya Bookstore in Shinjuku-Dori. Without a thought in my head, I found myself on the sixth floor in the English books section. It seemed that they had every edition of Graham Greene’s “Ways of Escape,” and I found this passage in the book: “Writing is a form of therapy; sometimes I wonder how all those who do not write, compose, or paint can manage to escape the madness, melancholia, the panic, and fear which is inherent in a human situation.” I have to say he makes a good point. As I read on, among the crowd there, I came upon another quotation: “But it is impossible to go through life without trust; that is to be imprisoned in the worst cell of all, oneself.” Alas, that is true, but I can only find solitude and happiness when I’m, or what one calls, “oneself.”

I’m stranded. As a fellow spy, Graham knows that the world of solitude is the only place one can feel at home. Happy at home? Happiness is an illusion, and I don’t believe in magic unless it’s connected to Jack Parsons, a fellow traveler of pleasure. To project oneself by the power of the mind and imagination is not that different from taking an object and making it go to outer space.

“Death is the mother of beauty. Only the perishable can be beautiful, which is why we are unmoved by artificial flowers.” The great insurance executive Wallace Stevens wrote that, and he’s correct, but then again, has he heard of Shinjuku? Artifice is death, but it’s imagined by someone alive, and there lies the irony of feeling alive and being attached to the real world. If one can stay conscious of both the artificial and the natural world, then you can beat the odds of not getting lost. But once you fully accept one over the other, then you’re a lost soul. “It’s great to be anywhere as a writer. It saves you from implication in the ugliness of the place and justifies your being there. You can spend all day jerking off as long as you describe it well.” That statement alone is why I’m such a massive fan of Richard Hell’s work. All my life, I have lived on the margins of society, and even though I can touch the world, it is a landscape that doesn’t want anything to do with me. The beauty of rejection is similar to wander around Shinjuku. As long as they keep the neon lights on, I can exist in one’s own cell. - Tosh Berman

Richard Lloyd Everything is Combustible on Tosh Talks

My little commentary on a very fine memoir by Richard Lloyd, regarding his years with the band Television, as well as a great history of the CBGB's decade in NYC.   Excellent book.  If you have the chance please subscribe to my YouTube channel.  Thanks, Tosh Berman

"Ork Records New York New York" on Tosh Talks

A new "Tosh Talks" episode on the greatness of the "Ork Records: New York New York" (Numero Group) vinyl box set with book.

"Everything Is Combustible" by Richard Lloyd (Beech Hill Publishing Company)

ISBN: 978-0-9976937-6-8 Beech Hill Publishing Company

The band Television means a lot to me.  Even before I heard a  note of their music, they had great importance to me.  I saw a photo of the band when Richard Hell was in it, and I was intrigued by their visuals.   I liked the haircuts and their clothing.  It was no frills and all attitude.  I must have been around 18 or 19 when Television hit my consciousness.  Not long after, but for sure after Hell left the band, I purchased their single on Ork Records, Little Johnny Jewel" at my local punk rock record store, Bomp Records in the Valley.  I heard a sound that matched their vision.   To this day, and we're talking 40 years later, Television is still a mystery to me. 

 I have read a lot of books regarding the New York music explosion of the 1970s, including "Please Kill Me" (an excellent book) and various memoirs by musicians of that period (all of them are pretty good).  Still, what is Television?  And on top of that, who is Tom Verlaine"   Richard Lloyd who was one of the remarkable and fascinating characters that came out of the  "Please Kill Me" book and even more important, a brilliant guitarist in Television.  Verlaine and Lloyd were the bookends, and Billy Ficca (drums) and Fred Smith roamed between those two.   Verlaine was and is the primary composer for Television (Hell, when he was in the band, shared songwriting duties, and is brilliant), but that group is constructed like a piece of architecture.  Lloyd was part of the building blocks to build this magnificent sound that is Television. 

"Everything Is Combustible" is a remarkable memoir, due that Lloyd is a good prose writer and a fascinating guy.   Very straightforward, yet metaphysical in his approach to his life, and even with his addictions.   He has a mind like a scientist, who wants to analyze the things and people in front of him or in his sights.   One of my favorite parts of the book is when Lloyd tries to look at his drug addiction clearly and showed frustration when a medical doctor tries to get him to a 12 step program.  At the time, Lloyd wasn't interested in quitting drugs; he just wanted to know in detail the nature of addiction and how it affects the brain/body.  In such fashion, he reminds me of William S. Burroughs. To investigate the 'unknown' and somehow try to make it more 'known.'  

