Exploring the Stacks of a Punk Rock Library
Whenever a rock musician talks about books, my mind goes blank. I don’t have respect for the literary tastes or ambitions of pop music stars. And that goes double for punk rock, a genre that seems to revel in its stupidity.One doesn’t look for book recommendations from the people who sang “Beat on the Brat.” It’s easy for me to keep these two personal enthusiasms separate. Then Tom Verlaine died.
Tom Verlaine was there at the very beginning of punk rock in New York. He and Richard Hell helped build the stage at CBGBs. His name was Tom Miller, but he wanted a more poetic nom de rock and so named himself after the 19th century French poet. He and Hell started to put together a band and held auditions: Dee Dee Ramone and Chris Stein (later respectively members of the Ramones and Blondie) tried out, but the duo ended up hiring guitarist Richard Lloyd. The band then kicked Hell out, changed their name to Television, and put out singles like this one.
“See No Evil” was released in 1977. I love the swirling interplay between Verlaine’s and Lloyd’s guitars. Of the first generation punk bands, Television seemed to be the brainiest.
Therefore it is not surprising to learn after his death that Tom Verlaine was a big bookworm. According to Alex Abramovich writing in the London Review of Books, Verlaine had 50,000 books when he died. Verlaine had worked in the shipping department of the legendary Strand bookstore prior to his rock career. It seems to have been a popular gig for up-and-coming punk rockers. A coworker from my book distribution days would tell me stories of working there with members of the Cramps. And Verlaine remained a customer of the Strand for the rest of his life.
Verlaine stored his books in several warehouse sites around New York. After his death, they are being disposed of by two booksellers, Capitol Hill Books and Better Dead Than Read. For a bit more than you would pay for editions of these books that had never been owned by a punk rock legend, you can have you own authentic Tom Verlaine relic. Touched by the hands of the rock god who played the guitar on “Venus.”
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