30 years ago this month TMOC released Tell Me/Viet Vet, John Scott recalls:
“I first heard the album “Collision Drive” by Alan Vega, way back in the early nineties. I loved the album, but when I heard the track Viet Vet I was hooked. I then found out Alan Vega was in a band called Suicide with Martin Rev, which led me onto more, undiscovered gems of music.
I loved the lyrics of Viet Vet, which tells of a doomed love story, he’s counting out the purple hearts, she’s in hospital dying, he steals a radio for her to listen to, cops get him in an alley, he says “don’t shoot, you owe me a debt!”. I can imagine the song being a gritty late 70’s New York Scorsese film, akin to Taxi Driver.
We had started looking at places to record in Adelaide for what was to become Ill At Ease, and so were recording various songs during this time to see how they sounded. At one of these studios, Big Sound, we did the version of Tell Me listed on this single, plus the cover of Viet Vet.
I think I found the helmet with the bullet hole while watching a documentary I had on tape, and so we paused it and had it photographed by Grantly Trenwith.
Alan Vega was kind enough to thank us for covering this song. Thank you Alan Vega for creating it.”
JRS/TMOC
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