Lloyd writes his memoir as if it's an original science paper.  When he attaches to something, he doesn't let go, until Lloyd masters whatever he desires.   His guitar obsession is singular and it's his devotion to the instrument that made him such a remarkable musician.   He's egotistical in a sense he knows what he can do, yet his appreciation of other artists are quite open and in its way, a strong focus on him as well.  He casually knew Jimi Hendrix as a teenager.  I gather he wanted to know what made him such an iconic and fantastic musician.  He doesn't look at Hendrix as a fanboy but like a scientist studying in a laboratory.   For the mystery part, that is still a mystery to me.  The reader gets facts regarding the inner-workings of Television, but what made Tom Verlaine be such an odd fellow?  Richard Hell in his memoir wrote about Verlaine, and they were great friends, yet, I didn't feel Hell could penetrate the mystery that's Tom Verlaine.  Lloyd doesn't get any closer to Verlaine's character, but you do get great stories about him not using luggage, but laundry or store bags to keep his clothing.  The fact is Verlaine is a very strange being and somewhat guarded.  One gathers he is a control freak and wants to be in control of Television, but what was it in his background that turn him out that way?  Lloyd doesn't answer that question, nor do other memoirists/music historians. 

"Everything Is Combustible" is a must-read for those who are fascinated with the CBGB's New York rock world.  For whatever reason, or what was breathed in that Manhattan air, concerning that generation of musicians, they left a lot of great literature for us to read (and music too) and for us fans to comment on. Lloyd's book is pretty wonderful in that sense.  Superb read. 

"Massive Pissed Love: Nonfiction 2001-2014" by Richard Hell

ISBN: 978-1-59376-627-6  Soft Skull Press

Richard Hell can't do no wrong in my world.  He's a man of great taste (even though I do not agree with some of it), and one of the few who can mix making music and writing very well.   This is his first collection of essays, reviews, and nonfiction writing.  It's a wonderful way to spend time with someone, without actually sitting across from Mr. Hell.   He's a superb prose writer, who reads the world of cinema, literature, the visual arts and music quite well.  His observations of life in New York City right after 9/11 is even unique, in the way he talks about how the city smelled during that time.  His writing actually affects all my senses.  If he ever wanted to be a food/restaurant critic, I'm sure he would be great for that as well.

I think a lot of people when they hear the name "Richard Hell" - explicit images come up.  The thing is, Richard can articulate who he is, and why he likes a certain work of art, or why he does not like it.   I can imagine him being a distinguished humanities professor.  He understands why people create, and he's sensitive to the process of doing art.   I recommend "Massive Pissed Love" to those who know Richard through his music and his role in the New York punk world.  But beyond that, Hell is just naturally a very skilled writer.  On one level, he's the other side of the coin when it comes to Patti Smith.  It's interesting to read both of their memoirs right after the other - because in a way it deals with the same subject matter - and both are very unique and clear-headed prose stylists.  Essential book for your collection.

- Tosh Berman

December 13, 2014

December 13, 2014

I have heard of the band “Television” and was an immediate fan, even though I never heard their music at the time.  I remember seeing there was a photograph of Tom Verlaine and Richard Hell, around 1974, in Andy Warhol’s magazine “Interview.” I was struck at first by their haircut, and second, their clothing.   I also liked how they posed themselves in what looks like a couch.  There appeared to be something intimate between them, but I didn’t feel it was sexual, but more of a common interest in one’s beauty.   History has indicated that they would not remain together, but alas, those series of moments were blissful.  Along with Interview magazine, my father also had a subscription to The Village Voice, which at the time was a mirror to anything that was interesting in the world.  Which in two words was: New. York.

