statement to them, even while unraveling poetic imagery in songs like “Friction” and “Marquee Moon.” So it shouldn’t be surprising that his offstage manner is similar. For one thing, Verlaine has more perspective on CBGB, which became something of a mecca to fans before closing in 2006. “To be honest, there’s not a lot of ‘memories’ about that spot,” he says via email. “And I never run into any of the people that played there. I do still see Patti Smith a few times a year … just did a mostly poetry show with her about a year ago. No drums, just guitar and her daughter on keyboards. [It was] very fun!” Legend holds that Television used to practice six days a week, and the interplay between Lloyd and Verlaine on Marquee Moon seems to justify the claim. “It’s basically a ‘live’ record with the mistakes patched up and some editing here and there,” Verlaine says. “Playing the record live took quite a few rehearsals! There’s a few odd chords I still have not figured out.”
ON THE RECORD
! P U N E LIST
with Dr. Lonnie Smith {BY MIKE SHANLEY}
You read City Paper’s music coverage every week, but why not listen to it too? Each Wednesday, music editor Margaret Welsh crafts a Spotify playlist with tracks from artists featured in the music section, and other artists playing around town in the coming days. {PHOTO COURTESY OF SUSAN STOCKER}
Tune in while you read, and judge for yourself whether that indie band’s guitar work is really angular, or if that singer actually sounds like Sandy Denny.
Dr. Lonnie Smith
Dr. Lonnie Smith started playing Hammond B3 organ with George Benson, and went on to become one of the best-known practitioners of what is known as soul-jazz. He’ll tear it up in Pittsburgh on Saturday, with his trio.
Find it on our music blog, FFW>>, at pghcitypaper.com
WHAT MADE YOU DECIDE THE B3 WAS YOUR INSTRUMENT? The organ is an extension of me. It has every element in the world as far as I’m concerned. You have the sun, the rainbow. You have water, the thunder, the rain. See, when I play, it’s like electricity going through my body at that moment.
{PHOTO COURTESY OF ADI LEITE}
Television
As far as the album being worthy of rock-critic terms like “seminal” or “influential,” Verlaine is also matter-of-fact about it. ‘I never think of it in any context in particular,” he writes. “It seems to get re-discovered by a new generation every 10 years or so. That’s kinda cool.” The new generation of fans, incidentally, has spread to South America, where the band has toured three times in the past few years, as well as Korea and Japan, where it traveled this year. Television isn’t going to live off its back catalog either. Verlaine says the band has 14 tracks recorded for a new album, although no release date has been set yet. The group also worked up three new songs during a tour of Japan. “That’s my favorite place to play now,” he writes. “No one videos the shows on their cellphones or such. They like just listening, so it is a very good audience to play to, [and] to improvise to.” INFO@ PGHC ITY PAP ER.CO M
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YOU WERE IN PITTSBURGH WITH GUITARIST GEORGE BENSON BUT JUST BRIEFLY? We were in his mother’s basement and we learned two songs. Then he said, “[Guitarist] Grant Green is playing tonight in New York. If we leave now, we can catch him.” So we took off for New York. Grant was playing on 125th Street and Seventh Avenue. They called us up to play a tune and [Green] didn’t want me to get off the stage. George and I stayed together. We got signed to Columbia Records. BUT THEN YOU MOVED TO BLUE NOTE — WHAT WAS THAT LIKE? I was shocked myself. I had only been playing for about a year. They had all the great organists and the great horn players — so what do they need me for? But I didn’t realize that it was a little different style. I had a laid-back, lazy groove, and they loved that. INFO@PGHCITYPAPER.COM
DR. LONNIE SMITH TRIO 8 p.m. Sat., Sept. 19. New Hazlett Theater, 6 Allegheny Square East, North Side. $30. All ages. 412-322-0922 or www.newhazletttheater.org
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