Television - "Marquee Moon" CD, Album, Reissue, Remastered, 1977 (Elektra/Rhino)

The stark image by Robert Mapplethorpe of Fred Smith, Tom Verlaine, Richard Lloyd, and Billy Ficca A.KA. Television sets the tone what is inside the package.  Before the Internet, and yes, there's radio, but it was pretty useless for those who live in Los Angeles and therefore didn't have access to the tidal wave of new bands in New York at the time.  I've read about Television, and even more intrigued by their photographs of the time.  They never smiled, nor do they look like they enjoy each other's company.  The only goofy/fun one was Richard Hell, but he left the band by the time of this album's release.  

I think I first heard of the band in 1975, so through publications like The Village Voice, I kept track of this band and was very curious what their sound was like.   The critical response from their shows seemed chaotic from boredom to spiritual enlightenment.  Alas, I purchased the 45 rpm single of "Johnny Little Jewel" (Part 1 and 2, like a James Brown single from the late 1960s), and was transformed by the words, Verlaine's voice, and of course, those two magical guitars working at and against the slippery bass and drums.  When they reissued this remastered CD, the folks on the label were smart to add this song to the package.  

"Marquee Moon" is without a doubt, a classic recording.  The albums' mixture of intensity, beauty, drama, and you know these guys probably didn't move much on the stage.  Verlaine's lyrics/poetry would read like Raymond Chandler if he were a beat poet.  Romantic, yet tough, but with strong visual poetics that gives a picture while listening to the music.  Their stance of attachment or coolness mixed in with a focus on a classic rock two guitars, bass, drums sound is essentially fantastic. In my mind, since Elektra originally signed the band, I think of them as younger brothers to the other Elektra acts Love and The Stooges.  Of all the labels in the world, Television is an Elektra band.  With respect to the band's devotion to the music, and doing things their way.   The way Verlaine and Lloyd would work their guitars separate from each other, and in a sense giving little stabs, stings, and a sense of play, and then on the chorus, they join sensually and sexually manner.  There are a lot of great guitar bands, and one can argue who is better than the other.  The truth is Television is unique, and I think it's not only due to the talents of Verlaine's writing (although I suspect the others had their two or three cents in) the whole chemistry of the band, working together.  Indeed a gang, a group at work.  Perfection practiced by professionals.