Just saw news that Tom Verlaine, lead singer and guitarist of the influential proto-punk/punk/post-punk band, Television, passed away today at 73 after “a brief illness.”
Television were slightly before my time and slightly before when I started listening to music. I first became aware of their music in 1992 through a friend’s mixtape, which included an REM live cover of “See No Evil.” A few years later I discovered Marquee Moon, with its brilliant songwriting, jagged rhythms, and the fine melodic guitar interplay between Verlaine and Richard Lloyd. Marquee Moon contains perhaps the best and my favorite post-punk guitar solo, eschewing fluid blues licks for melodic, textural and rhythmic lines, simple but bloody effective in their build, arc, and release. Here’s a raised glass to you, Tom, and the joy you’ve brought me in your music:
Marquee Moon was released right when I was the most into music. It was THE ONE album that the most people I talked, played, and partied with talked up, but that I just couldn’t get into. I’ll give it another listen in TV’s honor. Despite any deficiencies in my personal test, Tom Verlaine was a hugely influential figure in the late 70s-early 80s.
It’s one of those albums that shows up in those “kill your idols!” type lists that perhaps question the rock fandom/criticism orthodoxy. So I guess it’s polarizing. I’m listening through the album right now, and everything about it speaks to me. Bob Fica’s drumming on this is exquisite, Fred Smith holds down the back end with interesting bass parts, the intertwining of the two guitar styles of Tom and Richard play well and contrast well each other, with Tom’s more jagged approach and Richard’s more bluesy, liquid style. Plus, god, do I love the guitar tones on this. At every point all the instruments work together for the greater good of the composition and add color and little fills where needed. They layering of the different rhythms played by different instruments on many songs just tickles me. Nothing on this album is boring.
Live at the Old Waldorf is one of those rainy day, space-out headphone albums for me. I have to be in the mood, but when I am he and Television are just fascinating for me to listen to. Personally I think his solo album version of the old Television song (never formally recorded by the band) Breakin’ in My Heart was his finest studio production (featuring B-52’s guitarist Ricky Wilson as well).
Yeah - it is weird, because I acknowledge that it is really really close to a lot of the music I loved best. Clearly influenced a lot of my favorite artists. But somehow or another I never broke through to appreciate the source.
I recommend getting pretty stoned (if so inclined) and listening to the song Marquee Moon at high volume, maybe on headphones. That was lightning in a jar.
This just came up in my Apple Music shuffle after finishing Marquee Moon for the second time. My ears perked up: what is that? Yep, “Breakin’ In My Heart.” (Though mis-titled as “Breakin’ My Heart.”)
I saw him play with the reformed Television around 1990 or so.
An interesting thing about his playing was the effects he achieved just by turning the volume knob up and down. He could make that sound like a wah wah, among other things.
I am not happy about these latest developments wrt groundbreaking rock guitarists.
I remember hearing about Tom Verlaine and Television (Tom Verlaine… TV… Television – I just got that! ) but never knew much about them. Our local NPR station used to have a music program on Saturdays where the host would spend a whole hour focusing on a particular artist, album, or genre and one weekend he did a show about the Marquee Moon album. When I heard that song I knew right away I had to go out and buy a copy of that album. I was just listening to it a week or two ago. RIP TV.
“Marquee Moon” is one of those classic lonely island albums for me personally, and a record that always turns up high in best albums of all times lists. Deservedly so, it’s one of the best and most outstanding and original rock albums. The other two Television albums are always overlooked, but weren’t so bad either. I’m not as familiar with Verlaine’s solo work, but probably will catch up on it after these bad news. RIP.
ETA: I just had a little laugh reading Verlaine’s obituary on spiegel.de. They called “Marquee Moon” a “punk album”. No, Spiegel, the album is a lot of things, but definitely no punk album. Sure, the band worked with a punk ethos and approach, but their music was not punk rock. I guess the writer thought CBGB’s band=punk, but that’s too simple. Television were nothing like the Ramones, who were nothing like Blondie and so on, there was much diversity in that scene.
