“There was no one like Tom,” Patti Smith writes. “He possessed the child’s gift of transforming a drop of water into a poem that somehow begat music.”
He awoke to the sound of water dripping into a rusted sink. The streets below were bathed in medieval moonlight, reverberating silence. He lay there grappling with the terror of beauty, as the night unfolded like a Chinese screen. He lay shuddering, riveted by flickering movements of aliens and angels as the words and melodies of “Marquee Moon” were formed, drop by drop, note by note, from a state of calm yet sinister excitement. He was Tom Verlaine, and that was his process: exquisite torment.
He lived twenty-eight minutes from where I was raised. We could easily have sauntered into the same Wawa on the Wilmington-South Jersey border in search of Yoo-hoo or Tastykakes. We might have met, two black sheep, on some rural stretch, each carrying books of the poetry of French Symbolists—but we didn’t. Not until 1973, on East Tenth Street, across from St. Mark’s Church, where he stopped me and said, “You’re Smith.
I went to see Television whenever they played, mostly to see Tom, with his pale blue eyes and swanlike neck. He bowed his head, gripping his Jazzmaster, releasing billowing clouds, strange alleyways populated with tiny men, a murder of crows, and the cries of bluebirds rushing through a replica of space. All transmuted through his long fingers, all but strangling the neck of his guitar.
He devoured poetry and dark-chocolate-covered Entenmann’s doughnuts, downed with coffee and cigarettes. Sometimes he would seem dreamy and faraway then suddenly break into peals of laughter. He was angelic yet slightly demonic, a cartoon character with the grace of a dervish. I knew him then.
Indonesia Berita Terbaru, Indonesia Berita utama
Similar News:Anda juga dapat membaca berita serupa dengan ini yang kami kumpulkan dari sumber berita lain.
Tom Verlaine Remembered by Patti Smith, Billy Idol and Music Industry: ‘The Realest Deal’Musicians are mourning Television founder and frontman Tom Verlaine, who died Saturday at the age of 73. The rock guitarist was a groundbreaking figure of the punk era, whose inventive, askew playi…
Baca lebih lajut »
Tom Verlaine of the rock band Television dies at 73Jesse Paris Smith, Patti Smith's daughter, said that Verlaine and her mother have shared years of memories that have ended up “bonding them forever.”
Baca lebih lajut »
Television Frontman Tom Verlaine Mourned by Patti Smith, Michael Stipe, Flea & More: ‘I’ve Lost a Hero’Television's Tom Verlaine is being mourned by Patti Smith, Michael Stipe, Flea and others. See their heartfelt tributes here.
Baca lebih lajut »
Patti Smith, Blondie's Chris Stein, Michael Stipe Pay Tribute to Tom Verlaine: 'I Have Lost a Hero'Patti Smith, Chris Stein, Michael Stipe, and more artists pay tribute to Tom Verlaine
Baca lebih lajut »
Tom Verlaine, Founder of Punk Group Television, Dead at 73He died “after a brief illness,” according to Jesse Paris Smith, the daughter of musician Patti Smith.
Baca lebih lajut »
Tom Verlaine, frontman for rock band Television, dead at 73Patti Smith, Billy Idol, Flea and R.E.M react to the death of punk rock guitarist Tom Verlaine.
Baca lebih lajut »