• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Bands & Projects
    • Marty Willson-Piper
    • Marty & Olivia
    • Noctorum
    • MOAT
    • Atlantæum Flood
    • Anekdoten
      • How I Joined Anekdoten
    • The Church
      • Sleeve Notes
    • All About Eve
  • 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

News

Jan 27 2023

TO WHERE I AM NOW

We left New York on the 27th to arrive in Germany on the 28th to read that Tom Verlaine had died. The other end of the sphere of classic original and inspired guitar players, I played with him most nights on the US tour in 1988 where he opened for the ex-band acoustic and we played Cortez the Killer as an encore (electric of course), trading solos. He travelled on our bus and I spent a substantial amount of time in his company which led to me playing guitar (uncredited along with Jay Dee Daugherty) on his 1990 album The Wonder. Verlaine was a great inspiration to me as he never seemed to hit the notes that others chose. He was that intoxicating mixture of high competence and risk, emotional and raw, and able to sustain long guitar solos that were always disappointing when they stopped. It’s all in the fingers and I remember his wiry hands, he was tall and slim, almost a statue. He was thoughtful and always very kind to me, he gave me books about the French writers of the previous two centuries because he knew I was interested and once when his guitar broke he used my 12-string acoustic and made a point of telling the audience it was mine and how grateful he was for letting him use it.

When I acquired my Jazzmaster, it was Verlaine that I had in mind. He famously used a Jazzmaster on the Television albums Marquee Moon (1977) and Adventure (1978). I used it for many years as my main guitar. I wanted something between a Strat and a Rickenbacker and the Jazzmaster was it. When I was in Australia in June I bought a Television – Marquee Moon T-shirt at Egg Records in Newtown, re-stocking my ageing, shrinking T-shirt collection with the new blood of old classics. I also bought a Doors shirt and a T. Rex shirt, all now incredible characters who have passed away, and not just the front man (three of T. Rex are gone, two of The Doors). When I arrived in New York in November, my first walk around Manhattan, I thought this is where I will wear my Television shirt. Two people said “great band”, most didn’t have a clue, some maybe silently approved but you really got the feeling of how New York’s rock ’n’ roll underground has changed (obviously) drastically since the glory days of CBGB’s. Verlaine and Patti Smith’s rock ’n’ roll poetic spirit has turned into hip hop poetry and a new generation’s approach to art, there’s no more sense of the French giants like Paul Verlaine, Jean Genet, Arthur Rimbaud and Charles Baudelaire that they championed.

As it happened I was in Strand Books on 12th off Union Square just some hours ago buying Raymond Radiguet’s The Devil In The Flesh (Le Diable Au Corps). I have a copy of it already, amongst the book collection in England but it has been so long since I read it that I bought it again, figuring it would be a different translation (maybe) and as I suspected it was as great as I remembered it. As it happened I barely remembered the story at all but discovered (I’m 70 pages in) that it is in fact a classic of early 20th-century French literature. It’s a semi-autobiographical story about a 16-year-old boy who falls in love with the 19-year-old wife of a soldier fighting at the front in World War I. It was controversial at the time and written by a teenage Radiguet, intellectually advanced in his years, so much so that he became a protege of Jean Cocteau who declared him a genius. Unfortunately, Radiguet succumbed to typhoid fever at the age of 20 in 1923, one wonders what other classics he might have written, one other book, Le bal du Comte d’Orgel was released posthumously in 1924.

This amongst all those other French classics will have all been voraciously read by Dylan, Patti and Tom – Gide, Sartre, Nin, de Beauvoir, Cocteau, Camus etc. Thus giving them their poetic sensibility in relation to their music which permeates it through and through. You got the impression that no one really knew Tom that well, I knew him a little. I ran into him once in a Starbucks in Manhattan. “Tom,” he looked at me puzzled from a faraway place. “It’s Marty,” I said. He clicked into recognition and greeted me with a wry smile. He always seemed somewhat far away. He’s lost his brother to drugs and I never saw him indulge in anything but coffee and cigarettes, almost as if that’s what he lived on, something like Frank Zappa and perhaps that’s what got him in the end.