I’m a little embarrassed to have overlooked Television to the extent that I have. I’m only familiar with two of their songs. I got into “See No Evil” thanks to the fun R.E.M. cover that pulykamell mentioned, and a few years ago, I happened to remember at some point seeing the video for “Call Mr. Lee” (which MTV probably played, like, all of two times) and decided it was worth a download.
I didn’t actually hear Television until the 90s. I would read about them in magazines, and other people I liked would reference them in interviews, but I simply never heard them until I went out and bought Marquee Moon. Great record, and since then I’ve never heard anything from Verlaine that I thought was bad.
Sorry to see you go, sir. It was great having you around.
Hey, don’t sweat it. Sometimes you don’t hear it in the right context or something, and it just doesn’t work for you. For example, I really should love Animal Collective, but I just don’t “get into” their songs the way I enjoy Panda Bear solo.
Nitpick: That’s going to be the tone knob. Roy Buchanan was known to do this, as well.
Ehh, punk is not really a particular sound, and I could see an argument being made that they’re the stripped down, punk version of prog rock - no synths, organs or orchestras, just guitars, bass and drums.
Yeah and “post-punk” is where I kind of throw bands I can’t quite classify from that era. That said, to me that solo is definitely firmly in what I consider post-punk: jagged, rhythmic, not flashy.
I should have been more precise , I rather meant the difference between punk rock and Television’s music. There is a big gap between no solos, only chords (never more than three) Ramones, and 8 minute songs with 4 minutes of guitar solos Television. It’s hard to pin-point a category for Television, at the time they might have called it new wave, but post punk may also fit (though Television made music before punk even broke. But other bands like Pere Ubu and even Captain Beefheart made post punk before 1976/77. Post punk is a diverse and bit confusing term).
Sad news indeed, damn! MM is one of my desert island discs, for sure.
I was shamefully ignorant of his solo work so I must remedy that ASAP!
I don’t see mention above of Television’s 3rd (self titled) album, which is damn near as good as MM, IMO. Check out the tracks “Shane, She Wrote This”, “Call Mr Lee” and “Mars”, at least.
I’ve already seen a handful of obit comments that mention the volume knob. Nothing big in the grand scheme, just wanted to mention it.
Meanwhile, I was listening again today to “Little Johnny Jewel”, which I hadn’t heard in years. Such smart, jazzy playing. There was a tiny wave of musicians who negotiated that post-punk/jazz/whatever thread, like him, Robert Quine, or Boon. Great stuff.
Yeah, punk and post-punk are both odd categories to nail down. Partly because the ambiguity of punk, and especially when you use it to refer to bands such as Beefheart’s bands that existed before punk did (although, I’m pretty sure my very traditionalist drummer would call them “punk”, and I wouldn’t really agree). Pre-punk proto-post-punk, maybe? I dunno, music categorization is hard. I think I’ll try to avoid it in the future.
Well, in their and @Jaycat.again 's defense, Verlaine did use the volume knob as an effect. But you can’t get a wah sound from doing it.
More like a tremolo or even bowing type sound, but I can see how a lay person may characterize it as a wah, which is more a filter effect.
I came across this rather interesting interview of Richard Lloyd and the recording of Marquee Moon. Of course, it’s just one person’s perspective, but the personality dynamics seemed interesting:
Both Verlaine and Lloyd had a reputation for being very difficult at times. Lloyd is bipolar by his own admission (he was apparently committed and misdiagnosed as schizophrenic as a teenager) and apparently can be a real handful when in a manic state. Verlaine came off as both selfish and a serious narcissist - not just in Lloyd’s recollection, but in interviews I’ve read with him as well. Actually they both had very well-developed egos. It’s not surprising they were such a volatile mix.
Still, fantastic musicians . They just lived up to that stereotypical reputation as crazy artists.
) but never knew much about them. Our local NPR station used to have a music program on Saturdays where the host would spend a whole hour focusing on a particular artist, album, or genre and one weekend he did a show about the Marquee Moon album. When I heard that song I knew right away I had to go out and buy a copy of that album. I was just listening to it a week or two ago. RIP TV.
. They just lived up to that stereotypical reputation as crazy artists.