Tom Verlaine / Television Quiz:

Part Seven: For Experts

1) In several interviews Verlaine has complained about a dishonest individual who had access to the early Television demo tapes made for Island Records, and passed them around to almost every band in Great Britain.
(i) Who was this scoundrel? HINT: It was not Brian Eno. (165 points);

(ii) What was the name of the popular (in Britain) British rock group that Verlaine claims in their subsequent album release plagiarized at least a dozen ideas and lyric phrases from these Television demo tapes? (150 points)

  • a) The Move
  • b) Roxy Music;
  • c) The Soft Machine
  • d) Ultravox

2) What is Tom Velaine’s date of birth? (50 points)

  • a) February 21, 1950
  • b) December 13, 1949
  • c) July 31, 1949

3) Fill in the one word blank: Tom Verlaine was voted ‘Most blank’ by his high school class before moving to New York City in 1968? (90 points)

4) Where was Richard Lloyd born? (100 points)

  • a) Long Island, New York
  • b) Homestead Pennsylvania
  • c) Hoboken, New Jersey
  • d) Louisville, Kentucky

5(i) True or false, both Verlaine and Lloyd as late as 1993 were still using tube amplifiers? (30 points)
(ii)b) True or false, absolutely no digital technology was used in making the master tapes of 1992’s Television? (30 points)
(iii)c) Why or why not? (60 points)

6) Verlaine in a 1982 interview said: "I saw an interesting junkyard from a train about a month ago. From the window of a train it had this look to it. I always like junkyards. All this metal piled up—they’re filled with pathos, those places. Much more pathos than most of the music I’ve heard." Which Verlaine song from the album, Words From The Front, was most likely influenced by this observation? (65 points)

  • a) ‘Coming Apart’
  • b) ‘Days On The Mountain’
  • c) ‘True Story’
  • d) ‘Clear It Away’

7) Jimmy Ripp played guitar in a group that had moderate commercial success before he joined Verlaine in 1981. What group was this? (100 points)

  • a) The Gun Club
  • b) Oingo Boingo
  • c) Kid Creole and the Coconuts
  • d) The Suburbs

8) On what group in September 1988 did Verlaine play as the opening acoustic act? (HINT: One of the musicians from this group later played guitar on Verlaine’s album The Wonder)? (50 points)

  • a) The Church
  • b) The Go-Betweens
  • c) Pere Ubu
  • d) Husker Du

9) Who played piano on Tom’s first solo record on the song ‘Last Night’? (100 points)

  • a) Ivan Kral
  • b) Bruce Brody
  • c) Tom Verlaine
  • d) Brent Mydland

10) Where did Tom Verlaine very briefly attend College? (35 points)

  • a) NYU
  • b) University of Delaware
  • c) Stony Brook, New York
  • d) Erskine College, South Carolina?

11) What was the name of the first feature film for which Tom scored the music? (30 points)

  • a) "Dead Man Walking"
  • b) "Love and a .45"
  • c) "Equinox"
  • "Love At Large"

12) Television's second album, Adventure, reached what number on the UK charts? (50 points)

  • a) #2
  • b) #30
  • c) #7
  • d) #26

13) The weird organ-like sound on Adventure’s ‘The Fire’ was made by what instrument? (60 points)

14) What is the title of the one-shot, little pamphlet (27 pages) published in the UK on Tom Verlaine by John Angus that features reviews and interviews? (60 points)

PART SIXMAIN QUIZ PAGEPART EIGHT