That same year (1973), after a disastrous string of gigs in Florida, the New York Dolls were no more. But by then, a whole new scene had developed. It was largely sparked by two Virginia boarding school dropouts Richard Meyers and Tom Miller. The duo were very different people, united by a mutual love of French 19th century poets. Meyers was drawn to New York in 1967 by the literary scene, while Miller was drawn slightly later by his interest in New York as the home of the Velvet Underground, John Coltrane and Albert Ayler. Miller had already been writing and performing acoustic songs, but the were inspired by the New York Dolls. "Me and Tom went together to see the New York Dolls at the Mercer Arts Center--and the Dolls had a lot to do with me wanting to do a band," said Meyers. "There was just so much more excitement in rock 'n' roll than sitting at home writing poetry." By the fall of 1972 they acquired drummer Billy Ficca, and old friend of Miller's from Delaware, and became the Neon Boys. Meyers changed his surname to Hell, and Miller to Verlaine. Verlaine believed the excitement in good music came from the rhythm guitar being featured way up front, like the mid-sixties British bands The Who, the Kinks, the Stones and the Yardbirds. For a brief period, Miller and Meyers shared the same commitment to the garageband sound. By April 1973 they had already recorded six tracks, including Hell's "That's All I Know Right Now" and "Love Comes In Spurts." Verlaine played both lead and rhythm guitar. Songs about teenage angst with noisy guitars. In order to play the songs live, they needed another guitarist, and placed an ad in Creem that said, "Wanted: Rhythm guitarist. Talent not necessary." Douglas Colvin (later known as Dee Dee Ramone) and Chris Stein (later of Blondie) auditioned, "but I guess they didn't possess the sufficient 'no talent,' or whatever," said Richard Lloyd. Chris Stein had just begun playing with Debbie Harry in the Stillettoes, but thought the Neon Boys songs were too fast and brutal for his tastes. For nearly a year, the Neon Boys were in limbo. Finally Terry Ork offered to let the band rehearse in his China Town loft and support the band if they accepted Los Angeles transplant and hustler Richard Lloyd as their guitarist. They renamed themselves Television (pictured above). The two erstwhile leaders decided that onstage alter egos were in order. Miller became Verlaine, and Meyers turned to Hell. "One thing I wanted to bring back to rock 'n' roll was the knowledge that you invent yourself," said Hell. Hell already had his look down -- leather jackets, torn T-shirts and short spiky hair. Anti-glam, it recalled Rimbaud, Artaud, and a character in Truffaut's 400 Blows. It was the origin of what was to become the Punk style. "That's why I changed my name, why I did all the clothing style things, haircut, everything. . . . That is the ultimate message of the New Wave: if you just amass the courage that is necessary, you can completely invent yourself. You can be your own hero, and once everybody is their own hero, then everybody is gonna be able to communicate with each other on a real basis rather than a hand-me-down set of societal standards." Now they needed a place where they could be seen every week, like the New York Dolls had with the Mercer Arts Center, which had crumbled to the ground in August 1973. In March 1974, Verlaine and Lloyd were walking towards Chinatown and came upon a place that the owner was outside fixing up. They asked Hilly Crystal to let them try out a weekly series at his Bowery bar, called CBGB-OMFUG (Country, Bluegrass, Blues, and Other Music for Uplifting Gourmandizers). When he asked them what kind of music they played, they responded with "A little rock, a little country, a little blues, a little bluegrass . . . " said Lloyd. Television ended up playing every Sunday night for six months. They became popular enough that Crystal inaugurated a 'Rock only' policy in December. CBGBs soon became a testing ground for other new groups like the Stillettoes(Blondie), the Ramones, the Dictators, the Heartbreakers, Suicide, Rocket From the Tombs(Peru Ubu), the Dead Boys, and the Talking Heads. Fellow poet Patti Smith (pictured below) joined Television for a shared a five day residency at Max's Kansas City in August. 
