tom verlaine - vanity fair

Tom Verlaine on the iPod today.

Specifically the Vanity Fair sessions from 1986. This is a complete album that, for reasons that no-one understands, was rejected by Verlaine's record label Fontana. It's been suggested that the songs weren't commercial enough, which is rather baffling. This is Tom Verlaine we're talking about - he's never been commercial! And Tom came up with a replacement album, Flash-Light, the following year, an album that I would suggest was considerably less commercial than the original submission… but that’s Verlaine for you...

The original sessions were recorded in London with Dave Bascombe producing and the only track that survived the rejection was a remixed "The Scientist Writes A Letter". For no obvious reason unknown the original Bascombe recording is referred to as the ‘Paris version’ despite having been recorded in London… that wacky Verlaine humour, huh? "One Time At Sundown" is the only other overlap with the Flash-Light album, but it was totally re-recorded for the released album, so this London version is different (though not that much…)

Some, but not all, of the other Vanity Fair tracks cropped up as b sides over the next few years, and some also appeared on The Miller’s Tale, the now hard to find compilation that came out in the mid 1990s. 

But the album, as originally planned, would have run as follows -

1. Sixteen Tulips

2. Caveman / Flashlight

3. Anna

4. The Scientist Writes A Letter 

5. Call Me The

6. Circling

7. Smoother Than Jones

8. Vanity Fair

9. One Time At Sundown

It's a great collection with lots of chunky guitar work from Tom and sterling support from Fred Smith on bass, Andy Newmark on drums and Jimmy Ripp on guitar.

Many of the songs are solid rockers, such as the delightful "Sixteen Tulips" or "Smoother Than Jones". In fact, these two are extremely catchy, and make me wonder about the 'not-commercial-enough argument. The melody of "Sixteen Tulips" is also suspiciously close to "Say A Prayer" on the Flash-Light album, which also makes the non-commercial argument fall apart even more.

There are gnarly, twisted guitarfests too, such as "Caveman / Flashlight" or the title track. But it's perhaps on the quieter numbers that this album really shines.

"One Time At Sundown" is light and airy and "Anna" is beautiful, and gloriously lovely in a way that most Verlaine songs aren’t. I love the offhand way Tom mumbles ‘I must lay down, but I’m not tired…’

But it's "The Scientist Writes A Letter" that floors me every time with how brilliantly clever it is, and how brilliantly emotional it is too. The guitar synths work well here, and the closing guitar solo is absolutely stunning. Tom’s vocal on this track is also worth mentioning. Frequently his vocals give the impression of being an afterthought, tossed out with little care. But here the vocal is superb – perfectly pitched, half spoken, half sung, excellent timing, and extremely well acted too. I also love the way that the lyric is written out as a letter on the lyric sheet. When you read the letter it’s almost impossible to imagine how the words could ever fit into a song, but they do, and Verlaine makes them work perfectly.

Dear Julia,
Unless chance finds us face to face again, this is the last you'll hear from me. I spent this Sunday, a long afternoon, freezing at my friend's house by the sea. We men of science... you know.

I've returned to my research in magnetic fields. It's funny how attractive indifference can be. My sense of failure... it's not so important. Electricity means so much more to me. We men of science... you know...

It's snowing again, seems like it's always snowing. Sit down to write and it's so cold. Outside my window, there's a tree so white I can hardly look at it.

It's quiet here. I look thru my glass at patterns all so well defined. Please send my winter coat soon as you can ...I find I have no other lines... we men of science... you know... all the best... all the best Julia…

The conceit of the whole vocal being a letter could come off as being daftly pretentious, but it works; it’s invested with a sharp emotional pull, and makes me buy entirely into the song. It’s the little touches – the repeated self deprecating line ‘we men of science’ is followed by a barely audible weary murmur of ‘you know…’ which doesn’t sound like much when written down but it’s wonderful when Tom does it! The Vanity Fair version is slightly different from the more familiar Flash-Light release. The synths are slightly more prominent, the whole mix is more punchy and interestingly less dreamy, and the middle part has an entirely different spoken section – instead of the tree that is so white that Tom can hardly look at it, we have some mumbled nonsense about men on a train talking about icicles… I think he made the right choice in changing this bit.

Most copies of Vanity Fair contain a bonus track - a brilliant live version of "Marquee Moon" from the 1987 tour. What a performance. I mean it’s hard to get this track wrong, as it’s so fantastic anyway, but Verlaine and Jimmy Ripp really nail "MM" just as well as Tom and Richard Lloyd did when Television played it. Tremendously exciting stuff.

Enough – I'm going to play it again.