I needed an idea for a jump off point for the next Six Degrees of Kevin Shields - and then sadly, last weekend it became clear who was needed.
For we lost Tom Verlaine, one of the legends of the New York music scene, who if he is remembered for nothing else, was a core contributor to one of the great albums of the late 70s. Well actually, Marquee Moon is probably one of the great albums of all time - a sure-fire candidate to be among the top few hundred ever made.
Thomas Miller was born in New Jersey and raised in Delaware, but his parents sent him to a private prep school, Sanford, where he met Richard Mayers. They moved to New York City and took on their musical pseudonyms - Richard Hell and Tom Verlaine (after the French symbolist poet Paul, and to distance himself from his past). They would eventually form Television, a band that fused punk and prog into great sprawling minimalist epics, write two great albums (Marquee Moon and Adventure), before splitting up in 1978 (with occasional reformations over the years). But before all that, they were in the Neon Boys, which also included future TV player, Billy Ficca on drums. It was a short lived affair - they were after a second guitarist, didn't find one they like and moved on towards Television. Incredibly, two of the potential guitarists they auditioned were Dee Dee Ramone and Chris Stein.
See No Evil: https://youtu.be/puIM6LkKLpI
Chris Stein was in the The Stilettos in 1973, a band that included Debbie Harry as one of the vocalists. By 1974, the core of that band had become Blondie. We know all about them - perfect power pop, albums like Parallel Lines and Eat To The Beat, mega hits like Sunday Girl, Dreaming and Heart Of Glass. Stein and Harry were also a couple well into the 1980s. But what is perhaps less well known, is Stein's work as an accomplished photographer, which has led to him exhibiting all over the place and releasing a number of books, including Negative: Me, Blondie and The Advent of Punk. He also collaborated with the likes of Andy Warhol and H.R. Giger.
H.R. Giger is an interesting character, and as an artist, is an unusual connection for Six Degrees, but, his connections to music are strong. The German / Swiss artist was known for his airbrushed images that blended human physiques with machines. He is perhaps best known for working on the special effects team on 1979s Alien, and it was he that actually designed the titular Alien. His works were also frequently used by bands for album covers, with Danzig and Emerson, Lake and Palmer among the users. West coast punks, the Dead Kennedy's had finished their third album Frankenchrist in 1985; singer Jello Biafra wanted to use Giger's Landscape # XX (also known as Penis Landscape - so you can get the idea) on the cover. Giger consented, but it was eventually relegated to the inside gatefold, with a warning sticker on the front of the record. Biafra ended up in court, challenged by the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) for distributing harmful material to minors. Biafra got off, but it almost financially crippled the record label (Alternative Tentacles), overshadowed the album (not one of their best, admittedly) and essentially signalled the end of the band in that phase of its life.
MTV Get Off The Air: https://youtu.be/QpzSnmXoXYY
Dead Kennedy's guitarist East Bay Ray (Raymond Pepperell) was a student of surf rock and rockabilly, the sounds you will hear echoing across all the DKs albums. But aside from that, he also contributed to an album by Algerian Cheikha Rimiti (called Sidi Mansour). The album also featured the Red Hot Chili Pepper's Flea and Robert Fripp.
Robert Fripp is perhaps best known as the founder of prog legends King Crimson. But he has worked extensively over the years as a session guitarist too. The list is quite impressive too - David Bowie (Heroes and Scary Monsters & Super Creeps), Peter Gabriel (3rd solo album), Talking Heads (Fear Of Music) - he also wrote the start-up sound on Windows Vista! In 1980, he founded the League Of Gentleman, featuring Johnny Elichaoff (drums), Barry Andrews (of XTC, on keyboards) and Sara Lee (bass). Fripp described his group as "a second division touring new wave instrumental dance band."
Sara Lee had been working as a secretary at Polydor Records, when she was discovered by Fripp for the aforementioned League Of Gentlemen. After that, she replaced Dave Allen in Gang Of Four, playing with them from 1982 - 84. She also went on to work with the B52s (Cosmic Thing), Ani DiFranco and Indigo Girls (who she played with for 7 years) and recently has been back with a re-formed Gang Of Four.
Gang Of Four are a post-punk band originally formed in Leeds in 1976, featuring Jon King (vocals), Andy Gill (guitar), Dave Allen (bass) and Hugo Burnham (drums). They fused punk, funk and dub with political and social motivated lyrics. Ken Turner writing in Rolling Stone in 1980 said that, "rarely have the radical edges of black and white music come closer to overlapping.... Gang Of Four utilise their bass guitar every bit as prominently and starkly as the curt bass figures that prod the spoken verses in The Breaks [seminal song by Kurtis Blow]". Their music has been hugely influential for generations after, including the likes of Flea and his Red Hot Chili Peppers, whose early work hugely echo the Gang Of Four sound (Andy Gill also produced their first album). REM, Rage Against The Machine and Nirvana also all claim the band as an inspiration. Michael Hutchence said, "it was art meets the devil, via James Brown."
Natural's Not In It: https://youtu.be/5hJBNq0UYh4
(This version from German TV, includes everything that was so great about Gang Of Four; Burnham and Lee set a blistering pace, while Gill stutter steps around the stage like a stylish Wilko Johnson [one of his heroes] - and seems to almost beat the most incredible sounds out of his guitar)
Gang Of Four's song Natural's Not In It featured on the soundtrack of the Marie Antionette film in 2006. It was a modern take on the story, directed by Sofia Coppola and starring Kirsten Dunst and Jason Schwarzmann. Other tunes on it included Hong Kong Garden (Siouxsie & The Banshees), Ceremony (New Order), Kings Of The Wild Frontier (Adam & The Ants) and I Want Candy by Bow Wow Wow, given a special remix for the soundtrack by one KEVIN SHIELDS.