While Television had recorded at least a half dozen songs, including "I Don't Care," "Change Your Channels," and "Fuck Rock & Roll," Patti Smith was the first to release a single -- a feminized "Hey Joe" backed with the autobiographical "Piss Factory," recorded in June 1974. She had already published two books of poetry, written for Creem and Rolling Stone, and worked in theater with Sam Shephard. She gave Television their first major write-up in the October issue of Rock Scene, with a two-page feature entitled "Learning to Stand Naked." The Patti Smith Group didn't play CBGBs (pictured below) until March 1975, sharing a two-month residency with Television. McLaren returned to New York from the Florida debacle in the middle of the Smith/Television residency, and especially loved Richard Hell, and his recent composition, "(I Belong to the) Blank Generation." He tried to persuade Hell to front the still developing group he had back home, but Hell was already fighting with Verlaine over the leadership of Television, and was too old and proud to be manipulated. "I just thought Richard Hell was incredible," said McLaren. "Again, I was sold another fashion victim's idea . . . this look, this image of this guy, this spiky hair, everything about it -- there was no question that I'd take it back to London. By being inspired by it, I was going to imitate it and transform it into something more English." McLaren already had what he needed, having seen a musical subculture develop overnight that was completely self-generated, mutually supportive, yet potentially commercial, that radiated "intelligence, speed, being connected to the moment. I had these images that I came back with, it was like Marco Polo, or Walter Raleigh. These are the things I brought back: the image of this distressed, strange thing called Richard Hell. And this phrase, "the blank generation." Island Records offered Television an opportunity to record some songs for a possible album, to be co-produced by Richard Williams and Brian Eno. When Verlaine refused to record any Hell-penned songs, even the ever-popular "Blank Generation," it was the last straw. Hell stayed for two more weeks, and played on the demos, which included "Prove It," "Venus De Milo," "Marquee Moon," "Double Exposure" and "Friction." David Bowie and Bryan Ferry were attending gigs and spreading the word. But Hell left to form the Heartbreakers with former New York Dolls Johnny Thunders and Jerry Nolan, and Verlaine, unhappy with the sound of the demos, decided the band needed more work. They added bassist Fred Smith and their live shows exploded like a supernova. But rather than the spiky, short creations of the past, the band became more improvisational, with jazz and psychedelic influences. 
"Marquee Moon" extended beyond ten minutes, and "Poor Circulation" and "Breakin' In My Heart" were also lengthened. "Little Johnny Jewel" was also expansive in structure. Verlaine decided to release it as their first single, starting on side A and continuing on side B. It was probably their least commercial song, and Richard Lloyd quit the band in frustration. Peter Laughner eagerly came in from Cleveland to fill in. He had recorded a recent show Television had played at the Piccadilly Penthouse in Cleveland, and knew all the songs. Cleveland was the only other city besides New York to continue Detroit's legacy in underground music. Peter Laughner was the key figure, having formed Cinderella's Revenge, which broke up in 1973, and most significantly, Rocket From the Tombs. Though they were only together from June 1974 to July 1975, they managed to write three of American punk's most potent anthems -- "Sonic Reducer" (later recorded by the Dead Boys), "Final Solution" and "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" (both recorded by Pere Ubu). Other important bands in the scene were the Mirrors, The Electric Eels, and later Friction and Devo. These bands are fully documented in Clinton Heylin's From the Velvets to the Voidoids: A Pre-Punk History for a Post-Punk World. Meanwhile, The Patti Smith Group became the first of the New York bands to release an album. Signed to Arista by Clive Davis, they recorded in the summer of 1975 with producer John Cale, who urged them to thoroughly think through all of their songs. "Land" was expanded into a tour de force with Smith incorporating William Burroughs' cut-up methods, stream-of-consciousness raps in which Smith surrendered herself to a "sea of possibilities" until she felt like she was in a trance, or even channeling the ghost of Jimi Hendrix, whose Electric Ladyland Studio they were using. "On the last take it was obvious that I was being told what I wanted to know about Hendrix's death . . . I felt like it was The Exorcist . . . I said 'How did I die . . . I, I tried to walk thru light' . . . and it ended up with 'in the sheets, there was a man' -- it really frightened me." Horses was released to rave reviews in the fall of 1975. (Click on More Punk To Continue) |
