Television - Live '75 - Breakin' In My Heart - Cleveland (The Piccadilly Inn) +lyrics

"Breakin' In My Heart" never made it onto an official Television release, but Tom recorded it on his first solo album "Tom Verlaine", 1979. Only a few Television songs ever made it onto Verlaine solo albums ("The Grip of Love" is another one - thanks go to You Tuber linclink for reminding re. this factoid), although there were a lot of unreleased Television songs he could have potentially used. In a '79 interview Tom said that after Television's second album "Adventure" came out, he'd decided he'd put "Breakin' In My Heart" on the next album, whether it was a Television album or a solo one.

This was recorded at The Piccadilly Inn, Cleveland, July 25, 1975. Fred Smith had replaced Richard Hell on bass by this time. I've uploaded to YT three other (unreleased) songs from this same show, "Kingdom Come", "Poor Circulation", & "Hard On Love". Plus Television doing another unreleased song , "UFO" earlier in '75 when Richard Hell was still in the band.

After the guitar intro on Breakin' in My Heart, an audience member is heard to say "Wow!" I concur. "Awesome" being too overused a word, how about "sublime" instead?

FEB. 2012 UPDATE: For those interested in old/rare Television/Tom V. articles, here's a link to a file I uploaded of scans of approx. 60 articles/interviews (most contain interview content):
http://www.4shared.com/zip/yNdZURDR/Tom_Verlaine_Television_etc_Ar.html
I collected them between 1978 & 1990, & the articles date from '74 to '90. The Wonder fan site has an excellent articles collection (text files only), but many of my articles aren't yet available there. I finally got around to digitizing mine & making them available to other fans to download. Also, here's a link to a file of scans of my copy of book "The Night", a poetry book(let) by Tom Verlaine & Patti Smith, published 1976: http://www.4shared.com/zip/D30JguyX/the_night_tom_verlaine__patti_.html

Except for a couple of lines & the chorus, almost all the words to this Television version are different than on Tom's solo recording of the song. I wanted to know what the lyrics here are. Many lines are hard to discern easily or at all, but here's a best effort to transcribe as much as I could, with headphones, equalizer, & repeated listenings - but no guarantee they're 100% correct.!

After listening to a couple of other Television live versions of "Breakin' in My Heart" (this is the best one I've heard so far. I've uploaded another example from a NYC show at "Mother's"), it seems Tom, on this song in particular, used to apparently improvise some of the lyrics on the spot, as the words are somewhat different each time.
He even seems to admit so here: "I'm makin', & I'm makin' it up"!

BREAKIN' IN MY HEART (attempted lyrics transcription)
Thunder, thunder & lightnin'
When I first camped out I felt so sick
All the boys lit a fire just pretendin'
Ah, there was hot dogs, & there was songs
So I move off, off to the woods
I was taught stories
And then in the woods, & onto the pine needles
A soft hiss, soft hiss
Soft hiss of the rain
All I could feel was the drizzle
I could feel the lightnin' shift the edges
It all reminded me of somethin'
It reminded me of somethin' that-
It gave me a memory of somethin' I'd never seen before
It made me want to laugh & throw myself up whole
And the edges shift
I say uh-oh
I knew I was gonna catch Hell tonight
That little crack split
Small cones, small cones chew up my legs
Small clouds beat on it
[ ? ] so I started, started to flick
Started to flick, flick, flick, flick, flick, flick...(etc.)
Started to flick, flick to start that fire
I hear the camp {?] boys [?] tellin' -
And these corny ghost stories
And I - I said "man, you know I'm through listenin! "
I said "man, stop breakin' in my heart! "
[ ? ? ? ]
Breakin' in my heart
[ ? ? ? ]
Breakin' in my heart
It may hum & get a buzz
It ain't breakin' in my heart
All the nights I improvise
And I'm breakin' in my heart
Laugh at the Horsehead [ ? ] undergrad, it goes
Breakin' in my heart
I say when you play it again, we'll do it again
Breakin' in my heart
This slow tryst kiss
Breakin' in my heart
I'm makin', & I'm makin' it up
It's always breakin' in my heart
And the fool, oh boy [ ? ]
Breakin' in my heart
All the lies, the drunken lies that go
Breakin' in my heart
I ain't so [sleepy?], I learn the ways
It's breakin' in my heart
Oh baby, no treasure without pleasure
Breakin' in my heart
Livin' far, far, far-
The kingdom's 'cross the road
Breakin' in my heart
[? ? ?]
Breakin' in my heart
[? ? ?]
Breakin' in my heart
All a-ga-ga, & the sixth time, was it
Breakin' in my heart
I'm not searchin', you know I ain't lookin' for this [time?]
Breakin' in my heart
I just pointed out a moment of gold!
Breakin' in my heart
Breakin' in my heart...(etc.)

