The Vinyl Project - Marquee Moon by Television (1977)
A Trip Thru Your Grooves - Episode 16
Release Date: 08-February-1977
Genre: Punk/Hardcore
Producer: Andy Johns/ Tom Verlaine
Label: Elektra
Time: 45m 54s
Review Date: 15-December-2018
Format: LP
Side One
Best Songs: Marquee Moon, See No Evil, Friction, Venus
A Deep Cut You'll Love: Torn Curtain
An interesting note about the album Marquee Moon: The album title was interpreted by one reviewer as an encapsulation of the urban and bucolic imagery in the songs, "suggesting the kind of night sky only visible above the neon glare of city-dwellers' assault on the dark." In his mind, the marquee, rather than the moon, sets the record's mood. He added, "sensory experience will be of prime importance to these eight songs. What can we see by the light of a marquee moon? What will be revealed on Marquee Moon's grooves?"
An interesting note about the song Marquee Moon: Each of the song's three verses begins with a double-stopped guitar intro before Billy Ficca's drums come in, and after the second chorus Lloyd plays a brief guitar solo. After the third chorus, there is a longer solo by Verlaine, based on a jazz-like mixolydian scale, that lasts for the entire second half of the song. On the original vinyl edition of the album, the song faded out just short of ten minutes, but the CD reissues have included the full 10:40 of the take. In concert, the band has sometimes extended the song to as long as fifteen minutes.
Release Date: 08-February-1977
Genre: Punk/Hardcore
Producer: Andy Johns/ Tom Verlaine
Label: Elektra
Time: 45m 54s
Review Date: 15-December-2018
Format: LP
Side One
- See No Evil
- Venus
- Friction
- Marquee Moon
- Elevation
- Guiding Light
- Prove It
- Torn Curtain
Review: The title track to this magnificent album by Television clocks in at 9m 58s, and when it's over, I guarantee you will wish it was longer. That's all that really needs to be said about this LP, but there's so much more. Since the album's original release, Marquee Moon has been cited by rock critics as one of the greatest records of the American punk rock movement, with Mark Weingarten of Entertainment Weekly calling it the masterpiece of the 1970s New York punk rock scene. Truer words were never written.
If I had to choose one album as ground zero of what is now termed indie rock, this would be it. When it was released, it wasn't immediately recognized as the ground breaking, game changing album that it is today. The reviews were outstanding for the most part, but music was a very mixed bag in 1977, a time of sonic diversification and wretched excess. In fact, if the road to Hell was paved in said excess then 1977 was the vehicle that got us there.
Some prime examples include:
But Television was the club's mainstay, kick-starting American punk, driving the genre stateside, and laying the foundation for the dynamic juggernaut that the genre would become. And to think they lied to owner Kristal to get their first gig, telling him they were a bluegrass band from upstate New York.
In truth, Television is more Greenwich Village Hippie than East Village Punk. And Marquee Moon is a great example. Tom Verlaine's voice, though amplified and wailing at times, remains purposefully narcotic with few pitch changes or genuflection, and absolutely no sustain. Instead, it is a series of powerful guitar licks and an intricate bridge that drives the ten-minute, blissful opus. The interplay between Verlaine and Richard Lloyd is nothing short of phenomenal.
Those interweaving instrumentals and short, bursting guitar blasts define the entire album. Punk never sounded so cosmopolitan, and honestly, the LP is deserving of its own genre. Nothing sounded like Marquee Moon before its existence, and certainly nothing has come close since. It's a guitar rock album, though slightly less obtrusive and absent of anything resembling a power chord. It's punk, though at times Marquee Moon belies the diffused arrangements of that genre, running contradictory to true hardcore. And though Verlaine and Lloyd ooze poetic sophistication and sentimental romanticism, they're just a little too edgy to be considered New Wave.
One might say the instrumental interplay between the guitars and drums could arguably be described as avant-garde jazz in its bohemian decadence. Its Kerouac-like lyrics further that soundscape: "Life in the hive puckered up my night / A kiss of death, the embrace of life / Ooo there I stand 'neath the Marquee Moon, / Hesitating...well a Cadillac, it pulled out of the graveyard / Pulled up to me and they said 'get in, get in' / Then the Cadillac it puttered back to the graveyard / Me? I got out again."
A personal note: A narrative article about the song Psycho Killer by The Talking Heads that compared David Byrne and Verlaine led me to the discovery of Marquee Moon. Television did not get much, if any, airplay in Chicago, and both composers navigate lyrically into heady, intellectual territory. Perhaps it was just a phase (I was really into Elvis Costello and the Police at the time, too), but, the two bands helped define my musical tastes as I segued from my early teens into early adulthood. Before '77, I leaned heavily on Led Zeppelin, The Who, and The Doors as the foundation of my vinyl library. Television changed everything for me.
