In 1975, the rock band Television convinced Hilly Kristal, owner of legendary NYC music club CBGBs, to allow rock artists to perform on their stage. After this Television, Patti Smith, Blondie, and Talking Heads became regular performers at the club. Then-unknown “street rock” outfit Ramones opened for Television that same year. Street rock became punk rock, and a new musical era was born.
Despite performing for the first time in 1974 and being a regular fixture at CBGBs for years, Television didn’t produce their first studio record, Marquee Moon, until February of 1977. The album was an instant classic, a wild card impossible to fit into the neat categories of proto-punk, punk, or post-punk. Decades later, the innovative and entirely unique sound of Marquee Moon is still influencing musicians from every genre.
Frontman and guitarist Tom Verlaine’s delicate and deceptively simple guitar work meshes rather than collides with lead guitarist Richard Lloyd’s charged playing, creating a conversational back-and-forth rarely seen before or since. But intricate guitar work isn’t all this record has to offer: the serrated and jazzy style emphasizes intellectual and poetic lyricism - an unusual find for punk music.
Marquee Moon elevates the cityscape of 1970s New York City into fable, with songs such as “Venus” depicting an intoxicated youth (whether he’s high on love or psychedelics is up to the listener) wandering down Broadway and finding it lacking, or the robust and anthemic rejection of the world’s wickedness in “See No Evil.” Tracks such as “Guiding Light” deal with the push and pull of the ocean, an unexpected but nevertheless compelling match to the urban environment many of the songs are set in.
“Venus” asks the listener to fall into the arms of Venus de Milo (an armless statue) just as they might fall into a love doomed to fail. “Friction” is a fast paced song about a struggling relationship, littered with both metaphor and some of the best guitar work on the album. Verlaine slides up and down the scales like the divisions between notes don’t exist at all, ironically smooth for a song in which the singer repeatedly declares his need for friction. “Prove It” draws from noir films, the somewhat nihilistic tone reminding us that “the world is just a feeling you undertook.”
The album’s title track is undoubtedly its masterpiece. “Marquee Moon” is a floating track with a surreal edge, a modern urban myth surrounded by a nocturnal glow. It clocks in at a little over ten minutes, but doesn’t drag even during the extended guitar solo. In the years since the album’s release, “Marquee Moon” has proven to be the band’s most recognizable and influential song, and for good reason. Television didn’t catch lightning in a bottle with this song: in “Marquee Moon”, they invite you to listen as lightning strikes itself.
Hundreds of obituaries and well wishes poured out following the late January passing of Tom Verlaine, with some of the biggest names in music citing him as an influence. While Television’s name and songs haven’t become a household commonality in the way that the Sex Pistols or Ramones have, you’ve heard the echoes of Marquee Moon - their impact on rock, alternative, and indie music exists on a scale that is difficult to fully encompass. But if you’ve listened to Joy Division or Pixies, heard a slick back and forth on the guitar, or even seen a rock artist using a Fender Jazzmaster…there they are.
