Marquee Moon (1977)
The punk scene in New York City in the '70s was interesting because there was so much going on. Sure, you had the Ramones, but there was a diverse collection of bands that didn't necessarily fit the "punk" descriptor musically, like Talking Heads, Blondie and Patti Smith. And the band that launched the scene in 1974 by convincing CBGB owner Hilly Kristal to give them a shot playing on Sunday nights at the club: Television.
It took the band nearly three years to release their debut album, 1977's Marquee Moon, but it was well worth the wait. Led by frontman Tom Verlaine, the album was as far away from stereotypical punk as you could get: it was garage rock, but it was complex, intellectual and technically advanced. Richard Hell was the group's original bassist but he left the band in 1975 and was replaced by Fred Smith.
Verlaine and guitarist Richard Lloyd were turning guitar math into magic, eschewing power chords for interlocking melody and counter-melody lines. The whole album is excellent, but it's the title track that stands out. At 10:40, it's probably the longest song I'll write about for this feature (but you never know).
Television actually recorded a demo of "Marquee Moon" with Brian Eno in 1974, but it remains unreleased (see below). Even then, the song featured the interlocking guitar parts and multiple solos by Verlaine and Lloyd. To prepare for the recording of the album, the band rehearsed for four to six hours a day and six to seven days a week.
Most of Marquee Moon was recorded as the band played live in the studio, and the title track was recorded in one take. On the studio version, each of the song's three verses begins with a double-stopped guitar intro before Verlaine starts singing.
"I remember/Ooh, how the darkness doubled/I recall/Lightning struck itself/I was listening/Listening to the rain/I was hearing/Hearing something else/Life in the hive puckered up my night/A kiss of death, the embrace of life/Well, there I stand 'neath the marquee moon/Just waiting."
The original length of the song was 9:58 (it was expanded to 10:40) on the reissued version of the album.
"Well, the Cadillac/It pulled out of the graveyard/Pulled up to me/All they said, "Get in"/"Get in"/Then the Cadillac/It puttered back into the graveyard/Me/I got out again/Life in the hive puckered up my night/A kiss of death, the embrace of life/Over there I stand 'neath the marquee moon/I ain't waitin', uh uh."
After the third chorus, Verlaine plays a jazz-influenced solo that goes on for the entire second half of the song.
For some reason, a full-length "Marquee Moon" was released as a single in the U.K. and it went to #30 on the Singles chart. The song had to be divided between the two sides of the 45.
The album didn't chart in the U.S., but it was critically acclaimed and is considered a post-punk masterpiece. Television released a follow-up, Adventure, in 1978, but the album didn't sell well. Due to the struggling sales numbers and Lloyd's drug problems, the band split up in July 1978. Lloyd and Verlaine went solo (with Lloyd memorably providing some killer lead guitar to Matthew Sweet's classic album Girlfriend) while drummer Billy Ficca joined new wave act the Waitresses.
Television reformed in 1992 and released a self-titled album, occasionally playing shows over the next several years. Lloyd left the band in 2007 and was replaced by Jimmy Rip; the band said in 2011 it was working on a new album, but it was never released. Verlaine died in January 2023 at the age of 73.
"Marquee Moon" remains one of my favorite guitar songs.
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