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Television
• band
• live
• Tom
• Verlaine
• Breakin'
• In
• My
• Heart
• Marquee
• Moon
• CBGB
• Richard
• Lloyd

[Bobjb999]

Anyone interested in old/rare mag. & music paper articles/interviews with Tom Verlaine & Television band mates Loyd, Hell, Ficca, & Smith should check the video description info. here. I've left a link here to a downloadable file of approx. 60 articles dating from '74 - '90 I collected from 1978 to 1990. Plus a link to scans of scarce poetry book "The Night", by Tom Verlaine & Patti Smith, published 1976.

[lloyd206]

You can barely hear the song, but the first solo is not Tom but me. --RL

[Bobjb999]

@lloyd206 Not sure I've figured out yet which solo you mean exactly.Of several Television. versions heard, this one, to my ears, sounds most inspired,. All the guitar parts played here work so well.A fave.Yr. comment "You can barely hear the song" reminds me: to upload it I re-recorded the song from the audio file of the show findable online,but should have recorded it at higher vol.,&so uploaded a louder version instead,'cause even with speakers cranked to max, it still doesn't sound very loud.

[lloyd206]

I LOVED playing "Breakin in my Heart". I was saddened that he did it on his first solo record, but he did have Ricky from the B52s play on it, so that's cool. Television's "Kingdom Come" and Tom's solo version are 2 completely different songs. Bowie covered it, and hired Tom to play on it, but Tom was so anal-retentive that David (Who had badly wanted to produce a record for us -- he did Iggy instead), that during the mixing of the tune they made tom's guitar disappear, buried in the mix...haha

[Bobjb999]

@lloyd206 So nice of you, Richard Lloyd, to add an informative&personal comment as someone from the band recorded here in '75 (sorry it took me a while to figure out it's you who wrote the lloyd206 comment).

I love your&Tom's playing here,& so in my description describe the guitar intro in this version of Breakin' In My Heart" as "sublime" -- as in chills up&down the spine!

Btw, "Television", 2011 may be a Ripp ,but without Richard Lloyd is not Television,imo.

--Accept no Substitute, folks!--

[Bobjb999]

@lloyd206 Someone emailed me a Tony Visconti quote,adding a "wrinkle" to your interesting Kingdom Come story: “We asked Tom if [he'd]...overdub..guitar[on Bowie’s Kingdom Come cover]..[He]asked if it would be okay to rent some...amps,[as if] he was...down on his luck...&didn’t own a guitar amp..David&I [watched] Tom...auditioning every guitar amp in NYC...30...Hours drifted...[We]left him still auditioning amps at 7 pm.I don’t think we ever used a note of his playing,if we even recorded him.”

[bobgure]

Television's encore of "Satisfaction" was sublime.

"Heaven's Door" was traumatic and dramatic.

oh, those guitar bird calls and whistles, chimes and deadly silence.....

[discomadame]

OMG this is a gem. and the footag. thanks sooo much for posting!!!

[ezandycle]

Just as an aside, the opening act for Television this night was Rocket From The Tombs. As many of you may know, RFTT spun off Pere Ubu, the Dead Boys and a pre-crash-and -burn Peter Laughner. It was pretty much a mutual admiration society between the two bands, as I recall.

[tony0000]

Always thought Breakin in My Heart off of Verlaine was the last great guitar solo by one of the last great guitarists. Thanks for posting this. A recording of historical value.