1-31-12 Survival Jobs for Writer-Musicians – Starter Job #29 (Tina Weymouth yaks years later with Lauren/La Trix)

Lauren & Tina; Jim Wolcott, L & T (other pic)

A real class act like her sweetheart, husband Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth still has it and is still a great role model. So, thanks again, Tina, for influencing me to fearlessly pick up a Fender Precision electric bass in 1991. . . and for being interviewed by me in 2011 as part of the FINDING BLISS tv show! (for Vimeo TW interview -- click here)

Here are some cool quotes from Ms. Tina:

“I didn’t grow up necessarily thinking I’d be a musician -- although I always loved music and I did music as well as art. I decided I was going to be an artist at the age of two. I remember it distinctly: I remember where I was, and it was very funny because I was so young, but I already had this idea in mind. And my parents knew I was probably going to go in some sort of artistic direction, and they were great, they were very supportive of it.”

“And I had a big family, so I could get all my sisters to work with me on puppet shows and circuses and various little music shows and plays that I would write and then we would put on. And we even had a talking head, which later popped up (smiles) in my future, after I met my husband, Chris Frantz, in college, when I was going to the Rhode Island School of Design (RISDEE).”

“I do blame my brother for introducing me to guitar and Bob Dylan; the rest was just finding great friends in school, especially when I went to art school. There I hit my stride.”

So, how DID the music start for you, Tina? “Well, I learned how to play folk guitar when I was 14, out of books. I was living in Iceland at the time. My life is kinda complicated. Yes, it was very cool, but it was far away from everything, so I had to learn from books. And it was very exciting to find out afterwards, ‘Oh yeah, I did do that song right.’ But I loved sitting in my room playing my guitar, and my sister, Danielle, would always be so studious and do her homework. And I was so bad (shakes head). I did my homework, but not to the sacrifice of my guitar (smiles impishly). I had to do that.”

“But the curious thing that was, while my husband, Chris Frantz, who is also a painter, and I, while we were sharing a studio, we would be listening to the radio while we were painting, and what kept coming back to us all the time was, ‘This music could be a lot better.’ OK, there were some good things on, but mainstream music at the time was kind of driving us crazy (in the early ‘70’s). It seemed to have gotten into a bad state. I mean, David Bowie and Mark Bolan of T-Rex were doing interesting things, and there were interesting things that were starting to brew in Germany. . . “

“But this was all overseas, while in America, the love of country -- nothing wrong with that, because we are big fans of Dolly Parton -- there seemed to be this plethora of blues-based American music. But it was always being pushed into something phoney. There was a phoniness going on which had to do with people wanting to be like and authentic bluesman, like Bob Dylan trying to do something of the authentic genre. I guess we thought--“

“It was really Chris’s idea. He kept saying, ‘I want to have a band. Why don’t you join my band?’ I said, ‘Look, I’ll drive you, I’ll support you -- but I don’t think I really belong in your band.’ First of all, he didn’t really like flutes, and I was playing flute at the time. And I said, ‘You’ve got two guitarists already; I really don’t think a third guitarist would work -- and I’m not a singer. Let me just be supportive of you.’ “

“And it took two years before I joined his band, and it was only by default. By that time, we’d moved to New York. I knew all the great painters at that point were living in NY. I thought, ‘I’ll live with them and I’ll still be a painter--‘” Tina smiles. “I’m still not painting.”

“Our first band was the Artistics -- also known as the Autistics, for good reason. You know, it was a great little band, it only played two or three times. It didn’t have enough momentum but it certainly impressed me that David Byrne is a wonderful guitarist. And, you know, he’ll do anything on a dare.”

“So, when Chris and I dared him (Byrne) to move to NY with us, he said OK. That’s how we started as a trio. I wasn’t in the band at that point, but we lived two blocks from CBGB’s -- that was Chris’s call -- he found the loft we lived in and he pretty much put everything together. David and I were not very practical, but we did have a lot of good ideas, I think.”

So, when did you pick up the bass? “I bought my first bass on my birthday. I’d been putting five dollars down on a Fender Precision on 48^th Street (in Manhattan), every week. I had a job at Henry Bendel’s and I was lucky to have the job as long as I did, and it was a great experience, because I got to see what I didn’t want to do. . . “

Who were the bass players that Tina admired and emulated? “Well, the Beach Boys and the Beatles were the only ones I really knew. The bass in both of those bands was fantastic. And I hadn’t realized that I was listening to the bass. I just picked up the bass because they needed a bass.”

