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19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Magic of Tom Verlaine's Guitar, June 12, 2001
The Miller's Tale contain two parts - a brilliant Live performance, and a selection of Studio recordings by Tom Verliane and Television. I doubt anyone here requires a lesson on who Tom Verlaine or Television are. So I'll go straight into the CDs.The Live album is great. Most of the songs here are equal or superior to the studio originals, with the exceptions of the cuts of Verlaine's self titled first album, which is also one of the instances where everything worked in the Studio. the recording is of very high quality, which is a relief for those of us accustomed to the loust sound on 'The Blow Ups'. The highlights of the First album include mad guitars on ALLWAYS, A superior version of POSTCARD FROM WATERLOO, a nice BREAKIN' IN MY HEART, annd great versions of two calssic Television songs, MARQUEE MOON and PROVE IT. The only weak cut on it is KINGDOM COME, which is a great song (covered by Bowie on his Scary Monsters album), but which doesn't quite live up to the studio version. The second CD, though, is a much more shaky business. Any 'Best Of' compilationist would disagree with anyone else, (For example, I think THE GRIP OF LOVE is a fairly mediocre Veraline song which doesn't belong there), but some things are, I think, objectively wrong here. First, there are two many songs off 'Cover'. I realise it is a matter of the Recording company, and Cover is a great album, but brilliant cuts O FOOLISH HEART and LET GO THE MANSION RITA, are obviously superior to LINDI-LU and FIVE MILES OF YOU. And no matter how you look at it, it's impossible to have only one but from Television's Adventure, and about 5 cuts from Cover. Also obviously missing is LITTLE JOHNNY JEWEL. I would have prefered the original version, bnecause the live version, although superior, is more readily available and the sound recording in it is weak. However, either way, some version of what is arguably Verlaine's best Track simply HAS to be in an anthology of his work. Finally, the CD ends with THE REVOLUTION, a b-side in France. while it is a good song, I doubt anyone will ever claim this is anywhere near the top 10 Verlaine songs. To end the compilation with it is ending with a whimpher rather than with a bang. A more fitting conclusion would have been LITTLE JOHNNY JEWEL or CALL MR. LEE - which is clearly the best song of Television self titled third album, and the only cut off it which could have suited into Marquee Moon. But for all the criticism, this is a hell of an album, containing great tracks, some of them I've mentioned before, and some I haven't. VENUS from 'Marquee Moon' contains some of the cleverest lyrics I've encountered 'I fell right into the Arms of Venus De Milo' (If you don't get it, look on line for a picture of Venus de Milo). WORDS FROM THE FRONT, the title track of Verlaine's third album, captures the essence of the First World War "John died last night/he had no chance/under the surgeon's drunken' hand" The guitar work here is sublime. O FOOLISH HEART might just be Verlaine's most beautiful love song. I don't hear the Lou Reed resemblance people often talk of regarding this song, but it's a killer either way. Other highlights include Verlaine solo efforts such as STALINGRAD, SIXTEEN TULLIPS and AT 4 AM, as well as brilliant TELEVISION tracks CALL MR. LEE and GLORY. In short this is a must have CD for long time fans and people who are new to and unfamiliar with the magic of Tom Verlaine's Guitar.
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See all 28 tracks on this disc
by Tom Verlaine 
