• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Bands & Projects
    • Marty Willson-Piper
    • Marty & Olivia
    • Bands
      • All About Eve
      • Anekdoten
        • How I Joined Anekdoten
      • Atlantæum Flood
      • The Church
        • Sleeve Notes
      • Noctorum
      • MOAT
    • Sessioneer Projects
      • Afridi/Willson-Piper
      • Arktik Lake
      • Blueburst
      • Space Summit
  • Discography
  • Gear
  • Talking
  • Lyrics
    • SOLO ALBUMS
      • In Reflection
      • Art Attack
      • Rhyme
      • Spirit Level
      • Hanging Out In Heaven
      • Nightjar
    • NOCTORUM
      • Sparks Lane
      • Offer The Light
      • Honey Mink Forever
      • The Afterlife
    • MOAT
      • Moat
      • Poison Stream
    • Seeing Stars
  • Sleeve Notes
    • Of Skins And Heart
    • The Blurred Crusade
    • Seance
    • Heyday
    • Starfish
    • Gold Afternoon Fix
    • Priest = Aura
  • Bandcamp

Marty Willson-Piper

The official home of Marty Willson-Piper

  • News
  • Blog
  • Shows
  • Songwriting & Guitar Guidance
  • In Deep Music Archive
  • Contact

Jan 28 2023

TO WHERE I AM NOW

Arriving at 7.20 AM in Germany not knowing yet that we had lost Tom Verlaine. We’d left Jeanne’s hospitality and all our New York friends behind till the next time and taken an Uber to Newark airport. Jeanne had mentioned that she’d read that only 6% of Uber drivers get tipped (because it’s not a cash payment). I asked our driver what percentage Uber takes from the fare. Shockingly he told me 35%. So they lose a lot to the company and don’t get many tips, good to know, tip them when you get home. The plane was a new Lufthansa-acquired Dreamliner, one always hopes that they’ve given the new models a good run, the 737 saga was freaky. All was well on the flight, we arrived in Frankfurt and we sailed through passport control with my new Portuguese residency card. They told me I could stay in the Schengen area as long as I wanted with this card, so consequently, I received no German entry stamp in my British passport and was treated as an EU citizen. It feels like a privilege after all those Brits that have lost the right to live in Europe as they had been doing untroubled for years. Olivia’s dad picked us up at the airport and we were soon driving to Olivia’s 1000-year-old village in the Rhineland, quite a contrast to the last few days in New York.

We arrived at Olivia’s childhood village and Olivia’s mum had prepared a mega breakfast for us with endless choices of cereals, oat milk, avocado, cheese, bread, croissant, veggie ham, camembert, toast, tea, juice. We ate and chatted for a while and then decided at 11.30 AM that we should hit the sack, goodnight. We didn’t get up till 7 PM and now comes the fight with jet lag. We came down and Olivia cooked some food, we chatted again with Gerd and Siv until they went to bed and we were wide awake, left with the news of Tom Verlaine’s death to mourn. I wrote all about my experiences and reminisces with Tom and that took up the rest of the night.

We have to carry on optimistic even when our heroes leave us because mortality sits further forward in your mind when you reach your sixties and you need to think of the end of your life as an opportunity to consolidate all your thoughts, take advantage of all your experiences and present them back to the world in some useful form. What one man considers useful of course might not be another’s version. Oscar Wilde famously said “All art is quite useless” but he was being witty and pedantic. Bringing music to people is rather useful I think but perhaps not as much as being a nurse.

We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely. All art is quite useless.

From tomorrow I’ll be starting with sessions again as the 24/7 of the US is done. We will be here in Germany till Friday, 3rd February. So please be in touch if you want to sesh on, but be quick for a time, I’m expecting to be quite busy with seshes over the coming weeks before our UK tour starts.

Music today has been Tom Verlaine’s second solo album Dreamtime (1981). More classic angular and unique guitar.

Music Of The Daze

Written by Marty Willson-Piper · Categorized: Blog

Missing

This is my stolen 1965 Rickenbacker 12-string, serial number EB157. If there's any chance of this guitar coming back to me before I go to meet my maker, then that would be wonderful. Please contact me if you have any information.

11209512_1669022976719710_7288437867089763325_n

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Primary Sidebar

  • spotify
  • facebook
  • youtube

Liking the blog?

Tour Dates

Mailing List

In Deep Music Archive

Songwriting & Guitar Guidance with Marty Willson-Piper
ORDER HERE

"These are awesome sessions that I highly recommend for guitar players of all levels. Very informative, frank discussions on everything related to guitar and music in general. Definitely a must for anyone pursuing songwriting."
(Stephen G., VA, USA)

"Marty knows how to bypass scales and get to the heart of feel and timing. His musical knowledge spans multiple cultures and genres. Perhaps most importantly, Marty is a cool dude. I highly recommend his guitar guidance." (Jed B., MN, USA)

"Ok, so you’re sitting in your home and Marty is across the world but is actually right here teaching you how to play guitar and write songs. He is a delight to talk to and he is your teacher, meaning he wants to see you get something out of his lessons. You know he’s paying attention and wants to steer you in the right direction. I am so grateful and humbled that he offers his time in this manner. This is an amazing opportunity for anyone who admires anything from his enormous body of work. How often do you get to learn from somebody that inspired you in the first place? Amazing." (Ann S., CA, USA)

Missing

This is my stolen 1965 Rickenbacker 12-string, serial number EB157. If there’s any chance of this guitar coming back to me before I go to meet my maker, then that would be wonderful. Please contact me if you have any information.

11209512_1669022976719710_7288437867089763325_n

MARTY WILLSON-PIPER © 2023 - Front Page Images by Hajo Müller