He was a great inspiration to me and one of the highlights of my musical career is when he sat me down and patiently showed me how to play Friction. I played and sang it at one of The Beat Goes On shows at The Bottom Line presented by my friends Ed Rogers and Jeanne Stahlman. I hung with him another couple of times after seeing Television live at Cirkus in Stockholm and then at the next show in London. I remember he came up to my room at the hotel we were staying at to check out the albums I had bought. I never did get to talk to him again after that chance meeting in the coffee shop. I saw him live with a modern version of Television in Santiago in Chile and I also saw him once at St. Ann’s Church in Brooklyn on October 15th 1999 playing Music For Films (with film) with Jimmy Ripp. I recorded it on my minidisc player, so somewhere I have a bootleg copy of that show. I also saw him playing guitar with Patti Smith at Shepherd’s Bush Empire. He sat down for the whole show and wore a hat, haha, he was great. Last but not least he once told me that he’d played on Bowie’s Scary Monsters (Bowie had covered his song Kingdom Come) but nothing he did was used. This isn’t quite the version he told me:

“Tom Verlaine, who came to the overdub sessions in New York, wrote it. We asked Verlaine if he would like to overdub some guitar and he agreed. He asked if it would be okay to rent some guitar amps. It looked as though Verlaine was a little down on his luck and lugubrious in those days—and maybe he didn’t own a guitar amp. The next day David and I were met with the sight of Tom Verlaine auditioning every guitar amp in New York City. No exaggeration—there were about 30 guitar amps in the studio. He would play the same phrase in one, unplug his guitar and move to the next amp. We talked to him about the part and he said he had some ideas, but he was searching for a good sound. Hours drifted, we had lunch, watched some afternoon television and left Verlaine still auditioning amps at 7 p.m. I don’t think we ever used a note of his playing, if we even recorded him. We never saw him after that day. Again the backing vocals pulled the track into some kind of psycho-Ronettes area”. – Tony Visconti (Bowie, Bolan and the Brooklyn Boy)

Music today is Verlaine’s debut solo album, released in 1979. Rest in peace, Tom, it was a pleasure knowing you, learning from you and being inspired by your unique approach to the guitar. Thank you!

Music Of The Daze

Written by Marty Willson-Piper · Categorized: Blog

Jan 26 2023

TO WHERE I AM NOW

Last full day in America, last chance to take in the special atmosphere of New York City so we headed out to soak it up. We needed lots of brain sponges for today’s jaunt as we headed into Manhattan on the PATH for the last time (until the next time). It was a little windy but not as cold as yesterday and no snow turning into torrential rain, yuk. We stopped off for a quick brekkie and walked to 7th Avenue and took the 1 train to 66th Street/Lincoln Center where we visited the New York Library to see the Lou Reed exhibition. Lots of pix and posters, films, interviews, records, tapes, guitars, poems, lyrics, tickets, receipts, an overview of Lou’s life. I did see him live once at Casino de Paris, February 21st 1992 on the Magic and Loss tour when Michael Blair was playing drums with him (Michael played on I Can’t Cry on Spirit Level, 1992).

From there we walked alongside the park and down towards MoMA (Museum of Modern Art), where we spent a fascinating few hours. Where to start, Leonora Carrington, Remedios Varo, Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, van Gogh’s Starry Night, Dalí, Picasso, Kandinsky, Miró, Modigliani, Seurat, Monet, Matisse, Dix, Picabia, Rousseau, Klimt and so on, that was one floor. The Americans Warhol, Pollock, Rothko on the floor below seemed less interesting to me but the 5th floor was a hard act to follow. It was like The Beatles supported by Jay-Z.

From there we walked to 5th Avenue and took a bus down to Union Square. I needed one more trip to Strand Books where I bought a new copy of Cocteau protégé Raymond Radiguet’s The Devil In The Flesh (1923). The In Deep Music Archive isn’t just a music library, I have a damn fine collection of books as well and this edition will sit beside a different translation. Radiguet was considered a prodigy in literary circles but tragically died of typhoid at the age of 20 in 1923.

From Strand Books we wound our way through the streets to meet friends Ed and Melani, Don & Laura. We talked music all night and Ed turned me on to music I can’t remember. A nice dinner and farewells, a walk through the chilly streets to the PATH train with Don and Laura and we three managed to get on the PATH with a minute to spare. Back to Jeanne’s, the cats and the horror of packing, fitting in more than we have space for.

Music today has been Lou Reed’s Magic and Loss (1992). It was his highest-charting UK album, reaching No. 6.

