Tom Verlaine has always been scornful of the cliches of rock music. Mick Jagger, on the other hand, is where most of those cliches originate.
Jimmy Rip, guitar-for-hire, has played for both.
Rip is part of Television, Verlaine's precedent-shattering, yet impossibly durable, band of punk pioneers. Rip replaced Richard Lloyd, one of the greatest rhythm guitarists ever — although Television made a point of rendering the “lead” and “rhythm” guitar distinctions obsolete.
Rip will be on stage with Television on Sept. 25 at the Carnegie Music Hall in Oakland, along with Verlaine, Fred Smith on bass and Billy Ficca on drums.
The Pittsburgh show, presented by the Andy Warhol Museum, is surprising. Though one of the most influential and original bands of the past 40 years, Television has only released two albums since its legendary debut, “Marquee Moon,” in 1977. Tours are equally rare.
“When Lloyd left in 2007, it was an easy transition,” Rip says. “I had played a lot of songs with Tom in his solo shows. ... It felt great for everybody.”
Television was at the vanguard of New York City punk rock in the '70s, but a bit out of step musically with the rest. They were influenced by '60s free jazz, avant-garde minimalist composers like Steve Reich, and surf/garage-rock like Dick Dale and The Ventures. The band's music was simultaneously stripped-down and raw — with the pompous rock bombast of the time surgically excised — yet contained interlocking instrumental passages that spiralled and swirled into unexpected shapes.
“If any of us do anything that's too ‘rock,' ... (Verlaine will) call you out,” Rip says. “I think that attitude has made the sound of the band kind of timeless.”
Rip goes way back with Verlaine, so they clearly have a musical rapport.
“I wound up auditioning when Tom was putting together his solo band for the ‘Dreamtime' (1981) record,” he recalls. “I had been playing around New York City. ... I was kind of a hotshot guitar player and played in a million different bands with Fred Smith and Jay Dee Daugherty, Patti Smith's drummer. We were the rhythm section for a lot of bands in '79-'80. When Tom was putting together a band, they naturally brought me in.
“It was just another job at the time. I didn't really know Television. ... I knew Tom was a great guitar player, but I couldn't tell you anything he'd ever done. Literally, the same week I auditioned for Kid Creole and the Coconuts and Peter Frampton. The only one who didn't hire me was Pete — and I know he regrets it.”
Rip has also played with Jerry Lee Lewis and Debbie Harry.
Jagger, however, was a bit more complicated.
“It was a lot of things,” Rip says. “‘He's a nice bunch of people,' as they say. Very strong personality, extremely mercurial. We were incredibly close for four years. I lived in every one of his houses, and we wrote a lot of music together, made three records together.
“The live shows were great. It was me and Joe Satriani on guitar. ... It was a childhood fantasy to walk out into a baseball stadium full of people playing ‘Satisfaction,' having Jagger leaning on your shoulder. There's only five people in the world who have been able to do that, and I got to be one of them. That's a dream you don't want to wake up from.”
Michael Machosky is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at mmachosky@tribweb.com or 412-320-7901.
