Here are some recent photos of myself: Do I look old? Do I look unhappy? Do I look like I miss the past? Do I look ancient? Do I look as if I am in good health? Do I look like I have nothing to do? Do I look bitter? Do I look like I care? The 2nd from the right picture is me in front of my high school, an all science school called Stuyvesant, located on 15th St., East. I was in the last graduating class where there were no girls. There were no girls in Stuyvesant high school till 1970 – when they had 6 freshmen girls. To get into Stuyvesant 20,000 people would take a test for the 240 people that they could except as freshmen. Do I look like I miss being in Television? I dont. Just look at them now – how long can Tom keep it up? I plan on living to age 120, and when I set an aim for myself I achieve it. I am still an indispensable part of Television – I am on all the records including Marquee Moon. Let me tell you a little story about the recording of Marquee Moon. Tom wanted to make something like a live album but in the studio. I thought he was an idiot, because if he wanted a live cheaply made record we couldve set up microphones anywhere – instead we used Phil Ramones own studio on 48th St. and we hired Andy Johns to coproduce the record with Tom. And it came the day before set the drums up and put some of his own playing on tape. The next day we had a 2 oclock start but he didnt show up until 4, and then offered to play us the drums he had recorded – it sounded just like John Bonham, and although I liked it, we all agreed it would take up too much space, and Andy nearly quit to go back to England because he said thats my trademark if you dont want that why the hell did you hire me? We said Andy, we hired you because you of recorded almost every classical rock guitarists that exists – and you are an excellent engineer – thats why, because you recorded Jimmy Page, Clapton, The Who etc. After we had recorded a basic I told Andy and Tom that I could duplicate exactly anything that I played, whereas Tom played more abstractly, and could never do the same solo twice. I could and they didnt believe me – so I asked them to give me a shot and I doubled my parts on Venus do Milo and they were stunned and suddenly wanted me to double everything. I didnt think that was a good idea because the talent that I had should not go on everything, although the solo on Elevation was very well thought out and I recorded it twice, and there is one tiny little separation at the very end of the solo, but I had written the solo thinking of the perfect radio guitar solo and I wanted it to start in the middle of the fret board and go all the way down to the absolute bottom and then work its way back up to the top of the fret board. On guiding light I doubled the solo but at the end I stacked 8 tracks of my guitar playing the same theme. It would never have the force that it has if I had just done it once. Where Tom wanted a document of the songs, I had to figure out a way to make it into a record in a real studio that could not be duplicated live – it could, but the record would stand as something different, and a great deal of that difference is my own talent. Whereas Tom might have a general idea for his solos but every take was different, I actually wrote mine to exact specifications. The solo on See No Evil is only one guitar track but the entire solo was built note for note. Live, once in a while I would play something different, but it never stood up to the recorded solos – so I usually played them as they exist on the record. There was one other thing that I did that no one else did or even thought of. Knowing that Andy Johns was an engineering genius, whenever I was sitting in the control room I would ask Andy about the signal path. I was as meticulous in my questioning as to literally ask every time he turned a knob – what it was that he was doing. Finally he got fed up and turned to me and said, I can either do my job or I can teach you but you are paying by the hour for the studio and I would like to get my work done. I said, Andy, I have put myself in charge of finding out exactly what you are doing with our sound, and therefore you must do both. Tom is busy figuring out which song to do next and he hasnt paid attention to the microphones or the preamps or anything connected with the engineering – I have taken that task upon myself, and thats just how its going to be. So after a couple of days Andy got used to me asking Angie started to enjoy teaching me little tricks and demonstrating stuff that he didnt use with Television but that I found helpful much later on. I can honestly say that most of what I know about engineering comes from Andy Johns directly. So here I am – healthy and of sound mind. I know that I sometimes go off the rails but thats the price of genius/madness. Do I miss being in a band named Television that I was a founding member of, and the answer would be yes. But if you ask me if I would like to be in a band called Television with a Tom Verlaine in it, I would have to decline. We could get along but there was always a tension in friction between us, and I was glad when I left, and I am still happy. I hope they tour nonstop forever, because I got the ball rolling in 1973 and it is now 2014. I actually still like playing those songs including Marquee Moon but I dont miss Toms laziness and sense of entitlement. I have no regrets and I do not have remorse of conscience. I decided to create a future that turned out to be fully realized. How many people get to be in bands that change the very nature of how people experience rock music? When U2 was inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame, Bono said that he was ashamed that they were being inducted before Television, but we only recorded 2 albums before disbanding, while all the bands that used to open for us developed real careers. But sometimes a debut album is enough to seal the fate. Hendrix, The Doors, Traffic, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Television, Procul Harem, and so many more have delivered astounding initial releases that change the way people think about rock n roll. I am of the opinion that Marquee Moon will still be considered virile and potent when the entire impact of Nirvana has been forgotten and paved over. Ahmed Erdagan once gave us a compliment, while we were auditioning for Atlantic Records. I was going to the bathroom when I overheard him tell Jerry Wexler, who really wanted to sign the band, Jerry, I Cant Sign This Band… This Is Not Earth Music. Oh,how right he was.--Richard Lloyd.
Posted on: Sat, 02 Aug 2014 03:42:00 +0000
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