Second Post: Television, "Marquee Moon" (1977)

I wanted to start the blog’s “downloadable” posts off with an album I’ve been revisiting a lot recently - Television’s debut 1977 art punk record “Marquee Moon”. Coming out the same year as the Sex Pistols’ “Never Mind the Bollocks” and Wire’s “Pink Flag”, this album, in my mind, is the most subtle and heady.

There’s reason behind this: founding members Richard Hell (of the Voidoids) and Tom Verlaine met at Sanford School, a prep school in Delaware, and both aspired to be poets. They began playing shows at CBGB and found an audience there. After Richard Hell’s departure to form new groups (if you’re curious, Hell’s autobiography I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp delves more into detail), Verlaine and Television worked closely with Patti Smith, signed to Elektra, and put out “Marquee Moon”, a record that was critically acclaimed and sold well in the UK.

All this history seems kind of pointless, but the context is important here as this album was incredibly influential in not only the punk and rock scene at the time but today as well. Listen to “Venus” or “Elevation” and it sounds like it could’ve been recorded in the past few years. The ideas are still so fresh and present in the music here.

Of course, there are the unique quirks that make Television, well, Television. It’s all deceptively smart - there are hints of blues and jazz all over the record, like on songs like “See No Evil”, where the bluesy riff sounds like some sort of demented Rolling Stones parody. The guitar tone is a wonderful mix of gritty and polished, and almost all the solos on the album are amazing. The drum roll into the wonderfully melodramatic lead guitar and piano lines at the beginning of “Torn Curtain” is a personal highlight.

One of the best art punk and alternative rock albums ever. Two download links of the 2003 remaster below.

http://tinyurl.com/zjcs6o8 (Zippy)

http://tinyurl.com/zwaspoa (MEGA)