Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd go solo.

 

TOM VERLAINE

Tom Verlaine (1979)

 

RICHARD LLOYD

Alchemy (1979)

 

Lloyd and Verlaine were the guitarists for Television, the finest guitar band of the mid-1970’s New York scene (often called the New York punk scene as distinguished from the UK punk scene the New York scene preceded and influenced), featuring angular, interlocking guitar lines, poetic lyrics, and a raw yet melodic approach that wasn’t informed by blues. Television sounded nothing like its contemporaries, whether in the hard rock / metal sphere or the other, diverse bands on the New York scene. The music was both intellectually engaging and emotionally resonant and Television’s influence, especially the debut album Marquee Moon,typically, was much more substantive than their commercial appeal at the time.

 

Verlaine and Lloyd were presumably still both signed to Elektra Records and given that they were the talents in the band, both as songwriters (though Lloyd wasn’t given all the credits he deserved) and as architects of and masters of that angular guitar style that characterised the band, each complementing the other with Lloyd as the melodic foundation and Verlaine as the idiosyncratic visionary.

 

Tom Verlaine and Alchemy were released in the same year and have some musicians in common and sound vastly different. 

 

Lloyd chose a highly melodic, guitar pop approach, with airy, pleasant tunes and hooks, a throwback to mid-1960’s American guitar pop and some distance from the sound of Television, much like Lindsey Buckingham’s debut solo album, Law & Order deviated from the characteristic MOR sound of Fleetwood Mac.  Lloyd didn’t sound like an alumnus of Television at all. Alchemy was buoyant pop perfection; Lloyd couldn’t have distanced himself further from the Television sound, while still making a guitarcentric record.

 

Tom Verlaine, on the other hand, expanded from the Television sound by making a less harsh, and more tuneful and, dare one say, humorous album with his patented skewed, piercing lead guitar style and, of course, his vocals, both  elements that reminded the listener of Television, whereas Lloyd apparently wanted a record that wouldn’t echo Television at all.

 

Even so, Verlaine’s songs for his debut solo album, have as many tunes and hooks as Richard Lloyd has, and fiercer memorable guitar solos, alongside lyrical, anthemic guitar solos.

 

I bought both albums in probably 1980, long before I’d heard Marquee Moon (though, of course, I knew of its reputation) and appreciated both in roughly equal parts, as the two different perspectives on the component parts of the Television guitar sound. If I were pushed, I’d say that Tom Verlaine has the greater heft and therefore more satisfactory Alchemy is pretty good on the guitar front too, even if the songs seems a tad lightweight.

 

I bought Verlaine’s second and fourth albums, respectively Dreamtime (1981) and Cover (1984) but neither of them, good as they are, had the same impact as Tom Verlaine. It’s obviously a broad, and possibly unfair generalisation, but for me Marquee Moon and Tom Verlaine quite adequately and sufficiently  illuminate Verlaine’s talents and abilities; one doesn’t need to be a completist.

 

I never saw any other Richard Lloyd records in any of the records shops I frequented in Cape Town and surrounds and therefore had no idea how his music progressed. I had to do some research regarding Lloyd’s  discography to find out what he did next. 

Field of Fire (1985), recorded with Swedish musicians and initially  released only in that country, was the follow up to Alchemy. It’s a good, solid yet unremarkable and basically journeyman like collection of mid-1980’s guitar rock, with production that’s not beholden to the studio fashion of the decade and therefore it doesn’t sound dated, but it also doesn’t have the verve of Alchemy. 

 

the studio record was followed by Real Time (1987), a live album that mixes old and new tracks, and thereafter there was a long hiatus before Lloyd released his own stuff again. 

 

Lloyd outlived Verlaine, has a more extensive discography and may someday be hailed as some kind of genius too, providing at least 50% of what made Television great.

 

For me, Marquee Moon, Tom Verlaine and Alchemy form a unit, trapping collective lightning in a bottle to illuminate a special time in late 1970’s non-mainstream rock and ought to be celebrated as such.