Tom Verlaine, guitarist and singer of influential rock band Television, dies at 73

[sonnymax]

Tom Verlaine, guitarist and singer of influential rock band Television, dies at 73

Rocking out to this one in Tom's honor:

[Rooster_Ties]

Saw Verlaine in 2016 here in DC at the 9:30 B Club, in his more recent configuration of Television — and it was a memorable night.

Those first two Television albums are stone classics, and I dig the third (reunion) one too.

R.I.P.

Pretty sure I read somewhere that Verlaine originally wanted RVG to engineer Television’s debut album, iirc.

[BFrank]

Quite a shock, for sure. I was fortunate to see him quite a few times - both with Television and "solo". A unique and inspirational musical voice, for sure.

Television at the Fillmore, June 2015

[felser]

9 hours ago, Rooster_Ties said:

 

Those first two Television albums are stone classics

R.I.P.

+1

[romualdo]

loved Tom & Television - played Marquee Moon today

RIP

[Steve Reynolds]

RIP sir

never got to see them live 

My favorite is the 1991 reunion album which had no impact which was a statement on the “music industry” of then & now

too young and a shame he apparently never decided to professionally record any of the concerts of the past decades. I never understood his reticence to record more Television material nor any of the reportedly great shows which included lots of improvisation and energy. I’ve heard so often how these shows could be transcendent. 

 

[clifford_thornton]

Such sad news, RIP.

I never saw Television either, alas.

[Steve Reynolds]

47 minutes ago, clifford_thornton said:

Such sad news, RIP.

I never saw Television either, alas.

Why I’m paying silly $$$ for Wilco on 4/1 for front row loge center @ Capital Theatre. Not that Tweedy is doing poorly or anything. I never saw Sonic Youth either as I simply didn’t go to any rock shows from ~1993 until 2017 when I started seeing Grateful Dead related shows. Seeing Phil Lesh on 3/19 / he’s 83 on 3/15. Gotta live life. Going to Shift on 2/3 to see Marshall Allen NYC all-stars. Not 100% sure if the 98 year old legend is playing but it’s a great line-up.

Life is for the Living. 
 

 

Rhyme, baby

 

Edited January 29, 2023 by Steve Reynolds

[JSngry]

If recent records are any indication, Allen has been playing just fine. 

 

[Teasing the Korean]

21 hours ago, Rooster_Ties said:

Those first two Television albums are stone classics, and I dig the third (reunion) one too.

R.I.P.

12 hours ago, felser said:

+1

+2

Edited January 30, 2023 by Teasing the Korean

[Steve Reynolds]

11 minutes ago, JSngry said:

If recent records are any indication, Allen has been playing just fine. 

 

My friend saw him last Spring with Ballister in Philadelphia and said he was very good. I saw Ballister with Joe McPhee a few days earlier and McPhee (82 at that time) played like he was 35. 

Fwiw Ballister is Dave Rempis with the *great* Fred Lonberg-Holm & Paal Nilsson-Love. Pure fire. 

[Rooster_Ties]

First saw the news online last night — and at 8am was amazed to hear a nice 45-60 second piece on NPR during the 5-minute “news up to the minute” piece during the very top of the hour, complete with a little clip of the song “Marquee Moon” and an short  interview soundbite from Patty Smith’s daughter, iirc (I just learned last night that Verlaine and Smith dated for a while at some point — and Smith’s daughter remembered Verlaine as a bit of a father figure to her for a while there, was the gist of the clip). The short piece described him and the band as “influential”, and some other accolades.

It was a far more prominent placement in the news than I was expecting. Had to get to work before what I assume was a longer ‘remembrance’-style piece, or maybe that’s still to come this afternoon (or tomorrow morning?) — in any case, my wife and I were both very pleasantly surprised!

Edited January 29, 2023 by Rooster_Ties

[Joe]

This one hurts. I so wish I'd had a chance to see Verlaine live, but the stars just never aligned. He's one of the most important artistic influences in my life, and I've probably spent way too much time trying to unravel the mysteries of his iconic solos. He also took rock about as far into Coltrane territory as anyone. Exhibit A.

 

[Eric]

21 minutes ago, Joe said:

This one hurts. I so wish I'd had a chance to see Verlaine live, but the stars just never aligned. He's one of the most important artistic influences in my life, and I've probably spent way too much time trying to unravel the mysteries of his iconic solos. He also took rock about as far into Coltrane territory as anyone. Exhibit A.

 

Thanks for posting that.  I have not listened to this version in a long, long time.

[Bluesnik]

20 hours ago, sonnymax said:

Tom Verlaine, guitarist and singer of influential rock band Television, dies at 73

Rocking out to this one in Tom's honor:

Oh, I didn't know that. Marquee Moon was among my favorite albums when I was very young.

