In Memoriam: Tom Verlaine

                                                         IN MEMORIAM: TOM VERLAINE

13 December 1949  to 28 January 2023

 

There was an article by, I think, Lisa Robinson, in the August 1975 issue of Hit Parader magazine, the first rock publication I ever bought, and the first publication if bought regularly, with the NME following after that, about the then newly revived and vibrant New York scene, which mentioned, among other bands, Talking Heads, Blondie, the Ramones, Television and The Heartbreakers. There was also an article by Charles Shaar Murray about the UK music scene, mostly about Led Zeppelin, but that also was the first mention in print I read of Dr Feelgood.

 

For me and my musical education, that was a seminal issue of Hit Parader.

 

As I recall, the mention of Television in the piece was really about Richard Hell having left the band and forming The Heartbreakers with Johnny Thunders (ex- New York Dolls) and though I got the impression that Tom Verlaine and Hell were two prime movers of the scene and that Television was quite important as breaking the ground for the scene, there was no more information than that.

 

NME gave the debut album, Marquee Moon (1977), an effusively enthusiastic review, rating it as a masterpiece, and was considerably less in awe of the follow up Adventure (1978), and this has been the conventional view since, although some critics have reassessed Adventure  and now rate it highly too.

 

Marquee Moon has one of the most iconic, highly recognisable album covers ever.

 

I only bought a CD copy of Marquee Moon in the late ‘90s, and was quite impressed with it, but I did buy Verlaine’s solo debut, Tom Verlaine,  (after a very positive review in NME) in 1979 and was hugely enthralled by it. It has the same tough, angular sound as Television’s music yet is also quite melodic and funny and weird in places.  Around this time, I also bought Richard Lloyd’s even more pop-influenced and tuneful debut solo album, but where it is the kind of sweet confection that paled after a while, and about which I no longer feel as keen as I did then, Verlaine’s album is as strong and enjoyable as ever even after a lengthy period of not having heard it all. I would say I like it even better than Marquee Moon.

 

Adventure is more reflective, less exuberant and smoother in sound than the debut album, but there is still plenty strong, sharp, innovative guitar interplay and, if it’s not as impressive at first exposure as Marquee Moon, it’s mostly down to brilliant surprise of the debut; the band certainly didn’t set out to make Marquee Moon II.  Adventure rewards repeated listening.

 

The second solo album, Dreamtime (1980) is more angular, tougher and in a way less approachable than Tom Verlaine, as if he were reaching for a more extreme, less appealing,  way of expressing himself,  but it’s identifiably the work of the same visionary who wrote the songs on Marquee Moon.

 

Verlaine, Hell and Television are credited with opening up the late ‘70s New York scene and spearheading the wave of new acts, though not being quite punk themselves,  that influenced and inspired the UK punk movement of 1976 and 1977. Where the UK bands were of a piece, the important New York bands (Television, Talking Heads, Blondie, Ramones, The Heartbreakers) were very diverse in aims, approach and sound. On the face of it, Television was the most daring and least commercial of them all, and broke up, for the first time, after only two records, though there was a comeback in the early ‘90s, but nonetheless have had a reach and influence far beyond 1978, and the twin factors of the clever interplay of the two guitarists and Verlaine’s song writing have an enduring progressive otherworldliness that have not dated.   

 

Television wasn’t just another punk band and Verlaine wasn’t just another post punk singer-songwriter. There was enough quirky intelligence and off-kilter weirdness to sustain his reputation as innovator yet his ambitions were clearly artistic and not particularly commercial.  Talking Heads, and their offshoots, and Blondie, for example, both were far more successful than Verlaine ever was but his reputation remains untarnished and his influence reverberates still.