"For a so-called punk album there's a lot of musicality there. It has good playing on it, definitely."
Growing out of the same downtown New York scene as The Ramones, Dead Boys, and New York Dolls, Television were the first ever rock band to plug in at the legendary CBGBs. Their magnus opus - built around the nimble-fingered, elegant six-stringing interplay of Tom Verlaine and his dueling foil Richard Lloyd - Marquee Moon is a glorious example of two instrumentalist playing off each other; Verlaine and Lloyd's musical dialogue fluent in the very notion of the electric guitar as expressive instrument.
It‘s an amazing album. Each side is perfectly balanced, beginning with three relatively poppy tunes, roughly halfway between prog rock and post-punk. These six songs are all very concise, short and to the point. Both Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd play guitar lines resembling Talking Heads work of the same era, but they take it to the next level when they interact. The two guitars weave between the drum hits and bass lines, and bounce off one another, as if tying a mammoth knot that may appear haphazard and jumbled, but was actually drawn out far in advance, and carefully assembled with attention to every minute detail. The guitar work is what really sets this album apart from every other art-school punk album released in the late 70s. They eschew layered power chords for melodic lines and countermelodies, a trick that can easily be traced back to Cream and others, but a method that most late 70s punks avoided (probably because it didn’t “rock”). In applying this, they create an archetype that every post 1980 two-guitar band would do well to follow.
There is no need to argue about its importance more, is there? Anyone with a remote interest in punk rock, the modern day garage revival or just straight-ahead no frills rock and roll needs Marquee Moon in their album collection. The jaded yet somehow impassioned cynicism of Tom Verlaine's vocals and Romantic poetry inspired lyrics have become the model for a whole army of modern day New York bands. Check it out!
It‘s an amazing album. Each side is perfectly balanced, beginning with three relatively poppy tunes, roughly halfway between prog rock and post-punk. These six songs are all very concise, short and to the point. Both Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd play guitar lines resembling Talking Heads work of the same era, but they take it to the next level when they interact. The two guitars weave between the drum hits and bass lines, and bounce off one another, as if tying a mammoth knot that may appear haphazard and jumbled, but was actually drawn out far in advance, and carefully assembled with attention to every minute detail. The guitar work is what really sets this album apart from every other art-school punk album released in the late 70s. They eschew layered power chords for melodic lines and countermelodies, a trick that can easily be traced back to Cream and others, but a method that most late 70s punks avoided (probably because it didn’t “rock”). In applying this, they create an archetype that every post 1980 two-guitar band would do well to follow.
There is no need to argue about its importance more, is there? Anyone with a remote interest in punk rock, the modern day garage revival or just straight-ahead no frills rock and roll needs Marquee Moon in their album collection. The jaded yet somehow impassioned cynicism of Tom Verlaine's vocals and Romantic poetry inspired lyrics have become the model for a whole army of modern day New York bands. Check it out!
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