When somebody turned me on to a Coltrane record around seventh grade, I took up saxophone. Tom Verlaine More Quotes by Tom Verlaine More Quotes From Tom Verlaine I recently realized that Television has influenced a lot of English bands. Echo and the Bunnymen, U2, Teardrop Explodes - it's obvious what they've listened to and what they're going for. When I was sixteen I listened to Yardbirds records and thought, "God, this is great." It's gratifying to think that people listened to Television albums and felt the same. Tom Verlaine echoes people thinking I don't think Marquee Moon was so good, y'know? Just another record. First records everybody likes a lot. Tom Verlaine records moon thinking Style to me is incidental. The British are very adept at creating it for its own sake, but the best style is incidental. John Coltrane had a style but it was totally incidental to what he was. Tom Verlaine creating style sake I told somebody in Europe I was 43. I never tell my true age. It's ridiculous that people ask. The press doesn't deserve anything but lies. Tom Verlaine europe lying people Well, I worked in a sheet metal factory once and scarred my wrist from the cuts. I found a sympathetic psychiatrist who told the draft board I was insane. We used the scars as proof of a suicide attempt. Tom Verlaine cutting insane suicide I'm not a clown but I'm not an academic either. Tom Verlaine clown academic Boogie! I hate boogie, God, I mean, not the Chicago boogie like Willie Dixon or Howlin' Wolf, but all those awful white bands. Tom Verlaine hate white mean I write a lot of more instrumental music than I do vocal music. It's because I come out of a background of playing piano and then playing sax for a number of years. I kind of got into rock backwards. A lot of guys go into rock and then get sick of it and then go into something else. I came the other way, so I've always just had a lot more stuff lying around. Tom Verlaine rocks writing lying I can't remember ever being really bored. I find life very interesting, actually. I think some other musicians are always looking for something to give them an idea, but I find I have to reject 90 percent of my ideas because they don't live up to some self-imposed standard. That's also why I don't make a record once a year. I throw so many things out, and I have to have something to say. Tom Verlaine self years thinking The whole reputation of being a rock guitar player, I could really care less about it. Still, when I hear new groups today I do occasionally hear something where I think... ahh, I've heard that lick before. Tom Verlaine rocks player thinking I always thought I was commercial. I always thought I was writing hit singles. These days, whatever's on the radio is considered commercial. People like what's on the radio, whatever it is. Tom Verlaine radio writing people People ask me this a lot, what a song's about.... I do think analyzing a song can be interesting, although it doesn't necessarily get to the point. It's a whole other side activity. I do like making a thing into pictures. If I get an abstract idea and all the words in it don't represent tangible things, I might try to take the idea and make it into a picture, create a little scene there, an image. Tom Verlaine song ideas thinking Yeah, I'd say there's probably about a couple of hundred people I admire - but that has nothing to do with what a person does themselves. That's why I never mention these things. You can read a detective novel you really like, but it had no bearing on what you do yourself, you just think, "God, how this guy wove this together!" Or you get into the energy of it. Or you see a poem which makes a great statement about sentiment, but it's not sentimental. Tom Verlaine couple people thinking I never liked mellow sounding guitar. Tom Verlaine mellow guitar I don't see us as a big media gimmick band. We don't have a cultivated appearance or anything like Kiss. Tom Verlaine band kissing media What's really fun is to write under different names. Tom Verlaine names writing fun I wonder what all those Chinese poets sound like in Chinese. I like their distilled quality. Tom Verlaine chinese quality sound All the Frank O'Hara types seem to have very little sound stuff going... it's so chatty or something. Tom Verlaine sound stuff littles I always hated jazz guitar. I loved jazz saxophone but I hated jazz guitar. If I would buy an organ trio record I would make sure I'd buy one that did not have a guitar player on it. The sound was awful! Tom Verlaine guitar player sound The song Venus de Milo, the whole subject of it is Love is a drug. Tom Verlaine venus-de-milo song love-is
