marquee moon by Television

i haven't heard much television live but the few videos i saw were kind of disappointing, they have to stand so still and concentrate so hard to play those guitar parts, i always imagined them doing, like, spazzy angular dances or something

The redoubtable Doom and Gloom from the Tomb site has put up some really great Television boots. The Portland show from the Earth Tavern blows the Waldorf Show (from the night before?) out of the water. Much rawer and more rocking versions of tunes from Adventure. And for an audience of about 50 from what I can tell!

the earth tavern show rules too but i think they are equal just different vibes on each night IMO

plus....the sound quality on the waldorf show goes a long way, damn near studio quality, portland is on the rough side (which actually fits the performance)

p much with you, scott. television to me are a band of a few great songs, a couple great live recordings. but when they're on, they're fucking ON.

I think it's on Spotify

― Mark G, Wednesday, 7 March 2012 20:40 (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I think, correctly.

mmmmm! It's a bit good, innit?

still like the roir tape live versions better. like way better.

back in the days when cassetes were still a going concern an ilxor promised to tape me that, never got round to it.

But i should...

That's on Spotify as well.

as is obvious from my blog, this band is top 10 for me, if pressed, i might even say marquee moon is my fave rock n roll album ever.

i haven't heard much television live but the few videos i saw were kind of disappointing, they have to stand so still and concentrate so hard to play those guitar parts, i always imagined them doing, like, spazzy angular dances or something
http://www.richardhell.com/jumptv1.jpg
think they were a little spazzy, at least w/ hell in the band, judging from this pic.

haha that's awesome

if anyone's interested, i just posted that hellevision comp mentioned above: http://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/post/18962115402/television-a-season-in-hell-soooo-heres-a
some of it's been around the block a bit, but there are some rare-ish things, too.

I am missing something again.

I bought it mid 80s

Revisited since, plenty of times.

Still not great.

say why though.

tylerw - excellent comp, thanks, making my way through now. Loving the baselines. Ficca is fkn fine too.

Be interesting to hear a full album's worth of Marque Moon versions, maybe...

on the occasion of its 40th birthday

https://damienlove.com/writing/friction-the-making-of-televisions-marquee-moon

sweet - thx!

very nice

Yeah, this was a wonderful read, thanks! I loved this part:

Tom came up with this idea, based on double-features at the movies: two bands each night. Never more, never less. Each would play two sets. So, on one night, you’d have Talking Heads, then Television, then Talking Heads, then Television.

I have never seen this done, and I think it's a great idea.

When I saw Television's tour nearly 3 years ago, they had some new songs, and I thought there were plans for a new album. Any word on that?

ha, well, read that Lloyd article linked above -- they've been talking about a new album (and playing various new songs) for well over a decade now.

jimmy ripp has basically said it's done except for the vocals

verlaine is such an odd case -- i wonder if he'll ever write a memoir of any kind.

ha, well, read that Lloyd article linked above -- they've been talking about a new album (and playing various new songs) for well over a decade now.

― tylerw

don't they just do "persia" for 20 minutes at every show?

yeah that might be the only new thing they do these days. in the early 00s, there were a bunch of things (handily compiled here): http://www.earcandyarchive.com/?p=24

I wish tom v would write a memoir... as i've made clear i am a bit obsessed with him. There's no way he's ever gonna do it though. He never will, because we want him to. He can barely stand to be interviewed, even.

yeah it's unlikely, though I think someone asked him about it (maybe after the Richard Hell book came out?) and he said he was thinking about it.

he likes to think about doing things, does our tom

haha yeah, i just wonder if he saw patti's book getting on the bestseller lists and thought "hey, i could do that!" probably just a matter of some publisher making a big enough offer ... which is probably not going to happen.

Looks like the 2003 expanded remaster of Adventure is OOP, is the MM from the same edition.
Shame would hope they'd try to keep both in print.

yeah the last CD reissues of the debut and Adventure were from 2003 (along with the essential live at the old waldorf disc). maybe the ship has sailed, but there really should be a Television boxed set of some kind.

I actually bought the third album in Oxfam this weekend! £1.99 !

On CD, I should say.

I love that album

I didn't, really. I bought it on LP when it came out, it had that eighties reverb that they'd avoided with the other albums, and the songs didn't connect with me apart from "Call Mr Lee". Also, lots of other records about at the time.

Not played it yet, will let you know.

I know, you can't wait, right?

These are Television fans. They can wait.

This is all I could find from a lengthy, now deleted blog post by Steve Kilbey, singer from The Church. He toured with Tom Verlaine and wrote at length about it, not in a particularly flattering way.

i met one of my all time heroes
tom verlaine (nee miller)
he came on tour with us in 1988
he was a strange dude
penny pinching hilarious sarcastic weird man
nothing like what i expected
he treated me like a pesky kid
and i still vividly remember one day in the dead of winter
somewhere in the north east
we pulled into this hotel at about 6 am
verlaine rings me up 1o minutes after we check in
hey kilbey....you wanna go for a uh walk
ok tom i'll be right there
we walk to the top of this hill
where theres a kinda resovoir or something
and then we see a couple of cars of black guys
with some nasty looking deal going down
and we start running
theyre chasing us
so we run into these woods
and verlaine is sprinting down this snowy wooded hill
like a prize stallion
while i on my shorter legs struggled along behind
i thinkin how weird this is
escaping from these villains with a guy i used to idolize
(and fiends, marquee moon IS one of the best records ever)
later i meet his mom n dad
outside a gig in philly
and his mom says
you make sure tom writes to me

haha that's great.
for the 40th anniversary of Marquee Moon, I traced the title track's development (via rehearsals/demos/live tapes) -- http://pitchfork.com/thepitch/1438-televisions-punk-epic-marquee-moon-40-years-later/

I dunno, that's reasonably flattering, the guy actually acknowledges support band singers existence. That's not bad going from any headliner.

Wowee...can't wait to dig into that. Looks amazing.

xp

So, where is that Portland 17 minute version, then?

thanks, man, let me know what you think ...
there's at least one version of the Church covering "Cortez the Killer" with Verlaine on guitar floating around ... iirc it's not quite as good as it sounds in theory, but it's cool.

xp -- it's embedded in the article? showing up for me at least ...

Ah, will have to, later. Ta.

heads on the hunt for Television rarities should go here: http://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/tagged/television

I dunno, that's reasonably flattering, the guy actually acknowledges support band singers existence. That's not bad going from any headliner.

I believe Tom Verlaine was opening for The Church. I wish I could find the rest of the post, but it's gone. I do remember him saying how TV would obsessively pour over lunch bills, and howl if he overpaid by as much as 25 cents.

penny pinching hilarious sarcastic weird man
nothing like what i expected

That's exactly what I would have expected tbh.

verlaine is such an odd case -- i wonder if he'll ever write a memoir of any kind.

yeah, they are both weirdos. if they didn't play guitar so well together, they probably would have never spoken to one another.

I believe Tom Verlaine was opening for The Church. I wish I could find the rest of the post, but it's gone

https://web.archive.org/web/20060630060143/http://stevekilbey.blogspot.com/2006/06/one-soft-infested-summer.html