It goes without saying that there is more to this album than just one song. There is not a single throwaway song on Marquee Moon. In fact, it's basically impossible to pick a standout song, but of the eight sweeping, sonic compositions, the title track certainly wins by a nose. Marquee Moon represents a defining moment in my life as an audiophile, and 40+ years after its release, it still sounds as fresh as ever.If I had to choose one album as ground zero of what is now termed indie rock, this would be it. When it was released, it wasn't immediately recognized as the ground breaking, game changing album that it is today. The reviews were outstanding for the most part, but music was a very mixed bag in 1977, a time of sonic diversification and wretched excess. In fact, if the road to Hell was paved in said excess then 1977 was the vehicle that got us there.
Some prime examples include:
- Bianca Jagger riding a white horse into Studio 54 to celebrate its grand opening - and her birthday - with guests that included Andy Warhol, John Lennon and Michael Jackson, among others, and featuring a performance by Donna Summer.
- Fourteen white Cadillacs making up the motorcade that led the Elvis Presley funeral procession.
- A&M Records signing the Sex Pistols in a ceremony that took place in front of Buckingham Palace. (The contract was terminated six days later as a result of the band vandalizing property and verbally abusing employees during a visit to the record company's office).
- Partner swapping.
- The Son of Sam investigation.
- President Jimmy Carter's openness about his sex life.
- George Steinbrenner, Billy Martin, and Reggie Jackson leading the New York Yankees and changing baseball from a summer sport to a year-round entertainment extravaganza.
But Television was the club's mainstay, kick-starting American punk, driving the genre stateside, and laying the foundation for the dynamic juggernaut that the genre would become. And to think they lied to owner Kristal to get their first gig, telling him they were a bluegrass band from upstate New York.
In truth, Television is more Greenwich Village Hippie than East Village Punk. And Marquee Moon is a great example. Tom Verlaine's voice, though amplified and wailing at times, remains purposefully narcotic with few pitch changes or genuflection, and absolutely no sustain. Instead, it is a series of powerful guitar licks and an intricate bridge that drives the ten-minute, blissful opus. The interplay between Verlaine and Richard Lloyd is nothing short of phenomenal.
Those interweaving instrumentals and short, bursting guitar blasts define the entire album. Punk never sounded so cosmopolitan, and honestly, the LP is deserving of its own genre. Nothing sounded like Marquee Moon before its existence, and certainly nothing has come close since. It's a guitar rock album, though slightly less obtrusive and absent of anything resembling a power chord. It's punk, though at times Marquee Moon belies the diffused arrangements of that genre, running contradictory to true hardcore. And though Verlaine and Lloyd ooze poetic sophistication and sentimental romanticism, they're just a little too edgy to be considered New Wave.
One might say the instrumental interplay between the guitars and drums could arguably be described as avant-garde jazz in its bohemian decadence. Its Kerouac-like lyrics further that soundscape: "Life in the hive puckered up my night / A kiss of death, the embrace of life / Ooo there I stand 'neath the Marquee Moon, / Hesitating...well a Cadillac, it pulled out of the graveyard / Pulled up to me and they said 'get in, get in' / Then the Cadillac it puttered back to the graveyard / Me? I got out again."
A personal note: A narrative article about the song Psycho Killer by The Talking Heads that compared David Byrne and Verlaine led me to the discovery of Marquee Moon. Television did not get much, if any, airplay in Chicago, and both composers navigate lyrically into heady, intellectual territory. Perhaps it was just a phase (I was really into Elvis Costello and the Police at the time, too), but, the two bands helped define my musical tastes as I segued from my early teens into early adulthood. Before '77, I leaned heavily on Led Zeppelin, The Who, and The Doors as the foundation of my vinyl library. Television changed everything for me.
Best Songs: Marquee Moon, See No Evil, Friction, Venus
A Deep Cut You'll Love: Torn Curtain
An interesting note about the album Marquee Moon: The album title was interpreted by one reviewer as an encapsulation of the urban and bucolic imagery in the songs, "suggesting the kind of night sky only visible above the neon glare of city-dwellers' assault on the dark." In his mind, the marquee, rather than the moon, sets the record's mood. He added, "sensory experience will be of prime importance to these eight songs. What can we see by the light of a marquee moon? What will be revealed on Marquee Moon's grooves?"
An interesting note about the song Marquee Moon: Each of the song's three verses begins with a double-stopped guitar intro before Billy Ficca's drums come in, and after the second chorus Lloyd plays a brief guitar solo. After the third chorus, there is a longer solo by Verlaine, based on a jazz-like mixolydian scale, that lasts for the entire second half of the song. On the original vinyl edition of the album, the song faded out just short of ten minutes, but the CD reissues have included the full 10:40 of the take. In concert, the band has sometimes extended the song to as long as fifteen minutes.
- Previous Review: The Who By Numbers by The Who (1975)
- Up Next: Led Zeppelin II by Led Zeppelin (1969)
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