Celebrity Jukebox #65: Tom Verlaine

Well, the Cadillac

It pulled out of the graveyard

Pulled up to me

All they said, "get in, get in"

Then the Cadillac

It puttered back into the graveyard

Me, I got out again

Just as it came time to fire up the Celebrity Jukebox again, the news of Tom Verlaine's passing was announced. I didn't build this jukebox purely as a memorial machine, but it seems to increasingly be used that way. Ashes to Ashes...

 

Being quite an influential figure in the world of rock 'n' roll, Tom Verlaine pops up in quite a few songs. Here are a strong selection...

The Go-Betweens - When She Sang About Angels

When she sang about a boy

Kurt Cobain

I thought what a shame it wasn't about

Tom Verlaine

The Waterboys -  Some of My Best Friends Are Trains

When the gang came down here again

And they're phoning up Australia and they call each other names

And they all just wanna look like Richard Hell and Tom Verlaine

Some of my best friends are trains

Frank Lloyd Wleft - The Gilesgate Monologues 

I left school with 12 GCSEs, 3 A Levels and only one good song

I'm just another Russell Group punk

Just another Distrokid kid

Just another dime-store Tom Verlaine

Waiting for my 15 seconds of fame

The Family Cat - Tom Verlaine

April the 7th, 1979

Didn’t we breakfast together?

We celebrated my seventeenth

And heard Tom Verlaine together

We shouted from my bedroom window

And weren’t we happy that day?

But perhaps it was the whisky

Well at least no-one died that day

The Damned - Idiot Box

I can't turn you off

I just try and laugh you off

Tom Verlaine you maybe are

But you sure ain't rock n roll

Aden - Brief Summer Rains

Nights by the lake

Ribs and lemonade 

Tom Verlaine

Tape on auto-play

Longstocking - Radio Agony

If I could dance

With Tom Verlaine

He's the one

On the television

Alvvays - Tom Verlaine

That when you walk away

It's gonna be for good

You were my Tom Verlaine

Just sitting on the hood