Just by looking at a series of images of the band over the ensuing months, made me make-up my own soundtrack to what they may sound like.  I presume they were loud, with a lot of guitars.  By reading the various reviews in The Voice, I couldn’t get a realistic idea of what they actually sounded like - all the descriptions were quite poetic and there was no clear reference to other types of music.  I figured they were on the avant-garde side with melody.   Once my father was finished with the issue, I would take it and cut out the pictures of Television, or specifically Tom Verlaine.   I was (and still am) a huge Richard Hell fan, but Verlaine was (and still, to this day) a mystery to me.   Numerous people I have met over the years have commented that he’s a strange man.  They never use the word ‘eccentric’ but that he was very ghost-like, and very much in his own manner, a perfectionist.  He was likewise a poet, and the fact he changed his name from Miller to Verlaine, while the other brother-in-arms, had his name changed to Hell.  Since I read French poetry, I immediately got the connection between them and Paul Verlaine/ Arthur Rimbaud.  At the time, I thought that was such a perfect thing to be done in a rock n’ roll context.   The other thing I liked about them was their song titles - specifically “Blank Generation, ” and “Little Johnny Jewel.” I tried to imagine what it sounded like just by reading the two song titles over and over again.  As the poet Heinrich Heine commented: “Where words leave off, music begins. ”

It may have been in 1976, that I purchased the 45 rpm single of “Little Johnny Jewel: Parts 1 & 2” on Ork Records.   Seven minutes or so of perfect bliss.  I have never taken heroin, but what I have heard is that once you shoot up, especially the first time, you get a sense of warmth.  I get that by just hearing his voice, and the scratching guitars building to an intense final.  At the time, I thought it was the greatest piece of music ever on vinyl.  It was cinematic, in that it placed images in my head.   The song itself is sketchy, in that it reminds me how Thelonious Monk played with a melody. Just by outlining it, like it was a pencil drawing on a piece of paper.  Or maybe by tracing the melody through tracing paper.  It’s transparent, and the opening words: “Little Johnny Jewel/he’s really cool/ had no decisions,” kicked the door down, and I’m wondering if I’m on the same landscape as Verlaine and company.   I’m in another world.  That is exactly what i like about art in general.  I want to remove myself to a place that is on another plane, but I want to view my body down below.

At first, “all I really want is enough to live on, a little house in the country … and a tree in the garden with seven of my enemies hanging in it.” But that all changed when I heard Tom Verlaine, Richard Lloyd, Billy Ficca, and Fred Smith (who replaced Hell).   Around the same time, I also purchased Richard Hell’s EP, which was magnificent as well.  So in 1977, my life tragically changed, but I now have the soundtrack to the road to hell (no pun intended) and back.

Television /Ork's Loft 1974

Television with Richard Hell, Richard Lloyd, Billy Ficca and Tom Verlaine. Recorded at Terry Ork's loft sometime in 1974.    Excellent.

Richard Hell's Memoir "I Dreamed I Was A Very Clean Tramp"

The beauty of the memoir is not only the writer's life, but also the placement of the story.   For me Richard Hell's great book “I Dreamed I Was A Very Clean Tramp” is not only about Hell's life, but also a great New York City narrative.  With out the actual city New York, there would be no N.Y. Punk Rock.  Even though Richard Hell met Tom Verlaine somewhere else, they needed Manhattan to do what they had to do.  And the same goes for the NY Dolls, Patti Smith, The Velvet Underground and for god's sake The Lovin' Spoonful!

Many years ago, via the pages of Andy Warhol's Interview Magazine there was an image by Christopher Makos of Tom Verlaine and Richard Hell sitting close together on a couch, who were in a band called Television.  The image of the two and what they were wearing really caught my imagination.  From that image I became a fan of the band, without hearing one note.  I had imagined what Television sounded like by the various reviews in the underground and hip presses at the time.  I knew it was guitar music and I presumed the tunes were wild yet restrained like their clothing.  Some years later I finally heard the first Television album and the sound was even more remarkable than my imagination.  Around that time (maybe later..) I heard Hell's single that came out on Ork Records and I thought “Oh my god this is great as well.”

Ever since those series of moments, Hell has never failed me.  At the time I thought of Hell as the male version of Patti Smith.  Both were in poetry and books and they captured that poetic rock n' roll look. But all of that is just the surface.  After reading Patti's “Just Kids” and Hell's book, the city of New York is the same, but the personalities are different.  But both of course are extremely over-the-top talents.

What makes Hell so unique is his love for the written word, and I think that is what kicked him to do music.  “Blank Generation,” Love Comes in Spurts” and so forth are classic texts set to music.  A combination of jazz jive with a Beat's love of the moment.   His memoir goes into his songs, but also the faces and names that surrounded him and his creative work.  To this very day, Richard Hell is a remarkable looker, and he knows by instinct the power of the visual and how it would affect his medium.  Which is rock and rock is visual as well as poetic.

