A Dave Sez contibution...
Originally posted February 9, 2014
The obscure but semi-legendary Neon Boys were a precursor to Television, featuring Tom Verlaine, Richard Hell, and drummer Billy Ficca. Their duration, from the fall of 1972 to the spring of 1973 according to Clinton Heylin's From the Velvets to the Voidoids, was brief. They were certainly ahead of their time, however, as recordings that later surfaced proved. On "That's All I Know" and "Love Comes in Spurts," which finally came out as one side of a seven-inch EP years later, the group played with an edge suggestive of both speed freaks and punk rock. There was shrieking guitar, half-spoken lyrics declaimed in a semi-state of hysteria, and words that were too scabrous to have been considered for commercial airplay in 1973 (certainly on "Love Comes in Spurts," at any rate). A then-unknown Dee Dee Ramone unsuccessfully auditioned for the band as a second guitarist before the Neon Boys, still a trio, decided to disband.
Of course all three of the principals would rapidly resurface as members of the original Television lineup, although Hell dropped out of that group before their first album. Hell would re-record "Love Comes in Spurts" himself as a solo act. The Neon Boys' versions of "That's All I Know" and "Love Comes in Spurts" were issued as one side of a seven-inch EP on Shake Records that had two later Hell solo recordings on the other side.
Another Neon Boys recording, "High-Heeled Wheels," surfaced on a CD single (which also included the two previously released Neon Boys cuts) on the UK Overground label. According to From the Velvets to the Voidoids, three other Neon Boys songs — "Tramp," "Hot Dog," and "Poor Circulation" — were also recorded, although they have not yet
been released. [Source: AMG]
The press release that came with the single, written by Richard Hell, says in part:
"That’s All I Know (Right Now) and Love Comes In Spurts were recorded in late 1973. It was the final effort of the group we tentatively (never finding the second guitarist we needed to gig) called The Neon Boys. We’d formed about six months earlier. It was my first group and my first bass. The tape was made at the cheapest four track studio we could find advertised in the paper--a man’s basement in Brooklyn. The only way we’ve tampered with the recording is to remix it--no new overdubs. We’ve left it in mono since no single instrument could be located to send through a speaker because each track on the tape carries more than one instrument/vocal."
On the 18th of November 1976 Richard Hell - later to be Richard Hell and the Voidoids - released the three-track 45rpm 7" Another World EP on Ork Records in the US.
Track List:
1.That's All I Know (Right Now)
2. Love Comes In Spurts
3. High Heeled Wheels
4. Time
5. Don't Die
Neon
Thanks to isksp.blogspot.com and drunksongs.blogspot.com!
From the Dave Sez archive:
The crown jewels of Television bootlegs, the late 1974 demos recorded at Good Vibrations Studio, NYC and produced by Richard Williams, observed (not produced!) by Brian Eno, and the Ork sessions recorded in August 1975, allegedly at Fairland Studios. The track Little Johnny Jewel is taken from the Ork single recorded during this session.
Lossless rip of the Double Exposure bootleg, omitting the lower-quality live tracks available in full on other boots. These demos would also be released from a much worse cassette source with speed problems as the "Bryan Eno Demos" and as the "Fairland demos". All CD and alternative artwork included.
Track List
1. Prove It (12-74)
2. Friction (12-74)
3. Venus (12-74)
4. Double Exposure (12-74)
5. Marquee Moon (12-74)
(bass: Richard Hell)
6. Hard On Love (8-75)
7. Friction (8-75)
8. Careful (8-75)
9. Prove It (8-75)
10. Fire Engine (8-75)
11. Little Johnny Jewel (8-75)
(bass: Fred Smith)
Thanks to the late great aikolosslessboots!
Tom Verlaine - La Edad de Oro, Madrid 1984
64 minutes. Live at TVE studios, Madrid, broadcast live by La Edad de
Oro on September 25, 1984.
This is #7 in the Solen Files DVD series.
pass - fbsvw
More Television Updates Coming!!