“At first I thought, ‘Gee, because it only has four strings, how hard can it be?’ And then I found out how it’s really a whole other challenge than guitar. It took me a while, but Chris was a great teacher just in terms of being committed and sticking with it. You know, it wasn’t easy.”

“I’d been playing bass nearly five months when we did our first show.”

How’d you come up with the name, Talking Heads? “Talking Heads was a name that a friend of ours, an artist who was also from RISDEE, added to a list that we’d been keeping. We had a list of possibilities. I remember one was called, ‘The Vogue Dots.’ Another was ‘The Subway Tones.’ And you know, we kept saying we really need something that doesn’t convey anything like anybody else’s music because we’re trying to move away from 12-bar, blues-based rock, and we’re trying to do something that’s a little different. . .”

For the rest of the fabulous Tina interview, please visit Vimeo & Finding Bliss.

Until next time, your faithful blogger.

1-29/30-12 Survival Jobs for Writer-Musicians – Starter Job #27 - 28 (Rock Writer Trixie Meets More Kindred Spirits in Downtown NYC, Pt. 3)

As before stated, there’s no shortage of kindhearted, kindred souls I’ve known, period. And like I said, if they were famous, I wasn’t intimidated because I believe people are more alike than not, and besides, who’s to say one person’s more valuable than another? Let’s enjoy life together and have a laugh, live and learn from each other. That’s cool!

Tina Weymouth had a way about her that was fascinating -- not self-conscious, she seemed intelligent and sophisticated; everybody had a crush on her and she wasn’t stuck up, or even aware of it. A real classy chick, Tina was everything I’d aspire to. I guess she could have symbolized a big sister to me. . . One night when we were all at a loud music party or somebody’s gig, Tina confided in me, earnestly sotto voce. I couldn’t quite make out everything, but I knew she’d gone through something very traumatic. . . I nodded reassuringly, I hope, but the music was so loud I wasn’t sure what she was saying or if I was being at all helpful.

I also was kind of clueless about the relationship between Chris & Tina. . . they were very careful to not be demonstrative in public, no PDAs. . . and I didn’t ask, they didn’t tell. Back when the Beatles started, the press really played down John Lennon’s marriage to Cynthia; I guess young pop rock musicians tend to carry on the illusion of sexual availability so their fans will continue being interested, thinking they might have a chance. . . (I was very conflicted about people knowing whether Shawn & I were in a relationship. . . in fact, all my life up to now, unless married, I have kind of liked to keep my “private life” private -- so I definitely understand where Tina & Chris were coming from.)

Fittingly, I think Tina was maybe one reason why I started playing bass in earnest in the Dave Rave Conspiracy in 1991. . .

Anyhoo, when I visited la maison T-Heads -- their loft on Chrystie Street -- Tina would often be practicing the bass. The band had their gear set up in the loft to rehearse, which is one big reason why they eschewed the comforts of a middle class home and lived in a rough industrial loft in downtown NY in the ‘70’s, before lofts became gentrified. The people who originally lived in these spaces were generally artists, musicians, or bohemians in spirit. By the ‘90’s, lofts became chi-chi and pricey, luxury open spaces with industrial-grade kitchens for people who only opened and closed a refrigerator to grab an Evian.

I doubt that the T-Heads had heat, hot water, and working showers most of the time! I sometimes would ask them to join me on a trip out of NYC to do something kind of fun and outdoorsy, like apple picking one autumn. We drove to upstate NY in my car, to one of the many picturesque apple orchards where they handed you bags and a “picker” and you could rove the rows of MacIntosh, Cortlands and Delicious apples. Afterwards, we went to a diner. It was really nice & fun.

Soft spoken and gentlemanly, Chris Frantz had a very natural, friendly manner and was great at putting people at ease. He was extremely well liked (and still is -- he & Tina, both) and really, there was nothing you couldn’t like about him. He radiated confidence, humility, warmth, and success. He treated Tina like a queen, a jewel, a cherished friend -- just a dream of a guy. Tina, I’m sure, agrees that she was lucky (and vice versa for Chris); I also believe that David Byrne was extremely lucky to be a college friend of his from RISDEE and get invited to NYC to join Chris’s band.

