I moved to New York in the spring of 1977, following a weekend jaunt which included a trip to CBGB for a first taste of live Television. Returning to Ohio, I spent a trial night in an apartment at The Plaza in Cleveland recently vacated by an aspiring Contortion. As I surveyed the frozen parking lot next morning to make sure my Studebaker was still there, I decided that if I was going to move someplace scary and bleak, I might as well think big. But by the time I got back to Manhattan, Richard Lloyd was in rehab in preparation for Television's European debut, so almost a year passed before I got the chance for a recharge. When show day finally came I hid my Nakamichi 550 in the bottom of a crumpled bag of thrift store shirts and set out for Long Island, where the expected fireworks ensued. A couple of years later a friend with a mail order record business (another big Television fan) suggested a bootleg of the big night. Most of them went to an exporter he worked with, but I would visit Bleecker Bob in the West Village a couple of times a week to sell to this notorious cheapskate, a pitiful few copies at a time. Although it was a steady seller in his shop, he refused to tie up his working capital. He always complained about the cover, too. At some point, Neil Cooper of ROIR decided to make a play for the cassette masters, advising my partner in crime that he intended to reissue with or without our cooperation. We eventually gave in, surprising Verlaine with a modest royalty payment the next time he came around to unload dispensables from his record collection - like the L'Intrepide Bavon Marie Marie LP I took home. Whenever our little project is mentioned, there's always a disclaimer that the original vinyl boot sounds better than the Blow Up reissue. Well, we tried. Disc mastering was done at an upper crust establishment in LA when Lindsey Buckingham had finally run out of coke and gone home for the day, the metal stampers came from the first high-end facility of its kind in the US. I also rejected test pressings from three boroughs plants before I found one in outer New Jersey that could handle grooves narrowed by the twenty-five minutes per side running time. It was only as I was preparing this post that I discovered The Blow Up omits Poor Circulation, Arrow's rarest gem.
television
arrow (bootleg)
double exposure f-85 (1980)
01 Fire Engine 4.19
02 Poor Circulation 5.31
03 Little Johnny Jewel 14.44
04 Knockin' On Heaven's Door 8.07
05 Prove It 5.20
06 Friction 4.58
07 (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction 7.11
recorded live @ My Father's Place, Roslyn, LI, NY 3/20/78
vinyl @320
