Television

RIP ;_;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyQBLQgVblY

Went looking for the solo version and had no idea Television had done this back in 1975

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=032bsV9SeWg

saw him at a WMFU record fair once. didn't expect him to be so tall! John Lurie too - like standing next to a skyscraper

xp yeah there are some incredible early versions of that, another one from CBGB '75 as well

always found this one incredibly moving, going to listen to it now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhoSxmqO710
Tom Verlaine - Song

Went by the book stalls outside Strand yesterday thinking I’d see you as usual, have a smoke, talk about rare poetry finds for a couple of hours, downtown NYC racing by our slow meditations on music, writing - gonna miss you Tom. TV Rest In Peace.

— Thurston Moore (@nowjazznow) January 28, 2023

First television song I ever heard was that amazing clip of them doing 'Foxhole' on the OGWT, that made me want to buy a guitar like nothing else i'd ever seen. Adventure was always precious to me because of that tune

― o shit the sheriff (NickB), Saturday, 28 January 2023 21:39 (forty-seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

His vamping and obnoxious eyelash flutters in that performance rule so hard

God damn this is so sad, is there anything on earth that sounds like the way he played that jazzmaster

There was a post somewhere I think on this board that got stuck in my head forever about how that closing stretch of The Dream's Dream is basically the prettiest guitar playing ever, and yeah

Can’t believe it

I mean I totally can but this does not at all feel good rn

MM and old Waldorf obv, but hear me now, Flash Light is also a masterpiece, I will never ever back down about this.

Solo show w band at Bowery Ballroom in 06 a lifetime high for me

Wahhh

There’s almost no one left standing of my old favorites now. Crocus B, Robyn H and Richard T long life to you.

Am I tripping or is the 1:35 mark of elevation the inspo for rhcp “Californication”

There was a post somewhere I think on this board that got stuck in my head forever about how that closing stretch of The Dream's Dream is basically the prettiest guitar playing ever, and yeah

If that wasn't me it should have been. It has a real uplifting quality - rivalled only by a Popol Vuh song used in Herzog's "Heart of Glass".

In some ways the dreams dream, especially the Waldorf version, is my favorite television recording

everything this guy did after the first Television album was almost an afterthought, certainly overlooked

I'd love to think that his solo albums might get a little of the attention they deserved all along:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noJ2H19Qh8A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rx03SpAh_U

Of course, he was a great guitar player, but his songs and singing could have been visionary even if he had never picked one up. His music was all of a piece, never showing off, all expressing the view from inside his head.

man, rip. i wonder if that 4th tv album will ever emerge in one form or another.

rip. marquee moon was one of those things i had to read about long before i got to hear it, and it was as advertised.

Sleater-Kinney on FB:

While there are many guitar players whom we admire, there are very few whose work informed our approach to playing and writing. Tom Verlaine was one of those guitarists. It was not only his serpentine style—jagged yet shimmering, capable of story-like melodies—but also how he played in conversation with his bandmate and fellow guitarist, Richard Lloyd. The intertwining of notes, completing each other’s sentences, toying with consonance and dissonance, beautifully colliding then breaking away; telling us so much without a single word. While Marquee Moon was seminal, Adventure burrowed deeper. I can’t think of a song that informed the entirety of our guitar playing on The Hot Rock than “Days.” Thank you, Tom Verlaine, for guiding us. May you rest in peace. “Days, be more than all we have. “ 🎸📺💔

ooh that's nice, thanks, my fave song from Adventure

Influenced my guitar style like nobody else did. That's not saying very much, but it's good to see other more well known guitarists saying that too.

More Richard Lloyd than Verlaine though, that one.

That S-K eulogy is super eloquent thank you

Also- thanking thus sang freud for the ticket hookup for one of my handful of TV shows

And Verlaine adapted to the synth pop era. I love this ballad, downloaded by me during the Napster peak.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BN5qO2Gsyw0

That’s a great one. Do you like the Flash Light album, lord Soto?

I do! "A Town Called Walker"! "The Funniest Thing"!

have been watching richard lloyd's guitar lessons on youtube recently, very analytical in a mad scientist kind of way, and also somewhat perplexing to an oaf like me, but a really fascinating approach and i'd imagine quite a complementary one to verlaine who i can't help but think of as just plucking inspiration out of thin air like he's drawing a breath and breathing it out (this is likely a complete misapprehension on my part, would like to read any interviews with him on that side of things if anyone has any good links?)

that was a very enjoyable evening, j not j -- it was a pleasure seeing a tv show with you.

I sleep light
On these shores tonight
I live light on these shores

I hope we praise how good a lyric writer he was: his guitar was lyrical, his lyrics were pointillist.

