Wednesday, December 07, 2005

I Vant To Be Alone (Swabbed In Dark Fabrics, Stage Right)

Did anyone else see Patti Smith on Conan O'Brian last night? She and her band (shown above, minus Flea) performed an oddly slowed-down Redondo Beach (sorry, I don't have an mp3 from that performance to offer you, only the studio recording from Horses). Much stranger than the tempo change, however, was seeing guitar guru Tom Verlaine hiding out on the left side of the screen, playing his trademark flight-of-fancy leads and fills almost completely out of the spotlight (all Robert Fripp style) and wearing various head gear (hat with mufflers, black scarf) to hide his identity (Greta Garbo called, she wants her affectation back). Why on earth Verlaine would feel the need to hide his visage from the Conan crowd has me mystified--has he suddenly leapt to the level of superstardom of Michael Jackson when I turned my back? You can buy the 30th anniversary edition of Horses from pretty much all the major vendors.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Isn't that flea on the far right?

Disco:Very said...

Yes, that's Flea on the far right. He played with Smith and band when they performed the entire "Horses" album at BAM last month. As fars as I know, he was not swabbed in dark fabrics to hide his identity. For whatever reason, he did not perform with Smith when she was on Conan O'Brian this week.