The stuff I loved about this book is how he maps out Manhattan with bookstores as pin-drops in various areas of the island.  It is a world that is totally closed in, but with great bookstores serving the imagination and the fuel that lighted the music.  I visited that city and went to CBGB's in the late 70's.  Richard Hell was on the stage, David Johansen was near the entrance talking to someone sounding like a Dead End Kid, and then walks in Johnny Rotten.  How perfect was that for a visitor from Los Angeles who is a Punk Rock fan!  This memoir serves the same hunger and excitement for me.

One thing that stays in my mind is how little one knows Tom Verlaine.  Hell writes about him with great love and horror disappointment at the same time.  A love/hate, but I never get a clear picture of what makes this guitar god click.  And it is not only in this book, but in all books about this period and series of characters.  Verlaine seems to be a ghost in every narrative.  Will there be a day when he will write his own memoir?  Now that can be interesting?

“I Dreamed I Was A Very Clean Tramp” is Hell still keeping the high standards of his other books, which by the way are excellent.  The memoir is very focused on the punk rock years, which I think will please the fan out there, but hopefully there will be a second part of this memoir.   Hell is very much of the 20th Century Dandy, and his outlook in life is basically to find pleasure, and his taste in women are excellent.  For those who read and loved “Please Kill Me” this book is an essential part of the big story.

  “I Dreamed I Was...” is the flip side of Patti Smith's memoir, and its a perfect companion piece to that book.  Both books to me are a love letter to what was New York, and how that city played in both artist's world and inspiration.  So yeah I love Richard Hell and I love his memoir.

"Love Goes To Buildings on Fire" by Will Hermes

"Love Goes to Buildings On Fire" is not only one of my favorite songs by Talking Heads, but it's also a very warm and fascinating book by Will Hermes.  Focusing on the years 1973 to 1977, in New York City, is a combination social history and a love message to the artists of that era - who really defined NYC as a creative force.  A place that touched greatness from George Maciunas (one of the founders of Fluxus) to Patti Smith to Grandmaster Flash to New York Dolls to Philip Glass to Richard Hell to Suicide to Bruce Springsteen to....and beyond.

The first "other" book one would think of is "Please Kill Me," but this is different because Hermes pulls the camera back to expose all that was happening in NYC in those years.  So here you get a mixture of Salsa, disco, punk, and avant-garde jazz/classical artists.  Great snapshot of a particular time and thank (whoever) there are at least recordings that still exist.   And yeah, this book as well.

Oh and this is a galley, and the book is coming out sometime in November 2011.

The Death of Hilly Kristal

Like the late and great Tony Wilson of Factory Records fame, Hilly Kristal is important to New York City culture. He had a club in the Bowery. It was called CBGB. So super essential that it is not even funny. Tom Verlaine walked by and thought, "Hmm, this would be a great place for my band Television to play in. Patti Smith did the same. And there fore one had Television, Patti Smith Group, The Ramones, Blondie, Suicide, DNA, Talking Heads, The Heartbreakers, Richard Hell and countless others. So in other (if I may use that word again) Kristal had the brilliant idea to say "yeah" to Verlaine.

In the late 70's I went to New York for my late father's show at the Whitney. There was a party afterwards and I convince everyone to go to CBGB's to see Richard Hell. So the whole party in various cabs went to the Bowery to see Hell in a club that was the Mecca for a music lover like me.

I walked in with the party and the first person I saw there was David Johansen of the New York Dolls in deep discussion with John Lydon (Johnny Rotten). Richard Hell came on and I went 'blank.' He played "Blank Generation.' It was a perfect moment because the guy, who was an art critic for Artforum, I came in with was some leather queen who wanted someone to piss on him. My Mom said to me that Johnny Rotten was cute (she was there) and I think Dean Stockwell (forgive me Dean if my memory is wrong or failed me) passed out on the floor. And I thought 'Damn this is CBGB and this is the center of the universe. This is New York City.

I went back again to see DNA at CBGB's - and to this day I can't remember if it was on the same trip or not. But for sure I know this wasn’t the New York I visited some years ago.

So Hilly thank you for the memories. In your own way, you are also a lost boy.