TELEVISION
Television's music is a shattering experience. It lives inside you and chooses to transform itself for you over time, until suddenly you understand everything about it and all you can do is dance and marvel. In the great pantheon of CBGB's artists they may forever live in the shadow of Talking Heads (and were less successful than Blondie and the Ramones, less remembered today than Patti Smith), but more than anybody else they defined the boundaries of what this "punk movement" was capable of. Television not only intensified punk, they intensified pop music, creating intricate, beautiful guitar anthems that finally -- finally -- took the essence of the great titans of rock & roll and, rather than make a mockery of their achievements via boredom like Eric Clapton, the Allman Brothers and the Grateful Dead, moved forward with it. These songs exploded with hidden aural brilliance; they were subtly operatic, gracefully absorbing, artful and poetic but passionate and exciting. And they made some of the most overwhelming music ever put on tape.
Music that struggles with introspection is nothing new, but the world through the literate eyes of Tom Verlaine is like nothing we've seen in rock before or since. Verlaine's voice often cracks under the weight of his passion, and this makes his work that much more remarkable. The power of MARQUEE MOON is nearly terrifying; you put it on and surrender. You and I will never even understand how something like that is made. Almost nobody is capable of crafting these engimatic, elegant stanzas and turning them into songs that are joyful in their obscurity. Everybody tries it, some create something of their own in the process (R.E.M.), but nobody does anything like this.
Even Television couldn't; their debut is beyond words, the remainder of their work is astonishing but is not on a level with their angelic masterpiece. Nonetheless, everything else they did complements it wonderfully, and they took the opportunity to turn from gods of their form to the most romantic band around. Talking Heads were the CBGB's band that ignored and attempted to eradicate the myth of the genre. Television merely sought to form their own niche, and -- judging from the fact that two of their most obvious imitators, U2 and Radiohead, have gone on to become critical and commercial darlings -- they, unlike the Heads, succeeded.
Television still tours today, to the best of my knowledge the only early CBGB's band that still exists in its original form (not counting the early shows with Richard Hell on bass). Verlaine and Richard Lloyd have released brilliant solo albums. Billy Ficca is still a genius, as is Fred Smith. I don't know what was in the water in New York City in the late '70s, but it produced the two greatest live rock bands in history; the Heads are long gone, but Television refuses to give up, and their organic, alchemic explosion continues to light up the lives of everyone who discovers them. Please join them as soon as you can.
ANNOTATED DISCOGRAPHY
ALBUMS REVIEWED:
Marquee Moon (1977) [A+]
Adventure (1978) [A]
Television (1992) [A-]
LIVE ALBUMS
The Blow Up (1982) [A-]
Live at the Old Waldorf (2003) [B+]
RARITIES COLLECTIONS
Marquee Moon: Deluxe Edition (2003)
Adventure: Deluxe Edition (2003)
EP'S
The Neon Boys (1975)
The Revolution (1992)
NON-LP SINGLES
OTHER WRITING
WEBBLOG ARCHIVE:
Wuzzon #9
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Wuzzon #6
another look at Beatles & Beach Boys
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Wuzzon #2
ltd. ed. CD sells out
site opening
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Pazz & Jop quotes
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Television: Blow Up capsule
200 bands assessed III
200 bands assessed II
Nirvana rant