Music Of The Daze

Written by Marty Willson-Piper · Categorized: Blog

Jan 25 2023

TO WHERE I AM NOW

Today was meet sessioneer Matt in Manhattan day, but this time I was in the hot seat! Matt is an acupuncturist and he has been helping me with my hands – and back, legs, arms, neck, haha. It all started with a conversation about my thumbs hurting and general discomfort in the one place where I do not need to have any issues. So, when I first arrived here in New York Matt told me to come over and he’d see what he could do. All those needles, releasing muscles, electric jolts, and a lot of the pain dissipated, especially in the lower back area. Today, three months later, a second session seemed most needed as I had hand pains again, especially in one finger with a pain in my palm at the finger’s base, today with one needle that pain went away. A needle in my tense shoulder and I felt it in my head, connecting the migraine eye issues with muscle tension. Today my body was so sensitive I felt every needle in my legs, it didn’t matter what part of my body was being worked on. Some of the electricity jolts today were intense, like touching the electric fence that keeps the cows in the field. Thanks, Matt, relief all ‘round.

The rain was pouring down but we went for a coffee and a chat about the universe followed by a visit to Academy Records where I picked up Blue Cheer’s second album Outsideinside (1968), The Best Of The Raspberries (1976), Geoff and Maria Muldaur‘s Sweet Potatoes (1973), and Julie London‘s Julie (1957).

We walked down to the West Village in the rain, stopping off at T-Mobile to inquire about keeping our US phone number. We taught the girl to say “Sound” and she taught us how to say “Dope” and “Lit”. We carried on in the rain on our way to Caffé Reggio for a dose of the atmosphere in there, Olivia ordered an undrinkable hot chocolate and I had some pesto pasta which was $17, I was going to have the avocado toast but it was also $17, it just seemed so ridiculously expensive for the cheapest snack in the universe that I went for the pasta instead, haha, cheapskate. On reflection, I imagine that pasta pesto must be one of the cheapest hot meals to make too. I don’t understand how Julie London’s record from 1957 can be $7 cheaper.

From there we went to West 4th subway and caught the train to 47-50th Street where I wanted to go back to Rough Trade to pick up the Patrick Sky album I’d seen – A Harvest of Gentle Clang (1966), Mandrill’s Composite Truth (1973) and Stackridge’s Do The Stanley (1976) but there was a hip hop producer signing records and there was a long queue from outside in the rain through the record racks. Initially, the staff didn’t really want me looking for records amongst the queuing, but they relented when they tried to find me the Patrick Sky record and couldn’t find it. I noticed that everyone in the queue was in their twenties or younger and Olivia noticed that they were 99% male.

We left into the worsening rain and the Patrick Sky record got some water damage. Matt had given me a pile of CDs for the archive, water had seeped into the cases of two or three of them. The rain was getting worse and worse and the wind was up, it was cold, getting inside was so welcome, taking off wet clothes. Being dry was suddenly the greatest thing ever, getting your records wet the worst.

Music today was Julie London’s Julie (1957), her sixth album, produced by her husband-to-be Bobby Troup, both appeared in the seventies hospital drama Emergency. London stopped making records in 1969 as her acting career took off, leaving behind a treasure of 29 studio albums and a vague memory of her early hit Cry Me A River (Troup wrote Route 66). London died in 2000 aged 74.

Music Of The Daze

Written by Marty Willson-Piper · Categorized: Blog

Jan 24 2023

TO WHERE I AM NOW

Today was studio day with sessioneer John from and in Brooklyn. We were at Vice & Virtue Studios on Franklin Ave owned by Rocky Gallo who worked as an engineer at the famous Cutting Room Studios in New York for many years (he has a great old Neve desk). I arrived at 11.59AM but getting there from Jersey City was a series of unlikely obstacles. I left the house with Jeanne, Olivia left a little later on her own adventure. We took the Path train to Manhattan where we parted, Jeanne to work, me to make my way to Brooklyn. The problem was that my MetroCard needed refilling and I only had a $50 bill, the machine didn’t like it and after ten minutes of inserting it asked me if I wanted to put $50 on my card, “No”, so it spat out the money. Apparently, it wasn’t going to give me change for a $20 purchase. I went upstairs to Starbucks, I’ll buy a coffee and get change, Starbucks wouldn’t take my $50 bill either. So, I used my debit card for a coffee and a think. Why not use my debit cards (Portuguese and English) in the machine? Obvious, except it won’t accept foreign cards. I called John, he told me to get a taxi, no taxis, I walked to Broadway and eventually found one, $35 instead of 4$ on the train and a lot of nonsense, stress and bother before I even started, at least it was a beautiful day.

Rocky had some amps set up for me already (a newer Vox and a Fender Princeton in one format, a Marshall quad box and heads in another) and John had ordered some guitars for me to play which soon arrived from S.I.R. hire. A newer Gretsch (not bad actually), a newer Strat with high-powered pickups and a Rick 12 with old strings that were tricky to keep in tune, bad intonation and strung thick string first. The sound was there but it was a struggle, hired guitars are a crap shoot but there is no alternative in the present circumstances. I played on four tracks throughout the day and night across nine hours. David who played on the record and drummer Conrad, who I already knew from playing with Ed Rogers and The Silos (we did gigs in Germany with The Silos when I was in The Saints), visited. It was a good day, lots of ideas down, great to work with John and Rocky.