[felser]

3 hours ago, Rooster_Ties said:

I just learned last night that Verlaine and Smith dated for a while at some point

I have a DVD of Smith live at Montreux 2005, and Verlaine is in the band, but not well integrated.  He sits in a chair off to the side and takes some (good) solos.

 

[Rooster_Ties]

12 hours ago, Bluesnik said:

Oh, I didn't know that. Marquee Moon was among my favorite albums when I was very young.

How in the world did you discover Marquee Moon young?  I didn’t even know about the band until maybe 15-16 years ago, when a friend hipped me to their debut (when I was pushin’ 40).

I certainly never heard them on commercial AOR radio from the mid-80’s on (across 2-3 different AOR stations in St. Louis — so maybe me being in the Midwest was a factor there).

Admittedly, there were a LOT of what are termed now ‘Post-punk’ bands that I missed the first time. (I realize historically Television gets lumped in with Punk — but given what ‘Punk’ means now, ‘Post-punk’ describes Television better stylistically speaking — at least to my way of thinking).

[JSngry]

I ignored Television the first time around...iirc, they were late getting to record compared to their peers and I had already kinda come and was beginning to go with that whole scene of music, began getting back into hard/harder/hardest jazz. so they did not make an impression on me other than, hey, nice jangles there, kids.

As the years passed, I heard some things that were more in line with what Joe posted, and they always sounded good. And revisiting Marquee Moon is...not unpleasant.

RIP

[gvopedz]

2 hours ago, Rooster_Ties said:

How in the world did you discover Marquee Moon young?  

from magazines that mentioned punk rock - even TIME magazine mentioned Television (along with Sex Pistols, Ramones and others) by mid 1977

[JSngry]

I was actually a semi-regular reader of Trouser Press for a while. ca. 1976-77. Started reading it for the set sale lists in the back, trying to get a feel on what records were generating good asking prices, but soon started reading the music articles as well. Plenty of exposure for all kinds of the new rock musics of the day, both live and recorded. As alluded to earlier, Television was gaining a lot of notice long before they made Marques Moon, which IIRC, was treated like a Sonny Rollins Milestone records in some quartesr, aka Well, it's good, but it's SO much better live...

[gvopedz]

The Trouser Press archive is online:

https://trouserpress.com/magazine-covers-1/

 

[clifford_thornton]

4 hours ago, Rooster_Ties said:

How in the world did you discover Marquee Moon young?  I didn’t even know about the band until maybe 15-16 years ago, when a friend hipped me to their debut (when I was pushin’ 40).

I certainly never heard them on commercial AOR radio from the mid-80’s on (across 2-3 different AOR stations in St. Louis — so maybe me being in the Midwest was a factor there).

Admittedly, there were a LOT of what are termed now ‘Post-punk’ bands that I missed the first time. (I realize historically Television gets lumped in with Punk — but given what ‘Punk’ means now, ‘Post-punk’ describes Television better stylistically speaking — at least to my way of thinking).

They probably weren't on commercial radio in the 80s, but they were on a major label (Verlaine and Lloyd solo as well) and geared toward the college market. I first heard Marquee Moon in college in the 90s, but didn't get hugely into it until later. And yes, Verlaine was punk. Punk means a lot of things (as does jazz) and if you stay away from the corny-ass versions of either you'll be fine.

[felser]

I never heard them on the radio.  Just was aware of reputation and took a chance on cd's later on when they were available from, I think, BMG Music Club.

[Bluesnik]

9 hours ago, Rooster_Ties said:

How in the world did you discover Marquee Moon young?

I am not American. European. But in my city and country and Europe, for that matter, everything coming out of NY was always viewed with the highest interest. From already the Velvets to, from the mid to late Seventies, Richard Hell, Patti Smith and everything else. There's a theory I first heard about in Legs McNeill's Please kill me, an oral history of the American punk, that holds that punk was birthed in NY, when Malcolm McLaren was there managing the NY Dolls. And that he eventually returned to Britain and implemented it there. Mixing in situationist ideology. That is Paris 68. That was new. But he took what he had seen in NY. And I give that theory credibility. Specially considering McLaren's penchant to making a quick buck outta scandal.

But where I discovered Television I don't remember. Probably through reading magazines. I was always very interested in counterculture. And that was when I was 16. But I also never saw them as punk. More psychedelic. Which was what I was into. I never really warmed to the whole punk thing. Though I liked (very much) what came afterwards: postpunk. Which drew a lot from 60s music.

10 hours ago, Rooster_Ties said:

I certainly never heard them on commercial AOR radio from the mid-80’s on

They were from earlier. Late 70s. And maybe early 80s.

[AllenLowe]

I wonder if anyone can advise me - I have read repeatedly about what a good guitarist Verlaine was, Coltrane-influenced (or so I have read); but I have never really found much of his playing which shows much of that. Am I missing something?