Oh, didn’t you know? Talking Heads was the brainchild of drummer Chris Frantz, who recruited his semi-secret girlfriend, Tina, and their college buddy, David Byrne, to move to NYC and play in the band.

I can pull some quotes from an interview I did last year with Chris to add my next blog. . . so be sure to come back, y’hear??

1-28-12 Survival Jobs for Writer-Musicians – An Aside to Starter Job #26 (Rock Writer Trixie Gets Around in Elenore, the Wonder Car)

(Imagine this car in Nile Green, and that would be my first car: Elenore, the Wonder Car)

I’ve just gotta say here and now that I have no idea how I afforded having a car back in the mid ‘70’s when I was living in Portchester, NY and “commuting” to the city to live my rock’n’rollsville life. Granted, it was a much-traveled four-door ’65 Chevy Malibu, Nile Green. I named her “Elenore,” the wonder car, after the Turtles song:

“Elenore, gee I think you’re swell/And you really suit me well/You’re my pride and joy et cetera.”

Sure, there were over 300k miles on that car, but my mechanic friend, Billy, checked her over and deemed it good. I mean, for $250 I got a solid classic car that was only 10 years old; it had a V-8 engine, there were no problems with it, and Elenore purred like a big kitty.

I think there’d been a problem with a fire in the back seat, but my friend found me a replacement bench style car seat for the back, it didn’t smell at all bad, and I was definitely cookin’ with gas. BTW, regular gas back then was about 60 cents per gallon, which would be roughly $2.50 in 2012’s economy.

When I moved to the city, I figured, I’d get rid of the car. . . if I’d been thinking straight, I’d have figured on leaving it in Queens at my mom’s house, but my mom was kind of unpredictable so I never knew if she’d be cool about something or make it a big “federal case,” so I didn’t push it, or even think about, keeping the car there. Maybe I wanted to save on paying insurance or something. . . money was SO tight back then.

Anyhoo, I did love driving my big, strong Elenore wonder car -- even though I only had her for maybe a year and a half. Back then, it wasn’t a big hassle to park on the street in the city -- remember, there were several million less people -- so I’d drive into the city to visit, every time. Parking on the upper west side wasn’t a hassle when I stayed with my boyfriend.

Parking downtown wasn’t bad, either. I could park very near CBGB’s, and go home if necessary. Usually I’d stay with my boyfriend, or occasionally with other friends. I did have some friends in bands and I recall how gracious they were to let me stay over every now & then.

Two of those friends were Chris and Tina, of Talking Heads. I’m not sure if we met by me going over to them, or if my boyfriend, JW (ha ha -- the mysterious JW!), introduced us. Whatever and however it happened, we really “clicked” and I thought Frantz & Weymouth were absolutely wonderful: sweet, charming, gracious, generous, and well mannered. I loved their music, too, of course.

At any rate, when I stayed over their loft on Chrystie Street one night, I remember listening with them to “Love Is the Drug” on the stereo (it had just recently come out & we all loved Roxy Music and Bryan Ferry) and really digging it. David Byrne shared the loft; he was very shy & not real communicative. The loft was a very primitive, unpretty space. The sleeping areas were separated by curtains made of sheets or blankets, and they had a place for a guest to sleep (me!). I can’t recall if it was a couch or a bed, but I slept just fine, no worries (never had too much of a problem there). There’s enough of the gypsy in me to not mind crashing out at somebody else’s place, so long as I’m welcome there.

The next morning, however, I found that a window in my car had been broken and a bag with my college textbooks had been stolen, while parked on Chrystie Street. Damn! It really was a tough neighborhood back then. . .

Like I said, I didn’t know what I’d do with the car once I moved into NYC. And so, wonder car Elenore obediently expired on the eve of my move to my first NY apartment in the middle of ’76. Oh well. They said it was the transmission. How could I have afforded getting THAT fixed back then? It never occurred to me to ask for help (especially not from mom -- who was dating a new guy after our dad died in ’74). A towtruck was called to haul away poor old Elenore’s carcass (or car chasse?) from the Hutchinson River Parkway south, and that was the last I saw of her.

But it wasn’t the last I saw of Chris & Tina. . . or the Talking Heads.