John and I left to meet Olivia in Bedford Ave for dinner. She had been galavanting around Manhattan, walking along the Hudson, hitting Battery Park, the 9/11 memorial and finally going to The Late Show and sitting in the audience watching Stephen Colbert and guests in the flesh. These are our last days in America and it was nice to be in Brooklyn as I used to live there, a slightly longer hike back to Jeanne’s in Jersey City and Olivia’s MetroCard was playing up but we made it back, long day, great day, musical day.

Music today has been Stackridge’s fascinating debut album, released in 1971. Catchy, experimental, thoughtful, funny, arty, great songs, great players. One of my favourite eccentric English seventies bands. By the way, it’s another Hipgnosis album cover.

Music Of The Daze

Written by Marty Willson-Piper · Categorized: Blog

Jan 23 2023

TO WHERE I AM NOW

The problem with being on the road is that you get in at 2 AM and the hotel wants you out by 11 AM (unless you need to leave earlier to reach the next show). Say you get to bed by 3 AM, if you’re lucky, and you have to be up by 9.30 AM at the latest, in time to miss breakfast and with only six and a half hours of sleep night after night. Could be worse, I’m not complaining, I could be in a war zone, but the only thing that keeps you healthy apart from proper food, is proper sleep, something to combat the long days of travelling, the hours and hours at the venue from soundcheck to encore, meet and greet, to the hotel lobby, and then there’s your washing. Heaven forbid you get sick. It was easier in your twenties, I’m 65 this year and I find myself collapsing into bed rather than jumping into it. We have 13 shows in a row in England in March, less travel time between cities helps but I still like to do a language lesson, write the blog every day, visit record and bookstores and eat properly as well as sleep to preserve my voice because when you do this you spend two hours singing and at least two hours talking and you need to be doing both, as well as concentrating on words, tuning and delivery whilst quipping your way through the introductions. Luckily playing the guitar just happens.

We were out of the Maryland hotel between 11 and 11.30AM and yes, they called from reception to remind us to vacate the room. Next door there was a garage but as we pulled in to refuel I noticed I was missing an earring, the one sessioneer Fred gave me as I’d lost one somewhere in Porto. Coincidentally I noticed it was gone as I was speaking to Fred on the phone. I went back to the hotel while Olivia filled up and there it was on the bathroom floor. We were now ready to leave and happy to be driving in the light without the rain pouring down. But another issue has come up. We don’t have an ‘EZpass’ to get through tolls and some toll roads don’t take cash or card, so we can’t use them – New Jersey Turnpike, yes, I-95 toll sections, no. Consequently, hours are piled onto our drive time as well as strange routes all around the houses, down narrow country lanes and through Mrs Johnson’s back garden.

We met sessioneer NJ Brian hours late at Guitar Center in Cherry Hill. I was going to buy a Taylor 12-string that had been shipped from another store. I tried it and I didn’t like it, it also had no case. I also tried a Guild but the problem is that none of these guitars are set up to play. The first thing you do when you buy a guitar is give it to a luthier and he hands you back the guitar set up to your specs, intonated, new strings, the string gauges you want, the action height. None of these things are included in the price. You have to have a vision, experience and a lot of knowledge to know that the instrument you are buying is the right one for you because your ears and your hands aren’t experiencing the best version of what you hold in your hands. In the end, Brian said I could use his Takamine 12-string, it’s set up, I like it. I will admit that an amazing guitar does talk to you even if it’s sick.

We exchanged guitars in the car park, Brian got his two 12-strings, the Takamine and the Taylor that he’d lent me, he also took my Seagull to look after it whilst I’m not in the US. Taking guitars across the seas on multiple planes isn’t the best idea, so I have guitars here. It’s harder (more like impossible) to do with the electrics and the amps because of the costs to duplicate everything. We said goodbye and drove north, it was dark now but not raining and we were on a Turnpike with no trucks. Nothing is worse than being sandwiched by 18-wheelers at speed in bad weather. If you slow down it’s even more dangerous, you have to keep up with the traffic flow. We decided that we need an SUV for the height and visibility, not a saloon car that feels vulnerable amongst the monsters.