Apologies for the spam, but the one episode of my podcast I was really thrilled about was getting Matt Sweeney of Zwan/Chavez/rock guy Zelig on and we talked Marquee Moon, he's super interesting to listen to on the album

https://open.spotify.com/episode/3s7qRa1B8ZDuSVgqGOx8db?si=Amtm66THSPumiwIC4lYgTQ&utm_source=copy-link

cool, thanks ums!

stolen from thurston's insta:

https://i.ibb.co/9GwCBkR/Screenshot-2023-01-29-001119.jpg

They’re just like us!

I never saw them there. I guess I must have gone at the wrong time.

for a long time the first thing i'd play when picking up a guitar was the riff from “friction.” such a weird, cranky, chromatic, dissonant thing, but so simple, an open string melody that anyone could’ve stumbled upon but only verlaine had the nerve to put into a song

rip big man

haha I always play that too! The funniest one though is that one guitar line in 'prove it' which is basically descending down the major scale and back up again. it sounds brilliant but was a real oh duh moment when I figured it out

I took a guitar player friend with me to see Television some years back (Jimmy Rip edition) and afterwards he kind of sniffed at what he called Verlaine's "faux primitive" approach to guitar. I think he missed the point. It's all about the big picture.

He asked me if he could bum a cig at the Blumfeld show at Brownies in 1995; I was happy to oblige, and I'm fairly certain I was the only person there who knew who he was; saw him walking around NYC many times, he was at the FMU record fair all the time; you could hardly miss him…

three times seeing TV: 2000 in Chicago; Lloyd broke a string during "mm" and the rest of the band stared daggers at him while he took FOREVER to replace and tune up— I suspect that Smith and Ficca very much deferred to him and not all to Lloyd; 2002—this one was the best, and 2007 at summerstage; lloyd quit for good days beforehand. but the best was him with Fred Smith, Jay dee and Jimmy Ripp at Tramps in 1996.

It's true that he was the "skree skraw" guy that Thurston and Ira K would have worshipped, and Lloyd was the one jeff beck chops addicts could understand…

I hope we praise how good a lyric writer he was: his guitar was lyrical, his lyrics were pointillist.

I hope we do too. I don’t really think anyone has touched his lyric approach. One of the reasons I go on about flash light so much is because its lyrics are SO good.

“Outside there’s a tree so white I can hardly look at it”

“Folks here in Walker are falling in love with shame”

“When they get spiteful they always do their best”

“87 rubies underneath my back seat/gonna go get something I can’t buy”

(NB there may be some slight misrememberings there)

vm I wasn’t here yet in 2002 but I saw them at Irving plaza the next year (or 04?) and for me too that was peak live TV

The solo band at Bowery in 06 was the same as the one you saw except for the younger guy he got on drums, Lou something, who unfortunately passes away since

*passed

"Guiding Light" has incredible lyrics and vocal delivery as well IMHO

They’re just like us!

Except 7 foot tall.

have been watching richard lloyd's guitar lessons on youtube recently, very analytical in a mad scientist kind of way, and also somewhat perplexing to an oaf like me, but a really fascinating approach and i'd imagine quite a complementary one to verlaine who i can't help but think of as just plucking inspiration out of thin air like he's drawing a breath and breathing it out (this is likely a complete misapprehension on my part, would like to read any interviews with him on that side of things if anyone has any good links?)

Famously Lloyd could reproduce and double his guitar parts flawlessly whereas Verlaine would never play anything the same way twice.

Chicago; Lloyd broke a string during "mm" and the rest of the band stared daggers at him while he took FOREVER to replace and tune up

I remember this show vividly. It was part of the Noise Pop series, and while I can't recall exactly what else I saw, I want to say I saw a show every night that week (inc. Tweedy and O'Rourke debuting Loose Fur, maybe Wire and Sleater-Kinney also). Anyway, I felt it was Lloyd being totally passive aggressive. The band just vamped and soloed and jammed while he did indeed take forever, and then when he finally got the new string on and tuned the band pretty much wrapped up immediately.

first verse of marquee moon—perfect lyrics

i was listening, listening to the rain
i was hearing, hearing something else

terrifying!

This is what started the ball rolling for me--for the line-up of that era, see vids and commentary posted by birdistheword in mid-Jan. 2022:

"Somewhere Somebody Must Stand Naked"
Rock Scene October '74
By Patti Smith

To me it's amazing that Bowie thought him great enough to cover "Kingdom Come," despite That Vocal.

I’m a craptastic guitar player but I can stumble through some of the riffs for “Marquee Moon,” and every time I do I sort of feel like I’ve been touched by the hand of God. He made garage rock sound divinely inspired. RIP.

Robert Forster:

https://www.facebook.com/robertforsterofficial/posts/pfbid02ax9bjAEYuctdimTVCTWsiAcjEWsTszQeHFKPnL7H7RE16k6uxaSgEzxJfeN5QgS2l

Ah yr back are you, ILX?