On this trip we had managed to meet quite a few sessioneers but not Chris who lives in New Jersey, this was our chance, we had a car and were on our way back to Jersey City and so we went via his house in Bloomfield for a cup of tea. Great to meet, stoopid to think we nearly didn’t when he was actually the nearest to us. We had to rush out to get the car back before 11.30 PM and we wound our way through the Jersey streets until we were back where we started. We parked and got an Uber back to Jeanne’s, what a relief, we weren’t dead.

Music today has been UFO‘s No Heavy Petting because it’s just got a reissue with extra tracks and for all the dodgy issues with these NWOBHM records that the indie intellectuals like to expose, I like a bit of dry-as-a-bone seventies Schenker guitar. The title with its Hipgnosis cover, comes from a sign in the English swimming baths in the seventies. It reminded me of the time I went swimming in a pool in Glasgow whilst on tour with AAE that said, “No Nude Showering”.

Music Of The Daze

Written by Marty Willson-Piper · Categorized: Blog

  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to page 3
  • Go to page 4
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Go to page 231
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

  • spotify
  • facebook
  • instagram
  • youtube

Liking the blog?

Tour Dates

Instagram

Thanks to The Wernickis for a little glimpse into Thanks to The Wernickis for a little glimpse into their new New Mexico listening space 🌵 #nightjar #schoolkidsrecords
Redeyed lad of the lowlands 🎵 📷 @oliviaelek Redeyed lad of the lowlands 🎵

📷 @oliviaelektra 

#danelectro #danelectrobass #redeyerecords #pleasantrylane #pleasantrylanestudio
You usually don’t spend the day in the studio an You usually don’t spend the day in the studio and the night at a gig but if you put the studio next to the gig then there’s a greater chance. So @salimnourallah did just that, he put the gig and the studio next to each other and made it possible for me to spend the day recording and the evening playing live 🎵

📷 @drewliophoto 

#galacticheadquarters #happinessarecordlabel #pleasantrylanestudio #salimnourallah #oliviawillsonpiper
TO WHERE I AM NOW A visit in the studio today fro TO WHERE I AM NOW

A visit in the studio today from old mate Mark Burgess from The Chameleons who has been hanging in Texas recently. I was thinking about the two of us growing up in the northwest of England and all these years later finding ourselves in such an unlikely spot together. We fixed a few issues in the universe and I carried on recording some guitars until Mark had to leave. Mark had played at the Galactic Headquarters next to the studio this year as Olivia and I had four years ago and this reminded me to remind myself to remind everyone to remind their friends that we will be playing there with Salim on Saturday, New Year’s Eve, for the ultimate in intimate performance. You can get tickets here (follow link below).

CONTINUE READING: https://martywillson-piper.com/2022/12/to-where-i-am-now-1045

KEEP IN TOUCH: https://linktr.ee/mwillsonpiper

📷 @salimnourallah 

#markburgess #thechameleons #chameleonsvox #pleasantrylanestudio #happinessarecordlabel #martywillsonpiper #oliviawillsonpiper #moatband
📷 @argirgirl 📷 @argirgirl
TO WHERE I AM NOW Sadness manifested in a buildin TO WHERE I AM NOW

Sadness manifested in a building, today we went to visit Paisley Park. Prince built Paisley Park in Chanhassen, about twenty minutes southwest of Minneapolis. It opened in 1987 and he recorded his later albums there. Apart from Prince, REM also recorded and mixed Out Of Time there, recording Kate Pearson’s vocal on Shiny Happy People vocal. Madonna had Prince play guitar on three songs from Like A Prayer and the two co-wrote Love Song, finishing it remotely due to Madonna not being able to stand the cold weather and the rather desolate location of the studio. Of course, there are things around but it’s not in the city and it’s not in the countryside, it’s in a suburb, no distractions, just what Prince wanted.

CONTINUE READING: https://martywillson-piper.com/2022/12/to-where-i-am-now-1032

KEEP IN TOUCH: https://linktr.ee/mwillsonpiper

📷 @argirgirl 

#paisleypark #prince
Marty & Pablo! 📷 Rod MacQuarrie Marty & Pablo!

📷 Rod MacQuarrie
At last, a proper door stop. 📷 @judgeschamber At last, a proper door stop.

📷 @judgeschamber 

#grammysitting 👵
🌵 Texas Acoustic Dates 🌵 31 December - DALL 🌵 Texas Acoustic Dates 🌵

31 December - DALLAS
7 January - CELINA
12 January - HOUSTON
14 January - AUSTIN
15 January - SAN ANTONIO

With @salimnourallah and @joereyesmusic

More info here: https://mailchi.mp/e47ede06acd6/texas-acoustic-dates
Load More… Follow on Instagram

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